Lanka skipper Sangakkara hails bowlers

Sri Lanka skipper Kumar Sangakkara hailed his bowlers Thursday ahead of the ICC 2009 Champions Trophy in South Africa.

Sri Lanka face the hosts at Centurion Park on September 22 in the opening match of the 50-over mini-World Cup which was last staged three years ago and won by Australia.

“Fast bowling is now one of our main strengths. Some of my team can bowl at 140 km/h and they have accuracy and firepower,” boasted Sangakkara at a media conference here.

“Coupled with our spinners Muttiah Muralitharan and Ajantha Mendis, it is an exciting time for Sri Lankan cricket,” he said, referring to a team ranked third in the world behind South Africa and India.

Pace trio Lasith Malinga, Nuwan Kulasekara Thilan Thushara have been among the wickets in recent matches as Sri Lanka warmed up with a home series against India.

Sangakkara is not concerned that his country do not feature among the favourites for the two-million-dollar first prize, saying it would ease pressure on the 15-man squad.

“It works in our favour not to be mentioned as favourites because we will be able to operate under the radar and there will not be too much attention given to us.

“Playing on such a wonderful stage will automatically mean teams going all out to highlight what they can do and it will boil down to which teams handle pressure best.

“We are confident although our recent wins are not going to count for anything. All the teams here are professional units and whether they played recently or not won’t matter.”

The closest Sri Lanka came to winning the competition was sharing the trophy with India in 2000 after two attempts to complete the Colombo final were washed out. JOHANNESBURG, AFP