Sri Lanka will field same team for second game

Shirajiv SIRIMANNE in India

Sri Lanka will field the same winning combination for their second and final Twenty20 game which would be played today under lights at the Mohali cricket stadium here at 5.30 p.m.

Sri Lankan skipper Kumara Sangakkara said that the team lived up to expectations and there was no need to change the winning team.

“If individual players perform their part we have a good chance of winning the second Twenty20as well,” he said.

He also said that a couple of debutants, spinner Muthumudalige Pushpakumara and all rounder Chinthaka Jayasinghe too performed well.

Commenting on Sanath Jayasuriya he said that Sanath is a great motivator to the team and he also turned around the first Twenty20 match with a magical spell of bowling.

“Twenty20 is a difference ball game and players must enjoy it and the Sri Lankan team loves this version of the game,” he added.

The team was determined to do well after their two defeats in the Testmatches.

“Sri Lankan players have faced tough times both on and off the field and they are resilient and this is a unique quality for the team to come out in bad times,” he added.

The team is closely knitted together and each player knows inside out of the other which is a trem endous advantage when playing.

He said that the team would have a lengthy discussion prior to the match and plan out new moves as well as try to counteract new plans which would be deployed by the Indian team,” he said. Commenting on the two Test defeats he said that it was a big disappointment.

“We batted badly in the two innings in Kanpur and failed to take wickets in the next match. Sri Lanka has to take 20 wickets and we failed to do this,” he explained.

“Due to these factors we finished second best to India in that series,” he said. Meanwhile Indian skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni said that both paceman Sreesanth and middle order batsman Rohit Sharma have been ruled out of the match.

Sreesanth, who missed the first match in Nagpur, has still not recovered from a viral infection, Rohit sustained a shoulder injury in the last game in Nagpur and will not be fit enough to take the field today. Sreesanth took six wickets, five of them in the first innings, to wreck SriLanka’s batting and earn the Man of the Match trophy. Their replacements would be named today.

He said that unlike Tests India only plays a few Twenty20 and the team should try to play more games of this nature.

“The dew would play an important role in today’s match. However, this would not be a key factor to decide victory,” he said.

Mohali cricket ground is the newest Test playing ground of India, having being built in 1983 and hosted its first ever Test match against West Indies from December 10, 1994.

The Mohali pitch is also known to slow down later on and become a batting paradise.

Mohali, India, Friday