Sri Lanka, India semi-final in Mohali

Chris Dhambarage

Sri Lanka despite being one of the co hosts of the ICC 2011 Cricket World Cup may still lose their home advantage during the knock out stage of the 14 nation tournament.

As a result if Sri Lanka qualifies from group ‘A’ to meet India in the quarter-finals the match will be played in Ahmadabad. This is because India is on top of the pecking order in terms of home advantage and takes precedence over Sri Lanka on the ICC rankings.

The situation will be the same if Sri Lanka qualifies to meet India in the semi-final and the match will be worked off in Mohali on March 29 instead of the original schedule at the R Premadasa Stadium.

The seeding was done prior to the event and has nothing to do with where the teams finish in the group. Therefore, India takes precedence over Sri Lanka while Sri Lanka takes precedence over Bangladesh.In case Sri Lanka’s opponent is Bangladesh, the quarter-final will be held in Colombo as scheduled on March 24 at the R Premadasa Stadium. Bangladesh’s best chance of playing one of the two quarter-finals scheduled for Mirpur is to be drawn against any Group ‘A’ team other than Sri Lanka.