Sri Lanka hoping to consolidate position

Chris Dhambarage reporting from India

Former champions Sri Lanka will be hoping to consolidate their position when they take on New Zealand in their ICC 2011 Cricket World Cup final Group ‘A’ fixture at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai today.

The Lankans are currently placed fourth in the points table with seven points while New Zealand are placed second with a tally of eight points. The match will certainly be of great importance for both teams as they look to build up their confidence ahead of the vital knockout stage.

This will be a great chance for Sri Lanka to register their fourth win in the 14 nation tournament as the Kiwis are hit by severe injuries to some of their key players.

In fact New Zealand skipper Daniel Vettori and fast bowler Kyle Mills have been rested for the match against Sri Lanka. No doubt this is an important match for New Zealand as a positive result will guarantee them a top two finish in Group A.

However New Zealand are not interested in taking a risk and want Vettori and Mills to recover from the injuries completely and return fit for the more important knockout stages.

Skipper Vettori hurt his knee while attempting a catch in their win against Pakistan at the Pallekele International Stadium in Kandy last week while Mills strained his left quadricep in the previous game against Canada on Sunday at the same venue.

New Zealand of course have called in Darryl Tuffey as cover for the injured Mills but he cannot be part of the playing unit unless the injured Mills is ruled out of the tournament and his replacement is agreed to by the International Cricket Council.

Sri Lanka are also hoping to make a couple of changes for this game having had a few training sessions at this revamped Wankhede Stadium. This will be the second match at the renovated Wankhede stadium, which will host the final on April 2.

The New Zealand-Canada contest which was a day match, saw nearly 600 runs been scored on a pitch which had true bounce, but became flatter steadily. It is expected to behave the same today even though the match will be played under lights.

New Zealand and Sri Lanka have met 72 times in One Day Internationals with New Zealand winning 35 matches, Sri Lanka 32, with one tie and four no-results.

They have met seven times in ICC Cricket World Cup tournaments with Sri Lanka holding a 4-3 advantage.

Sri Lanka also won their last three meetings, including the most recent by 81 runs at Kingston in 2007. Sri Lanka has played three matches at this venue with a record of one win and two defeats.

The Wankhede Stadium has hosted nine day/night matches and five have been won while batting first and four while batting second.

Meanwhile Sri Lanka captain Kumar Sangakkara is 49 runs short of reaching 9000 One Day International runs while Mahela Jayawardena needs 16 runs to become the third batsman to score 9000 runs in One Day Internationals.

Sri Lanka (from): Kumar Sangakkara (captain), Mahela Jayawardena, Tillekeratne Dilshan, Upul Tharanga, Muttiah Muralitharan, Chamara Silva, Chamara Kapugedera, Thilan Samaraweera, Angelo Mathews, Thisara Perera, Lasith Malinga, Dilhara Fernando, Nuwan Kulasekera, Ajantha Mendis, Rangana Herath.

New Zealand (from): Ross Taylor (captain), Hamish Bennett, James Franklin, Martin Guptill, Jamie How, Brendon McCullum, Nathan McCullum, Jacob Oram, Jesse Rider, Tim Southee, Scott Styris, Kane Williamson, Luke Woodcock, Darryl Tuffey.