Three steps away from Cricket’s Mount Everest:

Let’s rally round the Cricketers

Dinesh WEERAWANSA

Sri Lanka are only three steps away from climbing cricket’s Mount Everest for the second time since Arjuna Ranatunga and his men thrashed Australia by seven wickets to win the 1996 World Cup.

Sri Lanka, will take on England in the fourth quarter final match of the 2011 ICC World Cup under lights at the Premadasa Stadium today, will have a final round draw that they could ever dream of. If Sri Lanka beat’s England in the quarters, they will qualify for the semi final to be played at the same venue on Tuesday, a day ahead of that exciting semi-inal between India and Pakistan at Mhali on Wednesday.

Kumar Sangakkara and his men will be facing a relatively easy opponent in the quarter finals. But they should not become overconfident and underestimate England, which managed to make it to the last eight on a low note. Nevertheless, England could well rise to the occasion and give Sri Lanka a testing time.

Sri Lanka has a well-knit side on paper and should be in a position to control the game. The eight-day gap between Sri Lanka’s last league round match against New Zealand and the fourth quarter final came in handy for ace off spinner Muttiah Muralitharan to recover from his hamstring injury.

Spin wizard

The spin wizard is a vital cog in the team and would play a crucial role against a team such as England which customary shows a weakness in playing spin.

Things could even look worse for the Englishmen if Muralitharan, who captured 4 for 25 against the Kiwis, makes the best use of the home wicket.

Muralitharan’s presence in the crucial quarter final game is subject to a late fitness test but Sri Lanka coach Trevor Bayliss is confident that the celebrated off spinner could make it to the final X1. Muralitharan’s presence will be a huge psychological advantage but unlike in the past Sri Lanka has the ability to manage even if Murali fails to make it.

Firm favourites

Nevertheless, Sri Lanka should take the game session by session and should not take things for granted. True that Sangakkara’s men go firm favourites, both on strength of the team as well as the crowd support under familiar home conditions, but those are two factors that would be advantageous and England could well enter the game at any moment, if Sri Lanka tends to relax.

In batting, Sri Lanka has been over dependent on skipper Sangakkara who is the second leading scorer in the tournament behind Indian Sachin Tendulkar. Sangakkara is one of the best known ‘willow merchant’ in the game today who could play any top bowler in the world with confidence. But ‘overloading’ him with too many responsibilities and depending too often from his willow too could be dangerous.

Unfortunately, dashing opener Tillakaratne Dilshan is yet to make a notable innings against a superior opponent, apart from his century against Zimbabwe. If former captain Mahela Jayawardene and Dilshan be among the runs, that would ease added pressure on Sangakkara.

Winning the toss will be a huge bonus and the captain who calls correctly will not hesitate to take first lease of the wicket. But on the other hand, even of Sri Lanka bats second, they have a galaxy of strokemakers who could chase any challenging total under lights.

Successive run

Sangakkara and his men are enjoying a successive run and one hopes they would extend that all the way to the finals or even beyond.

Many are of the view that toss would play a decisive role at Premadasa Stadium but Sri Lanka coach Trevor Bayliss does not like to believe that anymore. “In the past the toss has been important. But since the wickets have been relaid, they are a lot better now, a lot easier to bat second than it was two to three years ago,” he was quoted as saying.

Huge total

But Sri Lanka will not hesitate to take first lease if they win the toss and put a huge total on the board. They are quite confident of doing so as Upul Tharanga and Tillakaratne Dilshan added 282 runs for the first wicket in 44.4 overs in Sri Lanka’s 139-run win over Zimbabwe at Pallekele International Stadium, Kandy.

At the same time, Sri Lanka should learn a lesson from their sudden collapse in the same Game. Sri Lanka failed to make use of the solid foundation and wasted crunch overs to slump from 282 for no loss in 44.3 overs to finish at 327 for 6 in 50 overs.

Irresponsible

Sri Lanka lost six wickets in adding 45 runs in the last 5.3 overs of the match. Such irresponsible batting collapses should never occur as Sangakkara’s men attempt to make it a habit of winning.

What matters is a professional game plan to keep the morale up. Even of the England bowlers come on top at certain stages, Sri Lanka must look for quick runs and keep pressing for singles so that odd boundary would enable them to go for the projected target. This was evident in India’s elimination of the defending champions Australia in the second quarter final game on Thursday night.

Slow bowlers

When the Australian slow bowlers were on top, the Indians kept on pushing quick singles and that enabled the home team to keep the scoreboard moving. Sri Lanka batsmen too should adopt similar strategy if they happen to face difficult times with English bowing.

Whatever it is, Sri Lanka has been dishing out some champagne cricket and it could well end up with Sangakkara’s men reaching the pinnacle of world cricket.

Sport in a great leveller and irrespective our all religious, social and ethnic belongings as well as political differences, let’s rally round the Lion flag and inspire the sons of our soil to advance one step closer to the World Cup.

The Daily News sports desk wishes all success to Sangakkara and his men in their endeavour to win the ICC World Cup. Let Sangakkara emulate Ranatunga’s feat of 1996!