Do or die battle for Sri Lanka against Kazakhstan today

Ranjeeva SENEVIRATNE

Sri Lanka will go flat out to beat lowly placed Kazakhstan in their third match of the Asian Five Nations Tournament at Almaty, Kazakhstan and remain in the top division for another year.

The Lankans who drew their first match against UAE 13-all and went down to Hong Kong 3-48 needs only a draw against Kazakhstan today to finish in fourth position.

The lads from Kazakhstan have lost all three matches played so far to Hong Kong (10-23), UAE (10-24) and Japan (0-61) and face a tough task against the Lankans today.

The main drawback for the Lankans will be the cold weather in Almaty. The visitors will miss the services of three key players - centre Pradeep Liyanage, Hooker Bilal Hassen and flanker Yoshitha Rajapaksa due to injury.

Liyanage’s place will be taken by regular fly half Fazil Marija while Achala Perera will continue to play as hooker. Skipper Sean Wijesinghe who played as No 8 in the first two matches will move over to the vacant flanker position paving the way for last year’s Peterite skipper Keith Gurusinghe to fill the No 8 berth.

The two countries last met in the final of the Singer Rugby Asiad in November 2007 at Longden Place in which Kazakhstan emerged triumphant by 24-17

The Sri Lanka squad:

Henry Terrence, Achala Perera, Eranga Swarnatilleke or Kishore Jehan, Senaka Bandara, Sajith Saranga, Danushka Perera, Sean Wijesinghe (Captain), Keith Gurusinghe, Roshan Weeraratne and Chanaka Chandimal, Nuwan Hettiarachchi, Gayan Weeraratne, Fazil Marija, Charith Seneviratne or Chula Susantha, Saliya Kumara.