Confident Lions face Zimbabwe in ‘unknown’ H’tota

Dilanka MANNAKKARA

The Lions will be coming out all guns blazing when they take on Zimbabwe tomorrow at Sooriyaweva International stadium under lights commencing the T20 World cup 2012 in grand style.

Sri Lanka despite winning a comprehensive game against the West Indies had a poor outing against the Indians after losing a game they should have won easily. However Sri Lanka will have butterflies in their stomach playing the first game in Hambantota where they haven’t played much cricket at all.

Sri Lanka tried out explosive opener Dilshan Munaweera during the two warm up games and he fared quite well in the game against West Indies hitting 24 runs of 22 balls.The India game was a horror for the entire Sri Lankan team and Munaweera was dismissed for just three runs.

The dilemma that the team management would face that if to go on with the tried and tested opening combo of Mahela Jaywardena and Tilakarathne Dilshan or to try out Munaweera and Tilakarathne Dilshan as openers.If Munaweera plays in the 11, he definitely will open and skipper Mahela Jayawardena will bat at three.

Kumar Sangakkara fresh after winning three ICC awards will probably bat at number four and he had his first real time in international cricket against India.

Sangakkara scored 32 of 32 balls but couldn’t convert his score as usual to a match winning one. Sri Lanka will heavily depend on Sangakkara to make some runs during the tournament thus controlling the middle order while accelerating at will.

Angelo Mathews,Thisara Perera and Jeevan Mendis will form the core of the Lankan lower middle order. However Lasith Malinga’s poor form with ball against India has been a major concern. As Irfan Pathan and Suresh Raina said in the open media sessions the IPL has been a major reason why Indian batsmen not only play with ease but dominate him like any bowler. Malinga leaked 50 runs of just four overs against India resulted in swinging the momentum right towards India.

It will also be interesting to see if 18 year old spinner Akila Dhananjaya will make his debut tomorrow. Akhila will have to vie for a place in the final 11 along with mystery spinner Ajantha Mendis and left arm spinner Rangana Herath.

Herath had a fantastic outing against India claiming one wicket for 8 runs of his three overs and skipper Jayawardena surprisingly didn’t finish him off and gave the ball to a wayward Malinga.