India, Sri Lanka in tri-nations fray
India and Sri Lanka go in search of their first points of the
Tri-Nation Series when they meet on Tuesday at Sabina Park as the
preliminary phase of the competition reaches the halfway point.
With the West Indies completing contrasting victories over the other
two teams and already on their way to Trinidad and Tobago, where the
last three group matches and the final will be played from Friday, this
duel of sub-continental neighbours almost has the feel of an eliminator.
While defeat for either side will not rule them out completely from
making the final on July 11 at Queen’s Park Oval, it will leave them
having to win their two remaining matches in Port of Spain, a venue
where the weather is notoriously fickle at this time of the year.
India should be the more confident of the combatants in the Jamaican
capital, although they are likely to be without the services of
inspirational leader Mahendra Singh Dhoni, unless he makes a remarkable
recovery from what was reportedly diagnosed initially as a right
hamstring strain sustained while batting against the West Indies on
Sunday.
While the weather at the start of the hurricane season in the
Caribbean has so far been kind to the competition in Jamaica, both
captains will be keen to win the toss.
That way they can give their bowlers first use of a pitch that has
made run-scoring difficult in the first half of the day, only to flatten
out in the afternoon, based on the evidence of the first two matches, in
which the visiting captains called incorrectly and then struggled to
build any sort of momentum at the crease.
Sri Lankan skipper Angelo Mathews gave his side’s innings some
respectability with an unbeaten topscore of 55 in the losing effort on
Friday.
But it is not expected to be enough against an Indian team that is
set to make an enforced change - Murali Vijay is the obvious option to
replace Dhoni with Dinesh Karthik as wicketkeeper - that breaks a run of
six consecutive matches with an unchanged eleven dating back to the
start of the Champioms Trophy tournament in England.
AFP |