By Suneer Chowdhary
England and Sri Lanka make up the line-up for the fourth and the final quarter-final of the ICC World Cup 2011 to be played at R Premadasa in Colombo, the only one repeat of a quarter-final that was also played in the 1996 edition.
Published: Mar 25, 2011, 06:58 PM (IST)
Edited: Mar 25, 2011, 06:58 PM (IST)
Muttiah Muralitharan of Sri Lanka bowls during a Sri Lanka nets session at the R Premedasa Stadium on March 25, 2011 in Colombo, Sri Lanka.
By Suneer Chowdhary
Colombo: Mar 25, 2011
England and Sri Lanka make up the line-up for the fourth and the final quarter-final of the ICC World Cup 2011 to be played at R Premadasa in Colombo, the only one repeat of a quarter-final that was also played in the 1996 edition.
Given the way two sides have gone about their business in the tournament, it is almost safe to assume that the roles have been reversed from the early times of Sri Lanka’s emergence in international cricket. England have turned into scrappers, who are probably low on resources – having lost another to depression in Michael Yardy – while Sri Lanka looks to have dazzling talents needing to fulfil potential.
The lead-up to the game had some heart-stopping moments for England, culminating into a comeback from behind victory in a must-win game against West Indies. Not that it has signalled the end of their issues which had begun with losses to Ireland and Bangladesh, and made further difficult by the loss of personnel. Kevin Pietersen, Stuart Broad, Ajmal Shahzad and Yardy have all returned back and that only means the side is seemingly looking more different from the one that had first set foot on the Indian sub-continent shores.
Sri Lanka have not had too many injury issues, Lasith Malinga excluded, but even the pace bowler is much fitter and kicking. Muthiah Muralitharan had some injury problems against New Zealand, despite the clutter of wickets he picked up, but that shouldn’t keep him out of this all-important game. England’s best chance in the game could be to bat first and pile up the runs, with the rolled mud of a track, as described by Ricky Ponting, easily one of the more difficult ones to chase on. Conversely, the side fielding first will know that the stress of the knock-out game will couple hard with the record at the Premadasa and that will make life difficult for them.
Yet, as India showed in their game against the Australians, with some sensible batting, the pressure can be put back on the opponents despite chasing down a big score. Where the England may start hurting is the Yardy issue. This could bring back memories of the Marcus Trescothick incident where he returned back from Australia, following which England were thrashed 5-0 in the Ashes in 2006. More vitally, there could be others in the side who would now look back at the arduous five-month schedule for the English side and may secretly hope to get back to their country sooner, than later.
In a pressure game like this, teams need every ounce of their focus to be on the game in question and how the side performs in light of this will be interesting. Sri Lanka will be favourites but would have seen enough of England in the tournament to realise that they could hardly take the side complacently. It has all rounded off to the batting being dependent on Kumar Sangakkara – who got his first century in more than 30 months – and an early dismissal will test the below-par middle-order.
Tillakaratne Dilshan has had his share of starts to go with a century against Zimbabwe, but it is the performances against the Test-playing nations where he needs to get going. The Lankan coach has asserted that Muralitharan should be fit to make to the playing eleven while Ajantha Mendis will be added to befuddle the Englishmen further.
The winner of this game will face the side winning the South Africa-New Zealand encounter.
Teams:
Sri Lanka (probable): Upul Tharanga, Tillakaratne Dilshan, Kumar Sangakkara (c & wk), Mahela Jayawardene, Thilan Samaraweera, Chamara Silva, Angelo Mathews, Nuwan Kulasekara, Lasith Malinga, Ajantha Mendis, Muttiah Muralitharan.
England (probable): Andrew Strauss (c), Ravi Bopara, Jonathan Trott, Ian Bell, Paul Collingwood, Eoin Morgan, Matthew Prior (wk), Tim Bresnan, Graeme Swann, James Tredwell, James Anderson.
Umpires: Billy Doctrove (West Indies) and Simon Taufel (Australia)
Time: 14.30 local (09.00 GMT)
(Suneer is a Mumbai-based cricket writer and can be contacted at suneerchowdhary@gmail.com and Tweets here: @suneerchowdhary)
Pictures © Getty Images
