THE VARIETY in their bowling will give Sri Lanka an edge over an inconsistent England team in Saturday (March 26)’s World Cup quarter-final in Colombo.
The winner of the match will fill the last available spot in the semi-final line-up and will play New Zealand on Tuesday (March 29) in Colombo.
The 1996 champions have dispelled most doubts about their chances of bagging a second title with a strong batting line-up ably supporting their potent bowling attack.
An attack comprised of Lasith Malinga, Muttiah Muralitharan and Ajantha Mendis will delight most captains and the home conditions will make them even more dangerous.
Muralitharan, 38, who will retire after the World Cup, had a week to recover from a hamstring injury and is raring to roll his arm again.
“Murali is a guy who rises to the occasion and does really well in the big games,” said Sri Lanka captain Kumar Sangakkara.
“He is fine to play and one hundred per cent okay which is great for us. The side feels confident about what he can produce for us in important games and that’s exactly the way we are going to look at it and that’s exactly how we are going to try and play this game.”
Not good news for England who have struggled throughout the tournament with inconsistency stemming maybe from a number of injuries.
In the group stages, they narrowly escaped an upset against the Netherlands, tied with India, went down to Ireland before losing to Bangladesh but somehow scraped through to the quarter-finals.
England, trying to win the trophy for the first time, lost Kevin Pietersen (hernia), Stuart Broad (side strain) and Ajmal Shahzad (hamstring) to injuries and all-rounder Michael Yardy was the latest to fly back home suffering from depression.
While Tim Bresnan is supposed to be available after an injury scare, captain Andrew Strauss refused to name his opening partner for the do-or-die match.
England have struggled with their opening pair after the departure of Pietersen and Matt Prior has failed to shine in the role so far.
“It’s a big challenge for us. Sri Lanka is a good side with a lot of attacking options with both ball and bat. We are very excited about the challenge and I still think we are going out with very positive attitude,” captain Andrew Strauss told reporters.
“At this stage there is nothing to lose, you got to go and win games. That sort of a mindset served us very well in the past.”
