Sri Lanka look to delivering the knock out punch
Rex Clementine - 27 July 2001
Nothing seems to be going India's way in the Coca-Cola Cup in Sri
Lanka and it would require an extraordinary effort from the side to
beat Sri Lanka in tomorrow's do or die affair for them at the
Premadasa Stadium in Colombo.
The Indian side, already handicapped with the absence of Sachin
Tendulkar, received the shocking news of the suspension of their
captain Sourav Ganguly by match referee Cammie Smith for showing
dissent in the last game against New Zealand when umpire Gamini Silva,
ruled him leg before.
After calling the Indian captain for an inquiry, Smith, known as a
lenient match referee, found him guilty of breaching the ICC code of
conduct clause three and suspended him for tomorrow's crucial game
against Sri Lanka.
From here on, to qualify for the final, the Indians have to either
win all three remaining games or win two games including the game
against New Zealand and then wait till Sri Lanka defeat New Zealand in
a last round match. They've got to do all this while maintaining a
healthier run rate than the Black Caps.
This morning, Indian vice captain Rahul Dravid needed to go for x-rays
to determine whether he had a fractures on his right thumb. Dravid,
attempting a catch in the slips in yesterday's game against New
Zealand was struck by the ball but fears of him too withdrawing from
tomorrow's game were put aside as the x-rays ruled out any fracture.
Ahead of tomorrow's game, only six Indian players along with coach
John Wright turned out for practice this evening, which was made
optional - not for the first time on the tour. From the cricketers who
played in the last game, only Hemang Badani, Reetender Sodhi and
Virender Sehwag turned up. Probably the management seems to feel that
for an improved performance, relaxing is better than a net session.
A wicket which has not been used so far in this series will be used
for tomorrow's game and the curator at the Premadasa Stadium, Susil
Ananda feels the pitch is an ideal strip for one-day cricket and
expects it to provide a lot of runs provided the batsmen adopt the
right approach.
The Sri Lankans meanwhile had a good net session this morning and may
make a few changes for tomorrow's game. They are likely to change the
left-handed opening combination of Avishka Gunawardene and Sanath
Jayasuriya. Gunawardene is likely to be replaced by Kumar Sangakkara.
Romesh Kaluwitharana or Marvan Atapattu could be the captain's partner
According to the team management, all the players are fit for
tomorrow's game and the Sri Lankans are looking forward to deliver the
knock-out punch to the Indians which will make their task of
qualifying for the final even slimmer.
© CricInfo
Teams
|
India,
Sri Lanka.
|
Players/Umpires
|
Sourav Ganguly,
Gamini Silva,
Cammie Smith,
Rahul Dravid,
John Wright,
Hemang Badani,
Reetinder Sodhi,
Virender Shewag,
Sanath Jayasuriya,
Romesh Kaluwitharana,
Kumar Sangakkara,
Marvan Atapattu.
|
Tournaments
|
Coca-Cola Cup (Sri Lanka) |