Aug

19

SL vs NZ Live: Toppers New Zealand face the bottom-placed Sri Lanka today

By Poornima - Thursday, August 19th, 2010   |   1,679 views   |  

NZ vs SL

This tri-series has all the elements of suspense. Each of the three teams has a victory by a large margin and a defeat to their credit. The team losing today will have a tough time ahead in its final league match where they will have to surely win to save their faces. The 4th ODI that will take place between Sri Lanka and New Zealand at Dambulla will be a big factor in deciding the fate of these two teams further in this series.

Sri Lanka now really needs to pull up their socks and divert all their energies from the Suraj Randiv’s notorious no-ball episode to the present match to cover up for their missed bonus point. The verdict came yesterday where Randiv was suspended for a match by Sri Lanka Cricket and his match fees was withheld along with Tillakaratne Dilshan who allegedly instigated him to overstep the line.

All this followed the criticism of the team by the skipper Kumar Sangakkara who said that their batting was “not at all professional and not up to standard at this level of cricket” after the match.

New Zealand has a five day rest in the tournament that they are playing after a break of some couple of months to their advantage. The skipper Ross Taylor thinks that they have an edge over Sri Lanka who is playing the third consecutive match in this tournament to which they are returning after a hectic three-test series opposite India. But the top concern for New Zealand is the form of their top-order who could not provide any launch pad for the middle-order to build upon in both the earlier matches.

Both Kane Willamson of New Zealand and Mahila Jayawardene of Sri Lanka are being looked up to create the magic at Dambulla by their respective skippers and fans.

The probable team members of both the sides are:
Sri Lanka: 1. Tillakaratne Dilshan, 2. Upul Tharanga, 3. Kumar Sangakkara (capt & wk), 4. Mahela Jayawardene, 5. Angelo Mathews, 6. Thilan Samaraweera, 7. Chamara Kapugedera, 8. Nuwan Kulasekara, 9. Rangana Herath, 10. Ajantha Mendis/Dilhara Fernando, 11. Lasith Malinga
New Zealand: 1. Martin Guptill, 2. BJ Watling, 3. Ross Taylor (capt), 4. Kane

Williamson, 5. Scott Styris, 6. Jacob Oram, 7. Gareth Hopkins (wk), 8. Nathan

McCullum, 9. Kyle Mills,

10. Daryl Tuffey, 11. Tim Southee/Andy McKay

“The openers are there and it is a tough job when the ball does swing around. I am sure they are used to it and hopefully we can lose less wickets at the top and give ourselves a better chance through the middle.”
Ross Taylor said while standing up for his struggling top order.

“As professionals, whatever happens before games or after games, it’s immaterial when we go onto the field. There the focus is to win the game and try things out.”
Kumar Sangakkara said on being questioned about the impact of the no-ball controversy on the team.

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