Photographs: Lee Warren/Gallo Images/Getty Images
Sri Lanka captain Mahela Jayawardene is wary of England's devastating duo Eoin Morgan and Luke Wright and believes dismissing them cheaply in Monday's World Twenty match is key to maintaining his team's winning momentum.
In the Super Eights, the hosts won a close match against New Zealand for their first win, while a thumping nine-wicket victory against West Indies on Saturday took them to the top of the table in Group One.
Sri Lanka meet holders England in their final Super Eight match at Pallekele on Monday.
"In any game winning is a good habit, we need to get the momentum. We are excited to play defending champions England," Jayawardene said.
"They will throw us a different challenge and we are looking forward to it."
'England is an exciting team'
Photographs: Gareth Copley/Getty Images
Despite Morgan's heroics with the bat, England lost their first Super Eight match to West Indies but bounced back to keep alive their title defence with a six-wicket victory against New Zealand on Saturday.
Jayawardene said he was aware of the batting exploits of Morgan and Wright, who were the main contributors against the Black Caps.
"Those two guys have been around for a while. Eoin has been playing regularly, Luke not so regularly but he has been travelling a lot," Jayawardene said.
"Luke has played lot of T20 cricket also and England is an exciting team when we saw them play in Colombo. They have some quality players and it should be a very good game."
Sri Lanka on a roll
Photographs: Tom Shaw/Getty Images
Sri Lanka, on the other hand, are a team on a roll.
Mahela Jayawardene's men hardly broke a sweat as they thrashed the aggressive West Indians to put one step into the semifinals.In-form batsmen, disciplined bowlers, along with massive home support make Sri Lankans a formidable team going into the knockout stage of the tournament.
Jayawardene himself has been in fine form but a big one is due from Tillakaratne Dilshan.
The bowlers have all performed well as expected in home conditions and the islanders do look the favourites against defending champions.
Teams (from): Sri Lanka: Mahela Jayawardene (c), Angelo Mathews, Kumar Sangakkara, Tillakaratne Dilshan, Lahiru Thirimanne, Jeevan Mendis, Dilshan Munaweera, Thisara Perera, Lasith Malinga, Nuwan Kulasekara, Rangana Herath, Ajantha Mendis, Dinesh Chandimal, Shaminda Eranga, Akhila Dhananjaya.
England: Stuart Broad (c), Jonathan Bairstow, Ravi Bopara,Tim Bresnan, Danny Briggs, Jos Buttler, Jade Dernbach, Steven Finn, Alex Hales, Craig Kieswetter (wkt), Michael Lumb, Eoin Morgan, Samit Patel, Graeme Swann, Luke Wright.
Comment
article