Sports / Cricket
Zimbabwe wins toss and chose to bowl
10 Mar 2011 at 02:32hrs | Views
NEW DELHI: The Zimbabwe captain Elton Chigumbura won the toss and chose to bowl against Sri Lankan in their World Cup Group A clash in Pallekele on Thursday.
Chigumbura said that with their bowling attack they will try to restrict the home team to a decent total and chase it. Sri Lankan captain Kumar Sangakkara said that his gut feeling was to bat first. It's hard to say what would be a good score to set. It's important to bat well and for a long time.
The chance for the Lankans is, to find some much-needed rhythm as they enter the key stage of the competition. Since smashing Canada by 210 runs in Hambantota on February 20, Sri Lanka have had mixed results. They lost a game they should have won against Pakistan by 11 runs, before bouncing back through paceman Lasith Malinga's brilliance against Kenya. The big match against Australia was washed out, with Lanka delicately placed at 146/3.
At Pallekele, Kumar Sangakkara and his boys have an opportunity to bring it all together and gift their country with a win on their debut game at this picturesque stadium. A thumping win should put the team in a good frame of mind before the bigger battles arrive. The only reasonable challenge, perhaps, should come from Zimbabwe's spinners, who controlled the Australian batsmen, particularly their openers wonderfully well in their first game.
Zimbabwe have played as many as four tweakers in their World Cup games so far, though skipper Elton Chigumbura indicated that seeing the hardness of the surface, he would alter the composition of his team to include more pacemen in the attack.
The African side's main problem has been their batting, which flourished only against Canada at Nagpur, where they scored 298/9 to crush the North American side by 175 runs and record their only win of the tournament. Tatenda Taibu scored 98 in that game, but to expect him to do something similar on Thursday would be asking for the moon.
What works in Zimbabwe's favour is the slight pressure on Sri Lanka to romp through. The minnows received batting lessons from none other than Brian Lara before coming into the World Cup and their 'teacher' must be extremely unhappy with how his pupils have fared so far.
Lara played Sri Lankan off-spin king Muttiah Muralitharan tremendously well on these wickets. He would have told them a thing or two about tackling Murali but that is the only thing he can do.
Sri Lanka will eye a healthy feast on Thursday night. They have been ruthless on 'smaller' teams so far. In a new stadium, in front of their cheering fans, the hosts would love to do it once again.
Teams:
Sri Lanka: Kumar Sangakkara (Capt.), Upul Tharanga, Tillakaratne Dilshan, Mahela Jayawardene, Thilan Samaraweera, Chamara Silva, Angelo Mathews, Nuwan Kulasekara, Thisara Perera, Lasith Malinga, Muttiah Muralitharan.
Zimbabwe: Elton Chigumbura (Capt.), Brendan Taylor, Regis Chakabva, Tatenda Taibu, Prosper Utseya, Craig Ervine, Greg Lamb, Graeme Cremer, Ray Price, Tinashe Panyangara, Chris Mpofu.
Chigumbura said that with their bowling attack they will try to restrict the home team to a decent total and chase it. Sri Lankan captain Kumar Sangakkara said that his gut feeling was to bat first. It's hard to say what would be a good score to set. It's important to bat well and for a long time.
The chance for the Lankans is, to find some much-needed rhythm as they enter the key stage of the competition. Since smashing Canada by 210 runs in Hambantota on February 20, Sri Lanka have had mixed results. They lost a game they should have won against Pakistan by 11 runs, before bouncing back through paceman Lasith Malinga's brilliance against Kenya. The big match against Australia was washed out, with Lanka delicately placed at 146/3.
At Pallekele, Kumar Sangakkara and his boys have an opportunity to bring it all together and gift their country with a win on their debut game at this picturesque stadium. A thumping win should put the team in a good frame of mind before the bigger battles arrive. The only reasonable challenge, perhaps, should come from Zimbabwe's spinners, who controlled the Australian batsmen, particularly their openers wonderfully well in their first game.
Zimbabwe have played as many as four tweakers in their World Cup games so far, though skipper Elton Chigumbura indicated that seeing the hardness of the surface, he would alter the composition of his team to include more pacemen in the attack.
The African side's main problem has been their batting, which flourished only against Canada at Nagpur, where they scored 298/9 to crush the North American side by 175 runs and record their only win of the tournament. Tatenda Taibu scored 98 in that game, but to expect him to do something similar on Thursday would be asking for the moon.
What works in Zimbabwe's favour is the slight pressure on Sri Lanka to romp through. The minnows received batting lessons from none other than Brian Lara before coming into the World Cup and their 'teacher' must be extremely unhappy with how his pupils have fared so far.
Lara played Sri Lankan off-spin king Muttiah Muralitharan tremendously well on these wickets. He would have told them a thing or two about tackling Murali but that is the only thing he can do.
Sri Lanka will eye a healthy feast on Thursday night. They have been ruthless on 'smaller' teams so far. In a new stadium, in front of their cheering fans, the hosts would love to do it once again.
Teams:
Sri Lanka: Kumar Sangakkara (Capt.), Upul Tharanga, Tillakaratne Dilshan, Mahela Jayawardene, Thilan Samaraweera, Chamara Silva, Angelo Mathews, Nuwan Kulasekara, Thisara Perera, Lasith Malinga, Muttiah Muralitharan.
Zimbabwe: Elton Chigumbura (Capt.), Brendan Taylor, Regis Chakabva, Tatenda Taibu, Prosper Utseya, Craig Ervine, Greg Lamb, Graeme Cremer, Ray Price, Tinashe Panyangara, Chris Mpofu.
Source - Byo24News
