Tuesday, April 03, 2007

England face tough Sri Lanka test

World Cup Super 8, Antigua: England v Sri Lanka
Match starts 1430 BST Wednesday

Sri Lanka's Muttiah Muralitharan
Muralitharan is the hardest bowler in the world to face - even more difficult than [Shane] Warne
England's Kevin Pietersen
England begin a crucial five-day period in their World Cup campaign with a tough Super 8 assignment against Sri Lanka in Antigua on Wednesday.

It will be followed by a match against Australia next weekend and England need to win at least one of them to boost their hopes of a semi-final place.

They expect Andrew Flintoff to be fit to face the confident Sri Lankans.

Flintoff twisted an ankle during the 48-run win over Ireland but has played a full part in practice.

If England need a reminder of how good Sri Lanka are, they only have to think back to last summer when they were whitewashed 5-0 on home soil.

And in paceman Lasith Malinga and spinner Muttiah Muralitharan, they face two of the tournament's leading wicket-takers, with 24 victims between them so far.

"Malinga is unusual. You can talk about his action, but getting out there and facing him is completely different to talking about it," said England coach Duncan Fletcher.

Sri Lanka will be hoping Malinga and Chaminda Vaas can make early inroads into England's under-performing top order of Ed Joyce, Michael Vaughan and Ian Bell.

Andrew Flintoff
Andrew Flintoff relaxes while receiving treatment on his left ankle

It will then fall upon Muralitharan to try and keep England's most dangerous batsmen, Kevin Pietersen, Paul Collingwood and Flintoff, in check.

Pietersen described Muralitharan as "a special bowler" and said the only way to play him was to watch the ball as closely as possible out of his hand and off the pitch.

"Murali doesn't say a lot - he just winds you up and winds you up because he knows he's going to get you out.

"He's a really happy guy, a nice guy. I call him the silent assassin - he has so much talk on the cricket ball he doesn't have to say much."

Pietersen added: "Muralitharan is the hardest bowler in the world to face - even more difficult than [Shane] Warne."

PREVIOUS WORLD CUP MEETINGS
1983, Taunton
England won by 47 runs
1983, Headingley
England won by nine wickets
1987, Peshawar
England won by 107 runs
1987, Pune
England won by eight wickets
1992, Ballarat
England won by 106 runs
1996, Faisalabad
Sri Lanka won by five wickets
1999, Lord's
England won by eight wickets

England can take some comfort from the fact that they have won six of the seven previous World Cup matches against Sri Lanka, the most recent at Lord's in 1999 when Nasser Hussain (88) and Graeme Hick (73 not out) guided them to an eight-wicket victory.

But the current Sri Lanka side are confident they have England's measure if they can repeat the all-round excellence they produced against West Indies last Sunday after a brilliant hundred by Sanath Jayasuriya laid the foundation for a 113-run win.

"We are very excited about the game, we've done very well against them recently and feel it's a game that we can win - and that's the frame of mind we need to have," coach Tom Moody commented.

"One of the great things about our side is that we have a variety and balance," added wicket-keeper Kumar Sangakkara.

"We've got three different types of fast bowler, four different kinds of spinner and when it comes to the batters, we have variety there as well - Sanath at the top, workers in the middle and guys who can finish off with a bang at the end."


England (from): E Joyce, M Vaughan (capt), I Bell, K Pietersen, P Collingwood, A Flintoff, P Nixon (wkt), R Bopara, S Mahmood, J Anderson, M Panesar, J Dalrymple, A Strauss, L Plunkett, J Lewis.

Sri Lanka (from): U Tharanga, S Jayasuriya, K Sangakkara (wkt), M Jayawardene (capt), C Silva, T Dilshan, R Arnold, C Vaas, D Fernando, L Malinga, M Muralitharan, F Maharoof, N Kulasekera, M Atapattu, M Bandara.

Umpires: Asad Rauf (Pkn), B Bowden (NZ)

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