LUCKNOW: Sri Lanka will eye survival when they come up against Australia in the World Cup match at the Ekana Stadium on Monday. For that, they will need wicketkeeper-batter Sadeera Samarawickrama and off-break bowler Maheesh Theekshana to play leading roles.
In the team’s first World Cup match, Sadeera could not perform well and scored just 23 off 19 balls but he shone against Pakistan, smashing a century off just 82 balls to power Sri Lanka to 344-9. Theekshana did not play Sri Lanka’s first match against South Africa because he was still recovering from a hamstring strain sustained during the Asia Cup.
Both Sadeera and Theekshana will be very crucial in the match against Australia, who are also under pressure having lost both their matches.
In the last match on Ekana’s bouncy pitch, pacers like Kagiso Rabada and Marco Jansen proved effective. Rabada took three crucial wickets (Steve Smith, Josh Inglis and Marcus Stoinis). On the other hand, South Africa posted the highest ODI total ever at venue to prove that it was a good pitch for batting.
Australia were also satisfied with the quality of pitch.
After the Sri Lanka-Pakistan match, Theekshana had said, “We’re not very accustomed to these (Indian) wickets, where batsmen can easily score 350-360 runs. From a bowler’s perspective, if we don’t maintain discipline in our game, we’ll definitely lose. The same goes for our fielding; discipline is the key. I think if we maintain discipline, we can turn the tide in our favour.”
Sri Lankan players held a practice sessions on Saturday ahead of the Monday’s match.
