Sri Lanka plot how to douse England World Cup fireworks
Skipper Dimuth Karunaratne says Sri Lanka will have to think “out of the box” as they try to tame England’s marauding batsmen in their must-win World Cup match against the hosts.
The 1996 champions must win all four of their remaining games to have a realistic chance of making the semi-finals after winning just one of their five matches so far in the round-robin stage, with two washouts.
The problem for Sri Lanka is that they still have to face favourites England and Virat Kohli’s India.
Eoin Morgan’s England are next in line on Friday, fresh from their dismantling of Afghanistan, who were on the receiving end of 25 sixes in England’s total of 397-6 on Tuesday.
Morgan hit a record 17 sixes in his 148 in Manchester, but Karunaratne said Sri Lanka had a plan for each batsman to put the brakes on England at Headingley.
“If we don’t have good pace, we have to think out of the box so I think that is what we need,” Karunaratne said on Thursday, without expanding on the details of his approach.
“We have played in a home series against them, so we have a couple of ideas and we need to work on those things in the middle,” he added.
England have posted more than 300 in four of their five matches, with two scores of 350-plus coming against Asian sides Bangladesh and Afghanistan.
The pre-tournament favourites suffered a shock loss to Pakistan but still managed to post 334 during the game in Nottingham.
Karunaratne believes the English batsmen have played spin better even than their Asian counterparts.
“I think England is the best batting line-up against spinners in the world, so I think if you take the Asian countries, England are playing better than them,” he said.
“That is what we need to think about, check the grounds and what are the combinations we have for the England game. Are we playing two spinners? Or are we going with the extra batsman or fast bowlers?”
(AFP)
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No harm dreaming mate.
Come on Captain. ‘Out-of-the-Box’! For me it is ‘ in-side-the-Box’! Nothing more than that.. Ask the Middle Order to Fire (Anjelo, Kiusal and the big man Thisara). Then Good Fielding. That will contribute to win the match.
Plot !!!!!! Ha! Ha! Ha!
Just think of losing with some DIGNITY!
There are lots of Sri lankans in the UK who have to hang their heads in shame after you play cricket!
Yes, win the toss and bat first. Then you can restrict ENG below 200. LOL
My hat off, win or lose. That is exactly what I meant. It not all about the winning. It is the manner of losing. Thanks very much for the gutsy performence today. If you want, you can. That is what this proved.
At the moment SL 232/9 (50 overs).
Eng 211/9
Sri Lanka Beat favorite England.by 20 Runs.
RESULT
27th match, ICC Cricket World Cup at Leeds, Jun 21 2019; SL 232/9; ENG 212 (47/50 ov, target 233)
Sri Lanka won by 20 runs
Something celebrate!
A Great Victory !!!
Thank you TEAM, the Lion Flag flies high today.
The team has the potential to reach the knockout semis and the unexpected could happen, Murphy’s law.
Hope Indra and her SL tribe in England lift their heads and walk with pride.
Perera,
Just one win does not change the world. That is why SL is fallen to no. 9 from being in the No.1 in ranking. Next time read my post with attention. It is the manner one lose that matters. Whether rolling the belly up or with a good fight to the end. Both Bangladesh and Afganistan teams are good examples. Yes. SL cricket team gave people both inside and outside in SL something to be proud about in their last game.
Indra,
It was a Great Victory against the mighty England team.
England have never won the World Cup in Cricket and are the favourites to win the World Cup in 2020.
To beat the super favourites England is the greatest surprise event in the World Cup.
Our cricketers are World class; only the Cricket Admin in SL is controlled by the corrupt Sumathipala Mafia.
Thank you Heroes, you did us proud.