Sri Lanka looking to win first game

Ranjan Anandaappa in Australia

After a lapse of 16 years India will meet Sri Lanka on Australian soil in a limited over match when they confront in the Commonwealth Bank limited over series in a day/night game at the Woolloongaba Stadium in Brisbane today.

Since the 1992 world cup match against India scheduled to be played in February 1992 in Mckay, North Queensland washed out without a ball being bowled.

The match against India to be played today will be the first time the Sri Lankans take on India on Aussie soil.

Given the strength of the Australian team and the home advantage, Sri Lanka will be exploiting their chances in eliminating India to qualify for the best of three finals. The first match against India therefore will be crucial for both teams. India and Australia have shared two points each in the opening match, which was hampered by rain and was abandoned.

With such stroke makers like Sanath Jayasuriya who has recovered from his jaw injury, Kumar Sangakkara, Mahela Jayawardena, Chaminda Vaas and Muralitharan in the team the Lankans should fancy their chances in coming first with the encounter against India .

The Sri Lanka team arrived in Brisbane and was deprived of an outdoor practice session due to a soggy surface. They were confined to a Indoor practice session at the 'Gabba'.

Soon after having a batting session Mahela Jayawardene said that he was quite satisfied how things are going, the weather forecast has not been very good, but hopefully we can get a game out of it, preparations have been good and we have been really working hard. We tried something new, and something's worked some did not, but we are very satisfied with everything.

"In the two practice games we got two wickets which was different to each other, which was good, we made a few mistakes in those games, we have spoken about it and get it right but overall we can be very happy how things have gone.

The disappointment was the Tasmanian match where we got a good wicket, but we could not get the advantage, should have batted much better and put up a decent score for our guys to bowl at. We wanted to bat on that surface which was a bit damp in the morning, because the situation might arise to do that," said Mahela.

Sri Lanka has named a twelve-man squad while India will not risk playing their all-rounder Yuvraj Singh. There is one change in the Indian line up Suresh Raina coming in for Manoj Tiwari who failed to impress in the first game against Australia.

Sri Lanka has so far played 95 ODIs against India, with India winning 49, Sri Lanka 37, and 9 matches with no results. Since winning the world cup in 1996, the two nations have met 57 times, with Sri Lanka winning 26 encounters and India 25 with 6 matches ending with no result.

Gabba is known for its bounce and pace and both teams will be wary of the wicket when picking the teams. The Lankan had a taste of the Gabba wicket when they played Australia in a Test match last November where they lost badly with most of the batsmen except Sanath Jayasuriya, Michael Van Dort, Marvan Atapattu and to a lesser extent Chamara Silva finding it difficult to cope with its pace and bounce.

However, one-day cricket is different kettle of fish and Sri Lanka's established and experienced batting line up should be able to adapt quickly to the wicket when they bat.

The bowlers also should adopt themselves quickly to line and length appropriate for the wicket and conditions. The second match of the CB series between India and Sri Lanka will be played on the same pitch on which the first match was played. Sreesanth and Ishant Sharma bowled exceptionally well to restrict the Australian batting extracting plenty of pace and movement.

The teams

Sri Lanka: Mahela Jayawardena (Captain), Kumar Sangakkara (V.Captain WK). Sanath Jayasuriya, Upul Tharanga, Chamara Silva, Chamara Kapugedera, T.M. Dilshan, Farveez Maharoof, Chaminda Vaas, Lasith Malinga, Muttiah Muralitharan, Ishara Amarasinghe.

India: Mahendra Singh Dhoni (Captain, WK), Virender Sehwag, Sachin Tendulkar, Gautham Gambhir, Rohith Sharma, Suresh Raina, Robin Uthappa, Irfan Pathan, Harbhajan Singh, Ishant Sharma, Shanthakumaran Sreesanth, Dinesh Karthik, Praveen Kumar, Piyush Chawla.

Umpires: Rudi Koerszten and Steve Davis.