SRI LANKA VS ZIMBABWE
Match scheduled to begin at 19:30 local time (14:00 GMT)
Match scheduled to begin at 19:30 local time (14:00 GMT)
Team news
A slightly new-look Sri Lanka XI is possible with Dilshan Munaweera
likely to open the batting alongside Tillakaratne Dilshan and offspinner
Akila Dananjaya - both set for debuts. That will mean Mahela
Jayawardene will bat at No.3. The middle order is solid and the bowling
varied, with two frontline spinners in Dananjaya and Ajantha Mendis.
Sri Lanka (probable): 1 Dilshan Munaweera, 2 Tillakaratne
Dilshan, 3 Mahela Jayawardene, 4 Kumar Sangakkara, 5 Lahiru Thirimanne, 6
Angelo Mathews, 7 Nuwan Kulasekara, 8 Thisara Perera, 9 Lasith Malinga,
10 Ajantha Mendis 11 Akila Dananjaya,
An impressive top three gives way to a shaky Zimbabwe middle order but
their alternatives are few. Only Forster Mutizwa could replace Craig
Ervine or Stuart Matsikenyeri but their experience would likely see them
turn out for the first match. It will probably be a choice between
Elton Chigumbura and Malcolm Waller for the allrounder's role. Zimbabwe
have three frontline spinners in Prosper Utseya, Graeme Cremer and Ray
Price and Price is the likeliest to miss out if they chose to play three
seamers.
Zimbabwe (probable): 1 Hamilton Masakadza, 2 Vusi Sibanda, 3
Brendan Taylor, 4 Craig Ervine, 5 Stuart Matsikenyeri, 6 Elton
Chigumbura/ Malcolm Waller, 7 Prosper Utseya 8 Graeme Cremer, 9 Richard
Muzhange, 10 Kyle Jarvis, 11 Chris Mpofu
Pitch and conditions
With heavy gusts expected in the afternoon and evening in Hambantota,
some steadying adjustments will have to be made all round. Matches there
have been low scoring, largely because the surface area of the field is
larger than the MCG, but the boundary rope is being brought in for this
tournament. The pitch is expected to have something in it for the
seamers, so much so that Brendan Taylor said he does not expect much
turn. Temperatures are expected to be warm, between 26 and 28 degrees
Celsius, with up to 80% humidity but little chance of rain.