Kandy: Sri Lanka captain Mahela Jayawardene is wary of England’s devastating duo Eoin Morgan and Luke Wright and believes dismissing them cheaply in Monday’s World Twenty match is key to maintaining his team’s winning momentum.
In the Super Eights, the hosts won a close match against New Zealand for their first win, while a thumping nine-wicket victory against West Indies on Saturday took them to the top of the table in Group One.
Sri Lanka meet holders England in their final Super Eight match at Pallekele on Monday.
“In any game winning is a good habit, we need to get the momentum. We are excited to play defending champions England,” Jayawardene told reporters.
“They will throw us a different challenge and we are looking forward to it.”
Despite Morgan’s heroics with the bat, England lost their first Super Eight match to West Indies but bounced back to keep alive their title defence with a six-wicket victory against New Zealand on Saturday.
Jayawardene said he was aware of the batting exploits of Morgan and Wright, who were the main contributors against the Black Caps.
“Those two guys have been around for a while. Eoin has been playing regularly, Luke not so regularly but he has been travelling a lot,” Jayawardene said. “Luke has played lot of T20 cricket also and England is an exciting team when we saw them play in Colombo. They have some quality players and it should be a very good game.”
Both teams were meanwhile fined for slow over rates during their respective matches on Saturday. The International Cricket Council (ICC) said in a press release that England were found one over short during their six-wicket win over New Zealand, while Sri Lanka also fell short by the same margin in their nine-wicket win against the West Indies.
“Match referee Javagal Srinath imposed the fines after both England and Sri Lanka were ruled to be one over short of their targets at the end of the matches when time allowances were taken into consideration,” said the ICC.
In accordance with ICC regulations governing minor over-rate offences, players are fined 10 per cent of their match fees for every over their side fails to bowl in the allotted time, with the captains fined double that amount.
Effectively, England’s Stuart Broad and Mahela Jayawardene of Sri Lanka were fined 20 per cent of their match fees, while their players received 10 per cent fines.
The offence is contrary to Article 2.5.1 of the ICC’s code of conduct, which relates to minor over-rate offences. The penalty was accepted by England and Sri Lanka without contest so there was no need for a hearing.
