Manchester: Australia will go full out to crush Sri Lanka at the Oval during their World Cup clash on Saturday. They believe that to dominate the match is very important.
Sri Lanka on the other hand are busy planning to upset the odds. They know that Australia is likely to be too tough a side to beat, but skipper Dimuth Karunaratne revealed that he has some plans in place to stun the Australians.
“We have put in a plan to tackle the Australians that we made during our practice game. Now all that we need to do is to stick to that plan,” said Karunaratne, who knows that his team haven’t played cricket for the last 11 days due to rain.
Australian skipper Aaron Finch was asked whether Sri Lanka not having played for some days will turn out to be an advantage for his team.
“When rain plays a big part in a tournament like this, I think Sri Lanka have been unlucky with a couple of games. You look down their side, and there’s a lot of experience there. There’s a lot of world-class players. You can never take any team in this competition lightly,” noted Finch.
When Karunaratne was asked about the long break, and how he plans to cope with it, he said: “We trained indoors and outdoors, and did a lot of physical training. We know we can’t control the weather, and unfortunately we lost points. We want to train harder for our match against the Australians, and that’s why we are here today.”
Karunaratne also revealed that Sri Lanka’s star bowler Lasith Malinga had returned after attending his mother-in-law’s funeral.
“Our plan is to take early wickets. Hopefully we are able to bat the first few overs well. All these are very crucial.”
Finch feels that playing against different types of opposition is thrilling. “Every time we play a different opposition, we face different challenges all the time. We saw that against India, they are spin-heavy through the middle. West Indies are quick-heavy through the middle. Played Afghanistan; they mixed up spin and quicks. So one is constantly faced with different challenges.”
But the Australian skipper proudly remarked that his team is yet to play their best. “I don’t think we’ve gone anywhere near our best, which is a good thing. We’ve got six points on the board even while not playing anywhere near our best cricket, and that is a big positive.”
Catch the Match
Sri Lanka vs Australia
Venue: The Oval, London
Start time: 1.30pm UAE
Telecast: OSN Sports
