World Cup: Rain interrupts Sri Lanka-Australia match

Agencies

Colombo, 05 March 2011: Sri Lanka captain Kumar Sangakkara won the toss and opted to bat first against Australia in their World Cup Group A match at on Saturday.

 

Holders Australia, who have not lost a World Cup match since 1999, are seeking their third straight win in the tournament but the co-hosts Sri Lanka are aiming for their third win in four matches.

 

Sri Lanka’s maverick right-arm speedster Lasith Malinga can churn out yorkers after yorkers with amazing regularity, which was in full display against Kenya as he grabbed six wickets, including a hat-trick, on Tuesday.

 

The 1996 champions will also rely on the wily Muttiah Muralitharan to trouble the Australians, against whom the off-spinner never lacked motivation.

 

Four-times champions Australia, on the other hand, would rely heavily on raw pace to dismantle the Sri Lankan batting line-up built around Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene.

 

The trio of Brett Lee, Shaun Tait and Mitchell Johnson have been using the short-pitched stuff pretty well to unsettle the rival batsmen and Australia are likely to retain the three-pronged pace attack in the re-run of the 2007 final.

 

Sri Lanka have won against Canada and Kenya but went down to Pakistan while Australia beat both Zimbabwe and New Zealand in their two outings so far.