First ODI at Dambulla today :

Lankan Women hope to tie down Australia with spin

by Sa'adi Thawfeeq

Sri Lanka Women's cricket team coach Lanka de Silva said that he will be banking on left-arm spinners Inoka Ranaweera and Sugandika Kumari to deliver the goods in the upcoming four-match one-day international series against World Cup champions Australia which begins at the Rangiri Dambulla Stadium today (Sunday).

Rival captains Meg Lanning (Australia) and Chamari Atapattu (Sri Lanka) with the trophy that will be awarded to the winners of the four-match ODI series starting in Dambulla today.

"The Australian line-up has plenty of right-handers and Inoka and Sugandika our most experienced spinners in the side should make it difficult for them," was the opinion expressed by De Silva head of the first ODI. "We also have the off-breaks of Inoshi Fernando and we are banking on the three of them to deliver."

Sri Lanka women are hoping to tie the Australians down with spin as the men's team did with Steve Smith's side a month ago. Smith's Australians lost the three-Test series 0-3 but under David Warner bounced back to win the ODI and T20I series.

De Silva stated that unlike in the past he along with the national selectors had made elaborate plans for the series well in advance.

"We picked the squad of 14 players one month ahead and they have been practicing together as a team. We played six practice matches and managed scores between 215 and 220 in most of them. If we can come up with similar scores against Australia we have the bowlers to do the job for us," said De Silva.

"The selections were also made with emphasis being laid on specialists rather than all-rounders who can do a little bit of both.

We have selected seven batters in our squad of 14 and identified captain Chamari Atapattu, Prasadani Weerakkody, Chamari Polgampola and Dilani Manodara as the batting specialists who are expected to put the runs on the board for us," he said. De Silva who is eight months into his two-year contract as coach of the women's team said that they had learnt a great deal from the mistakes they made during the World T20 early this year and to a great extent rectified them.

"We showed great improvement in our T20 rankings moving from eighth to fifth position. In this series we expect to move at least one rung up the ladder in the rankings," De Silva said.

Sri Lanka are ranked eighth out of ten in the ICC Women's Championship rankings.

Australia, who are leading the Championship table with 24 points, are one point away from gaining automatic qualification into next year's Women's World Cup. Sri Lanka, however, are placed at the bottom of the eight-team table with five points from 15 matches. While the top four teams gain direct entry into the World Cup, the bottom four teams will have to play the ICC Women's World Cup Qualifier with six other regional qualifiers. The top four teams in the Qualifier will then advance to the World Cup.

Australian women's team coach Matthew Mott said the slow, turning pitches in Sri Lanka will hold no fear for his team.

Mott said he's confident a spin brigade featuring the likes of Jess Jonassen, Kristen Beams, Erin Osborne, and Grace Harris can wreak havoc if the pitches show any sign of turn.

"I think our batters certainly enjoyed batting on it," Mott said of the pitch used for Thursday's intra-squad match in Colombo. "We've got a very strong spin attack with four or five good spin options.

"We can adapt to these conditions, definitely. I don't think (the pitches) are massively different at the moment. Particularly the one-day wickets and the T20 wickets, they're pretty similar to what we're used to."

Squads:

Sri Lanka: Chamari Atapattu (captain), Prasadini Weerakkody (vice-captain), Dilani Manodara, Nipuni Hansika, Chamari Polgampola, Eshani Lokusooriya, Udeshika Prabodini, Inoka Ranaweera, Sugandika Kumari, Achini Kulasooriya, Inoshi Fernando, Imalka Mendis, Ama Kanchana, Harshitha Madhavi.

Australia: Meg Lanning (captain), Alex Blackwell (vice-captain), Kristen Beams, Nicole Bolton, Rene Farrell, Holly Ferling, Grace Harris, Alyssa Healy, Jess Jonassen, Beth Mooney, Erin Osborne, Ellyse Perry, Megan Schutt, Elyse Villani.