Sri Lanka will be hoping to bounce back and get into the winning formula when they confront Kenya in their ICC 2011 Cricket World Cup Group ‘A’ match at the R. Premadasa Stadium tomorrow. The Lankans one of the favourites to reach the quarterfinals suffered a setback when they went down to Pakistan by eleven runs in a close encounter on Saturday played at the same venue.
This time they will be quite aware of their opponents and their shock defeat at the 2003 World Cup which will be still in the back of their minds. On that occasion Kenya created the biggest upset by defeating Sri Lanka by 53 runs to reach the semifinals. Teehat was Sri Lanka’s only defeat in five clashes between the two nations with three of those matches in the ICC World Cup. Kenya have four survivors from that historic match in Nairobi, senior batsman Steve Tikolo, Collins Obuya, Thomas Odoyo and Peter Ongondo.
But the Kenyan team looks a pale shadow of that side in the current tournament where they have suffered two heavy defeats so far at the hands of New Zealand in Chennai and Pakistan at the Mahinda Rajajapaksa International Stadium in Hambanthota.