Sri Lanka to put up their best effort against Pakistan

Chris Dhambarage from Pakistan

Sri Lanka will be hoping to put up their best effort when they take on Pakistan in their six nation Asia Cup limited overs tournament Super Four match at the National Stadium in Karachi today (Sunday).

After two one sided matches against Bangladesh and the United Arab Emirates team the Lankans are determined to get into real business and they are confident of retaining the title for the second successive year.

Sri Lanka captain Mahela Jayawardena was quite pleased with the team?s performances and hope that they would maintain the same form throughout the competition.

?There have been lot of expectations to win the Asia Cup but we have to play hard cricket to reach the final first and win it,? Jayawardene said. ?We have shown lot of maturity so it will be important to keep the rhythm going,? he added.

“We had some good work-outs but there is still more hard work ahead. The expectations are high as the defending champions but we are capable of doing well and realise how important it will be to win all the matches,” said Jayawardene.

The Sri Lankan team is of course faced with a selection dilemma following the outstanding contributions made by the two replacements Mahela Udawatte and Kaushalya Weeraratne during their match against the United Arab Emirates team in Lahore.

Udawatte the left hand opener hit a fluent half century and Weeraratne produced a superb all round performance as Sri Lanka went on to collect the maximum points from group A. But now with Jayasuriya coming back into the side Sri Lanka are pondering whether they would further strengthen their batting line up or to stick with the six five combination.

Even then the pressure will be on Pakistan because they need to win all three matches of the Super Four stage following their shock defeat to traditional rivals India during the preliminary round. In contrast Sri Lanka need to win only two of their Super Four matches to qualify for the July 6 final.

The history of course favour the hosts Pakistan considering the fact that they have emerged victorious on seven occasions from their last ten outings. However Sri Lanka had the opportunity of recording a convincing 115 run victory in their previous meeting in Abu Dhabi last year.

Sri Lanka also had the credit of inflicting a crushing seven wicket victory against Pakistan in their last Asia Cup confrontation at the R. Premadasa Stadium in Colombo way back in 2004.

The teams: Sri Lanka (from): Mahela Jayawardena (captain), Kumar Sangakkara, Sanath Jayasuriya, Tillekeratne Dilshan, Chaminda Vaas, Muttiah Muralitharan, Dilhara Fernando, Chamara Silva, Nuwan Kulasekera, Thilina Thushara, Mahela Udawatte, Kaushalya Weeraratne, Ajantha Mendis, Chamara Kapugedera, Jehan Mubarak.

Pakistan (from): Shoaib Malik (captain), Misbah ul Haq, Bazid Khan, Faward Alam, Rao Ifthikarr, Mansoor Amjad, Nasir Jamshed, Naumunullah, Abdur Rauff, Saeed Ajmal, Salman Butt, Safraz Ahmed, Shahid Afridi, Sohail Khan, Sohail Tanvir, Younis Khan, Mohammad Yousuf. 6