Sri Lanka v Zimbabwe, World T20 2012, Group C, Hambantota

There is no big bash planned for the opening of World Twenty20 in Hambantota, no music concert, no fireworks and no trapeze artists. But, there is a cricket match and both Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe are likely to be grateful that they, not a sideshow, will take center stage.

 Cricket can be their only focus because in a short group stage, like this one, an early slip up could end their campaign even as it begins. That fact is probably scarier for Sri Lanka than it is for Zimbabwe. Sri Lanka are expected not to slip up, especially because the tournament is taking place at home and their reputation as runners-up was given a fresh unveiling at least year's fifty-over World Cup. Their time for going one better is thought to be now. Despite changes to coaching staff and personnel and a patchy recent record in T20 cricket, Sri Lanka is still seen as one of the favourites and they would hope to show why against Zimbabwe.

For Zimbabwe's coach, Alan Butcher, and his charges, this tournament is nothing more than an opportunity. It is a chance to show that they are still active on the world stage, even though they have not been on it for almost eight months. It is a chance to show that they are still producing talented players and have the capacity to nurture that talent. And maybe, just maybe, it is a chance to achieve something that no-one would think them capable of.

Form guide (completed matches, most recent first) 

Sri Lanka LLWLW

Zimbabwe LLLLL

Watch out for

There are few finer sites in cricket than Lasith Malinga, hair bobbing to the rhythm of his steps, running in, pecking the ball on its way through to the base of the stumps. With the opportunity to see him in whites a thing of the past, watching him in the shortest form has to suffice. As Sri Lanka's joint highest wicket taker in T20 cricket, with Ajantha Mendis, Malinga can be as destructive as he is delightful and with Sri Lanka challenging for silverware on home turf, you can expect both in overload.

Sandwiched in-between a man in fine form, Hamilton Masakadza and the captain, Brendan Taylor is Vusi Sibanda. He has completed his return to the team after a spat over his choice to play grade cricket instead of domestic cricket at home but has been overshadowed by Masakadza and Taylor. Sibanda is an attacking strokeplayer, who has learnt to play the short ball with as much force as the full one. He will also have to play the key role of holding the top three together to ensure Zimbabwe can challenge with the bat.

Team news

A slightly new-look Sri Lanka XI is possible with Dilshan Munaweera likely to open the batting alongside Tillakaratne Dilshan and offspinner Akila Dananjaya - both set for debuts. That will mean Mahela Jayawardene will bat at No.3. The middle order is solid and the bowling varied, with two frontline spinners in Dananjaya and Ajantha Mendis.

Sri Lanka (probable): 1 Dilshan Munaweera, 2 Tillakaratne Dilshan, 3 Mahela Jayawardene, 4 Kumar Sangakkara, 5 Lahiru Thirimanne, 6 Angelo Mathews, 7 Nuwan Kulasekara, 8 Thisara Perera, 9 Lasith Malinga, 10 Ajantha Mendis 11 Akila Dananjaya,

An impressive top three gives way to a shaky Zimbabwe middle order but their alternatives are few. Only Forster Mutizwa could replace Craig Ervine or Stuart Matsikenyeri but their experience would likely see them turn out for the first match. It will probably be a choice between Elton Chigumbura and Malcolm Waller for the allrounder's role. Zimbabwe have three frontline spinners in Prosper Utseya, Graeme Cremer and Ray Price and Price is the likeliest to miss out if they chose to play three seamers.

Zimbabwe (probable): 1 Hamilton Masakadza, 2 Vusi Sibanda, 3 Brendan Taylor, 4 Craig Ervine, 5 Stuart Matsikenyeri, 6 Elton Chigumbura/ Malcolm Waller, 7 Prosper Utseya 8 Graeme Cremer, 9 Richard Muzhange, 10 Kyle Jarvis, 11 Chris Mpofu

Pitch and conditions

With heavy gusts expected in the afternoon and evening in Hambantota, some steadying adjustments will have to be made all round. Matches there have been low scoring, largely because the surface area of the field is larger than the MCG, but the boundary rope is being brought in for this tournament. The pitch is expected to have something in it for the seamers, so much so that Brendan Taylor said he does not expect much turn. Temperatures are expected to be warm, between 26 and 28 degrees Celsius, with up to 80% humidity but little chance of rain.

Stats and trivia

Sri Lanka is the only national team to have two T20 centurions. Mahela Jayawardene and Tillakaratne Dilshan are among the seven players to have scored hundreds in the shortest format.

All six of Zimbabwe's top wicket-takers in T20 cricket are in their squad for this tournament. Prosper Utseya leads the charts with 16 scalps followed by Elton Chigumbura, Ray Price, Jyle Jarvis, Graeme Cremer and Chris Mpofu.

Quotes

"Having looked at the wicket I'm pretty confident that it will be much better than what it has been, and there should be plenty of runs."

Sri Lanka's captain Mahela Jayawardene expects a high-quality surface in Hambantota.

"We've got some good strikers in the top order, some good spinners and young, talented fast bowlers that will bowl well at the death. If we get those things right, it will be tough for Sri Lanka."

Despite his team being regarded as clear underdogs, Brendan Taylor is bullish ahead of Zimbabwe's first match of the tournament.

(c) ESPNcricinfo

Sri Lanka will be one of the favourites at the upcoming World Twenty20- Sangakkara

Kumar Sangakkara has said that Sri Lanka will be one of the favourites at the upcoming World Twenty20, despite Sri Lanka's pitches having become less spin-friendly. Pitches at Pallekele and Hambantota - stadiums built for last year's World Cup - have suited seam bowling, while the relaid square at the Premadasa Stadium in Colombo has also seen bounce and carry in the last year. No team breached 200 in the Sri Lanka Premier League played in Colombo and Pallekele in August and four of the top five wicket takers in the tournament were seam bowlers. 



"Our sides have changed a little bit," Sangakkara said. "We don't depend on spin alone anymore or just one fast bowler in Chaminda Vaas. We have different sets of fast bowlers and different sets of spinners. With the change in conditions our sides have changed, but home advantage is not only about wickets. It's about playing in your country, playing in front of the people who cheer and love you."



Sangakkara said the Premadasa pitch changed after the ground was renovated, and that winning the toss held no obvious advantage as it had once done. Fifteen of the 27 matches in the World Twenty20 will be played at the Premadasa, including both semi finals and the final. 



"When the wickets were relaid, in the first few games there was a lot of turn and now they've settled down into beautiful wickets where batting first or second you have an equal chance of winning. Batting under lights has become so much easier that some sides now prefer to chase," he said. 



The wickets at Pallekele and Hambantota also offer challenges not traditionally associated with Sri Lankan venues, Sangakkara said.

"Pallekele seems to have a lot in it at night. It seams and swings around and that will be an interesting challenge for us being a Sri Lankan side playing in our conditions to encounter those conditions. Hambantota is completely different. There is quite a strong wind from one side and the pitch can be a bit up and down. The vicious turn that [Sri Lankan pitches] used to have is no more, so sides have to adjust accordingly."



Sangakkara said that in addition to a home crowd that will give Sri Lanka "a massive advantage", the team's recent history of good performances at ICC events would also be a source of confidence. Since 2007, Sri Lanka have been runners up in successive World Cups, and were finalists in the 2009 World Twenty20 and semi finalists in the 2010 tournament.

"Sri Lanka have always been favourites in my view in any tournament that we play because we've been able to rise to those big occasions really well as a unit and adjust accordingly. If you take our last 4-5 years, it's been an amazing run in big tournaments. We just need to believe in ourselves and believe in that fact and keep playing."



Sangakkara missed the SLPL due to a fractured finger, but is expected to be fit for the World Twenty20 which starts on September 18. Sri Lanka play Zimbabwe in Hambantota in the tournament opener. South Africa is the other team in their group.

(c) Crickinfo 

PAKISTAN ARRESTS MASTERMIND OF LANKAN TEAM ATTACK

Pakistan on Thursday arrested the head of a banned Sunni extremist group accused of inciting sectarian hatred and masterminding an attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team in 2009, police said.

Malik Ishaq, leader of Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ) which is said to have links to al Qaeda, was arrested in the eastern city of Lahore after his return from a pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia, police spokeswoman Nabila Ghazanfar said.

“I can confirm his arrest,” she said, adding that Ishaq will be produced in a local court on Friday.

Police had registered a case against him after his “provocative speech to spread sectarian hatred” at a religious gathering in Lahore earlier this month, police official Liaquat Ali said.

Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, regarded as Pakistan’s fiercest Sunni extremist group, was banned more than a decade ago by former president Gen Pervez Musharraf.

It is accused of killing hundreds of minority Shia Muslims after its emergence in the early 1990s.

Ishaq was arrested in 1997 and is implicated in dozens of cases, mostly murder. He was released on bail in July last year after serving a jail term of nearly 14 years.

Since his release he had been frequently put under house arrest as his sermons raised sectarian tensions, officials said.

Ishaq was also accused of masterminding, from behind bars, the 2009 attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team in Lahore, which wounded seven players and an assistant coach, and killed eight Pakistanis.

The attacks saw Pakistan stripped of its right to co-host last year’s cricket World Cup. - AFP

A clean sweep of Sri Lanka will perch India to top

DUBAI: There's a lot at stake in India's one-day series against Sri Lanka beginning July 21 as Mahendra Singh Dhoni's men have the chance to regain the number one spot if they clean-sweeps the five-match rubber.

India, who are at fourth spot in the Reliance ICC ODI rankings, last held the number one position briefly in September 2009 but if it achieves a clean sweep against Sri Lanka, Dhoni's side will unseat current table-toppers Australia.

The series, which starts in Hambantota on July 21, brings together the finalists in the World Cup 2011, held in Mumbai in April last year. India won that match by six wickets to lift the trophy for the first time in 28 years.

After years of domination by Australia, the Reliance ICC ODI Team Rankings table is now extremely tight after Michael Clarke's team suffered a 4-0 defeat in England recently.

Only two rating points separate the top four teams with South Africa and England sandwiched between Australia and fourth placed India.

Sri Lanka-India series again utilizes the three grounds which are a legacy of the World Cup 2011. The first two ODIs are in Hambantota, followed by two at the Premadasa Stadium in Colombo with the final match in Pallekele on August 4.

At the conclusion of the series, the ICC will publish the annual update of the table which will discard the results of ODIs played prior to August 2010.

Reliance ICC ODI Team Rankings: 1. Australia (119); 2. South Africa (118); 3. England (118); 4. India (117); 5. Sri Lanka (112); 6. Pakistan (103); 7. West Indies (87); 8. New Zealand (83); 9. Bangladesh (67); 10. Zimbabwe (46); 11. Ireland (36); 12. Netherlands (15); 13. Kenya (8).

SLPL Official Logos

Sri Lanka Premier League (SLPL) last evening unveiled its logo in a carnival of passion for cricket at an event held at the Cinnamon Grand Hotel in Colombo.   The organizers of the event said accordingly, in 25 days or even before, cricket fever is certain to sweep the country, dwarfing all other activities.  This event is expected to give a major fillip to the country’s tourism, leisure and entertainment industry.

The 24-game contest, featuring seven teams named after selected provinces of the country and involving 112 local and 56 global players, will begin on 10 August with a mega ceremony. The matches will be played in Colombo and Pallekelle.

Dharmadasa said that the SLPL would be a big boost for Under 21 cricketers, Team players, National Squad members and top stars locally as well as globally would get an opportunity to play competitive cricket with some of the world’s best names in the Twenty 20 game.

The former Sri Lankan skipper Kumar Sangakkara said this is a great opportunity to promote Sri Lankan players and uplift Sri Lankan cricket while upholding the MCC spirit of cricket. He said that although a lot of foreign stars will feature in the tournament, Sri Lankan cricket will take center stage. He said that hopefully SLPL will be a stepping stone for a feast of talented cricketers thus creating healthy competition among them in order to have a top notched pool to choose from.  

Organizers of the tournament said that the SLPL has thus far been a success by attracting $ 30 million in bids for the seven provincial franchises for seven years with an average price of US$ 4.33 million each. The seven franchises and their icon players are Basnahira (Western) Province – Tillakaratne Dilshan; Kandurata (Central) Province – Kumar Sangakkara, Nagenahira (Eastern) Province –  Angelo Matthews; Ruhuna (Southern) Province –  Lasith Malinga; Uthura (Northern) Province – Muttiah Muralitharan; Uva (South East) Province  –  Chris Gayle and Wayamba (North West) Province – Mahela Jayawardena. (niz)

Malinga the mascot for T20 World Cup

With his distinctive hairstyles and sling-shot bowling action Lasith Malinga is one of the most marketable cricketers in Sri Lanka. Add to that his success in the Twenty20 format – he's third in the all-time list of T20 wicket-takers and has just come off a successful IPL season – and it's a no-brainer that the ICC has made him the event ambassador for the World Twenty20 in Sri Lanka this September. “Lasith is a special player and one of the most recognisable cricketers in the world. Whenever he runs in to bowl with his distinctive action there is a thrill in the game,” it said.

Malinga’s rise to stardom from a fishing village has made him a role model for several young cricketers – more so in a cricketing culture that, like the Twenty20 format, embraces unorthodoxy. As the face of the tournament, he'll be a popular choice – just don't ask the batsmen!

Sri Lanka ease to T20 win over Pakistan

HAMBANTOTA, Sri Lanka — Sri Lanka put on a brilliant bowling and fielding performance to post a comfortable 37-run victory over Pakistan in their opening Twenty20 international on Friday.
Pakistan were bowled out for 95, their lowest T20 total against Sri Lanka, after restricting the hosts to 132-7 in Hambantota.
Sri Lankan pacemen Nuwan Kulasekera, Angelo Mathews and Lasith Malinga and debutant off-spinner Sachithra Senanayake took two wickets apiece after man-of-the-match Thisara Perera scored a crucial 32 not out.

Opener Ahmed Shehzad top-scored for Pakistan with 36 while the extras contributed 19 runs, the second-highest of the innings. Umar Akmal (12) was the other batsman to reach double-figures.
Pakistan never recovered after losing two wickets off the first two balls of the innings, with Kulasekera removing skipper Mohammad Hafeez and debutant Shakeel Ansar.

The Sri Lankan bowlers were backed by their fielders, with Perera and Kulasekera each taking a superb catch.

"The fielding was brilliant and all the bowlers did well. It was a challenging wicket and we did not assess it well when we batted," said Sri Lanka skipper Mahela Jayawardene.

Left-arm paceman Sohail Tanvir earlier grabbed three big wickets as Pakistan restricted Sri Lanka.
He jolted the top order when he dismissed Jayawardene, Tillakaratne Dilshan and Kumar Sangakkara in his opening three overs to reduce the hosts to 31-3.

Tanvir finished with 3-12 off four tight overs, his best performance in Twenty20 internationals, while off-spinner Saeed Ajmal bagged two wickets for 20 runs.

"Perera made the difference," said Pakistan captain Hafeez.
"We had our moments but couldn't capitalise on them. Tanvir was brilliant and the spinners did the job. I feel we have to work and come hard in the next game."
Perera smashed two sixes and as many fours in his 16-ball knock to help his team make 43 runs off the last 22 balls.
Lahiru Thirimanne, making his T20 debut, was the other main scorer with a 25-ball 30.
Sri Lanka made a poor start after electing to bat, losing four wickets in the opening eight overs with just 39 on the board.
Tanvir struck with his third delivery when he had Jayawardene caught by Shoaib Malik in the covers and then had Dilshan caught by Umar Gul at fine-leg in his next over.
Sangakkara (19) hit three successive fours off paceman Mohammad Sami before he inside-edged a Tanvir delivery onto his stumps.

The second and final Twenty20 match will be played on Sunday.