CWC 2019: SL vs IND Preview – Jittery India aim to shrug off semi-final nerves

With just a couple of league matches to go, the 2019 ICC Cricket World Cup has entered the business end of the tournament. Australia, India, England and New Zealand are the four teams to have qualified for the semi-finals. Which teams end up playing who and where will depend on the result of Saturday’s double-header featuring table-toppers Australia and India.

Having registered a win in their penultimate match against the West Indies, Sri Lanka will want to continue the winning momentum and bow out with another win. As for India, a win or loss will decide where they finish on the points table and also their opponent in the semi-finals. If they win against Sri Lanka and Australia lose to South Africa later in the day, they finish on top and go on to face New Zealand in the semis. In all the other three scenarios, Australia will face New Zealand in the first semi-final at Old Trafford, followed by India taking on England at Edgbaston in the second semi-final.

Match Info

Sri Lanka vs India, 44rd Match

Headingley, Leeds (03:00 PM IST)

Head-to-Head

This is where it gets interesting. Sri Lanka have a slight edge over India in World Cups. They lead the head-to-head with 4 wins in 8 matches, India have 3 and one match has ended in no result.

Team News 

Sri Lanka

Against the West Indies, Sri Lanka’s batsmen clicked wonderfully to put up a 300-plus total and a ton from Avishka Fernando only added the spice. Although a bit late, their batting unit has finally found a way to function like a well-oiled machine. As for their bowling, Lasith Malinga has been the undisputed leader of the attack and continues to torment the opposition batsmen. The Lankans really have nothing to lose and their free-spirited brand of cricket will once again come into play in their final World Cup game. Going by their tight head-to-head numbers, Sri Lanka could well present a tough challenge to India. Expect a few changes in the bowling line-up, but not so much in the batting department.

India

For the second time in the tournament, India faced a temporary scare from their opponent despite being in control for the most part. They had Bangladesh on the mat, but a cameo from Mohammad Saifuddin towards the end threatened to take the game away. As usual, Virat Kohli turned to his go-to man Jasprit Bumrah, and he responded by dismantling the dragging tail. India went in without Kuldeep Yadav owing to the short boundaries at Edgbaston, as Bhuvneshwar Kumar returned to the fold. Dinesh Karthik made his World Cup debut but had nothing much to write home about. Against Sri Lanka, India could possibly send Karthik up the order to give him sufficient game time ahead of the knockout stage. They could also switch KL Rahul with Mayank Agarwal at the top and possibly rest their best pace bowler, Bumrah. This will also be a good time for Kohli & Co. to shed their nerves of losing the momentum in the middle overs and towards the end of the match.

Probable XI

Sri Lanka: D Karunaratne (c), K Perera (wk), A Fernando, K Mendis, A Mathews, L Thirimanne, I Udana, Dhananjaya de Silva, J Vandersay, K Rajitha/S Lakmal, L Malinga

India: KL Rahul/M Agarwal, R Sharma, V Kohli (c), R Pant, MS Dhoni (wk), H Pandya, D Karthik, B Kumar, M Shami, Y Chahal, J Bumrah/R Jadeja/K Yadav

Stat Attack

• Virat Kohli is 5 runs away from scoring 1000 runs for India in World Cups. He will be the
  3rd batsman for India to achieve this feat after Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly
• Angelo Mathews needs 80 runs to reach 500 runs in World Cups