DHAKA: Favorites South Africa and Sri Lanka are set to face each other at the 1st Quarter-Final of the ICC World Cup on Wednesday morning in a battle to reach the semi-final of the tournament.
The match will kick off at Sydney Cricket Ground around 9:30am Bangladesh time.
South Africa’s Faf du Plessis has recovered from the lower back injury that kept him out against UAE. Upon his return, the major selection conundrum for South Africa is whether to play Farhaan Behardien or Rilee Rossouw. Rossouw is the more accomplished batsman although Behardien made an unbeaten 64 in the last match.
In a late change to plans it emerged that Sri Lanka were trying to fast-track Tharindu Kaushal, the offspinner, into the squad as a replacement for Herath and it could be between him and legspinner Seekkuge Prasanna to play.
They will consider playing two spinners if the SCG track demands it, but otherwise, are likely to go with the three-quicks and one frontline spinner that they employed against Scotland, with Tillakaratne Dilshan's offspin also available.
Suranga Lakmal and Dushmantha Chameera are fighting for one spot, Mathews said, but Kusal Perera's firepower is likely to be preferred to Upul Tharanga's experience, in the middle order.
South Africa captain AB de Villiers has absolute confidence in his team's bottle. He said: "All I can say is we're not going to choke. We're just going to play a good game of cricket tomorrow and come out on top. Simple."
Sri Lanka skipper Angelo Mathews feels the toss is not necessarily vital to the outcome. "I hope the toss isn't vital. Look, generally the wickets have been extremely good, so we've seen teams chasing 300 as well. So if a team bats first and if they get to the 300 mark the game is not yet over," he said.
Teams
South Africa (probable)
1 Hashim Amla, 2 Quinton de Kock (wk), 3 Faf du Plessis, 4 AB de Villiers (capt), 5 JP Duminy, 6 David Miller, 7 Rilee Russouw/ Farhaan Behardien, 8 Vernon Philander, 9 Morne Morkel, 10 Dale Steyn, 11 Imran Tahir
Sri Lanka (probable)
1 Lahiru Thirimanne, 2 Tillakaratne Dilshan, 3 Kumar Sangakkara (wk), 4 Mahela Jayawardene, 5 Kusal Perera, 6 Angelo Mathews (capt), 7 Thisara Perara, 8 Seekkuge Prasanna/ Tharindu Kaushal, 9 Nuwan Kulasekara, 10 Lasith Malinga, 11 Suranga Lakmal/ Dushmantha Chameera
There is a small chance of rain on Wednesday, but the weather is expected to be dry enough to at least allow a shortened match. The pitch appears dry, but as Sri Lanka found out against Australia, that does not necessarily mean it will be slow or given to turn.
Source: ESPNcricinfo
BDST: 0825 HRS, MAR 18, 2015
