Sri Lanka is to make one change from the side which played England a few days ago when they take on West Indies in their final match of the T20 World Cup at the Abu Dhabi stadium here today.
After a 26-run defeat at the hands of England, the Lankan camp is to recall left arm seamer Bunura Fernando in place of Lahiru Kumara. Kumara underwent some severe battering from the England batsmen and proved quite expensive even in the earlier game against South Africa conceding 16 runs in the final over, eventually losing the game.
Nevertheless, this match will be a formality as both teams have already exited from the tournament from their Group. Sri Lanka’s top order batters have failed to make an impact, starting with the experienced wicket keeper batsmen Kusal Janith Perera, who has scored only 94 runs in the seven matches he played, while the other dashing batter Avishka Fernando has scored a mere 52 runs in equal number of matches, which is well below expectations. The rest of the batters were able to get good starts, but threw away their wickets by playing rash strokes instead of rotating the strike and playing the ball on its merits. In the bowling department the spinners spearheaded by Wanindu Hasaranga and Mahesh Theekshana bamboozled the opponents and curtailed them from going on a scoring spree. However, the pacemen were very inconsistent in their line and length and gave away lots of runs. The best example was the game against England where they were reeling at 47 for 3 at the end of 10 overs, but the next 10 overs cost over 110 runs, where eventually the match which was under the control of Lankans slipped away in favour of their rivals, who notched up another comfortable win to remain unbeaten.
On the other hand, West Indies have to win their remaining two matches - against Sri Lanka and Australia - which is a big task for them. According to statistics they will not only have to win both fixtures, but also on a higher run aggregate which is going to be a herculean task for them. They were unable to win a single game so far in the tournament.
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