 The first semi-final of the ICC World T20 will be played between England
and Sri Lanka at the Gros Islet in St. Lucia between England and Sri Lanka. England
had entered the semi-final by the virtue of winning all their games in the Super
Eight stage, whereas Sri Lanka sneaked through to the semi-final with a thrilling,
last ball win over India.
Click for Live Score Card of England Vs Sri LankaEngland's forte in the tournament has surprisingly been their all-round strength.
Batsmen, fast bowlers, spinners, you name it and they are there and that has
given rise to the fact that they have been the tournament's most consistent
side after Australia.
The good news obviously is that Kevin Pietersen will return back to
the side for the game after having witnessed his child's birth, and that should
be a comforting feeling for the dressing room. This will also mean that Ravi
Bopara will be on his way out of the side.
The advantage that England has on a pitch like St. Lucia is that they also,
unlike the yesteryears, possess a couple of good, quality spinners, who can
make the ball talk and hence pay back to Sri Lanka in the same coin.
It is obvious that the English batsmen would have preferred to bat on the Barbados
wickets where the bat would come on to the bat, but the good thing is that the
curator will have a one day break between the games to prepare the pitch and
that will mean that there is a decent chance that the tracks will be well rolled
and much like the previous game, will have the ball coming onto the bat.
As compared to England, Sri Lanka's performance has been patchy so far. They
have not been able to do too well with the bat, and that is where the problem
lies for them. The batsmen have depended far too heavily on Mahela Jayawardene
and apart from the previous game against India where there were equally meaningful
contributions from Kumar Sangakkara, Angelo Mathews and T Dilshan, the
other games have been anything but that.
This will mean that the Sri Lanka side will need to go into the semi-final
with much more confidence than they would have, had the batting not gelled together
in the previous game.
As far as the bowling is concerned, Ajantha Mendis was dropped from
the previous game but will be selected against England given the latter's discomfit
against spin bowling.
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