 Ireland will take on the mighty Sri Lankans in their respective second
Super Eights game at Lord's on Sunday. While Ireland had managed to upset Bangladesh
and get to the Super Eights, they had found the going tough in the game against
New Zealand and were dismantled rather easily. Sri Lanka, on the other hand, could
very well be termed as joint favourites to win this tournament, after having beaten
both, West Indies and Australia in the first round, and got the better of Pakistan
in the first Super Eights game.
Ireland will find the going very tough against Sri Lanka, and
the simple reason behind that is the team balance of Sri Lanka. The Lankan batting
is not overly dependent on one batsman, though T.Dilshan looks to be the man
in extreme form, while their bowling is one of the strongest of the competition.
Sanath Jayasuriya's return to form will be obvious welcome news, while Kumar
Sangakkara, at number three, has carried the Sri Lankan team out of distress
on more occasions than one. Mahela Jayawardene has been a trifle out
of form, and if he could get his act together there is no doubting that the
batting order would be one of the stronger ones in the tournament.
The bowling is from another planet. What else do you term it
as when the team has a pace bowler in Lasith Malinga who slinging action,
good pace, and an extremely excellent slower ball has left many in distress!
For an inexperienced side like Ireland, Malinga's toe-crushing yorkers will
be a different ball-game altogether, from what they would have faced in their
first class cricket so far! The woes do not end here; in fact they increase
manifold, facing upto the mystery, magic and guile of Ajantha Mendis and Muthiah
Muralitharan in the spin department. For the irish batting, this could be the
biggest baptism by fire that they could have hoped for!
Ireland's batting does not look like they could do the tall scoring, and this
is despite the return to the team of Niall O'Brien, arguably their best current
batsman. On the other hand, their bowling will rely on swing and seam, in the
form of Trent Johnston; however, what remains to be seen is whether Johnston
himself is fit enough to bowl his spell of four overs. He did look a little
jaded in the previous game against New Zealand, and will need all his energy
to get going in this crucial game.
The chances of Ireland getting through with a win in this game
are not too high, but Sri Lanka may not want to take them lightly given
Ireland's giant killing habit of dumping the big teams by the wayside!
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