 New Zealand and Sri Lanka will play in a two match T20I series in a new destination in the USA at the Central Broward Regional Park Stadium Turf Ground
in the Lauderhill in Florida. The first game will be played on Saturday and will
be followed by the second game on Sunday.
Earlier, the series between Sri Lanka and New Zealand in USA was supposed
to be a three-match series in the T20I format, but the game on Thursday was
cancelled due to lack of infrastructure. The floodlights that have been installed
are not fit enough to host an international and the USACA chief Don Lockerbie
has said that the move was aimed at trying to promote cricket and not fall short
of being an embarrassment.
Click for Live Score Card of Sri Lanka and New ZealandHaving said that, it remains to be seen whether the games in USA get in the
crowds to be able to create an atmosphere of an international.
New Zealand were dealt a body blow, when Jesse Ryder, their opening
batsman who had returned to international cricket after being out for more than
six months with a groin injury, had to return back to New Zealand. This time
around, he suffers from an elbow injury. The other news for New Zealand is obviously
the retirement of Shane Bond which means that they get in another new
guy in the side, Andy McKay.
However, it would be interesting to see how the two teams play on neutral territory,
where the pitch would be an unknown quantity and will have a relatively neutral
support. The Sri Lankan spinners may not get too much assistance, but the fact
is that one can expect a bit of an up and down kind of a wicket and hence, the
out and out fast bowlers would probably make an impression.
What needs to be watched is how the batsmen from the two sides bat on such
a wicket. The track may not be too batting friendly, much like the ones you
find in the UAE, Dubai and Sharjah, and that will test the batsmen from both
the sides.
Sri Lanka hasn't had a great batting tournament in the World T20, relying totally
on Mahela Jayawardene. This means that the rest of the batting will have
to come good even on those alien conditions, which may just be a difficult task.
And that is also one of the reasons why I think that the Kiwis may just be favourites
for the first T20I in USA.
|
