 The seventh match of the ICC World T20 this year will have the Sri Lankans
play the Zimbabwean side at providence Stadium in Guyana. The Zimbabweans are
not a side who can be taken lightly given that they had won both their warm-up
matches thanks to the unleashing of their spinners and by beating Pakistan and
Australia, they had ensured that the sides will not take them too lightly.
Sri Lanka, on the other hand, had played only one warm-up game before the start
of the tournament and lost it to South Africa.
Click for Live Score Card of Sri Lanka Vs ZimbabweThe reason why the Zimbabwe vs Sri Lanka match could be some
fun to watch out for is that both the sides relish playing spin bowling. And
in turn, both the teams love to bowl a lot of spinners. In fact, the Zimbabweans
have gone a couple of steps ahead of the Sri Lankans by opening with spinners
at both the ends and making it difficult for the opening batsmen of the opposition.
Of course the Zimbabweans will need to look at the pitch conditions as well,
but given that West Indies is a place where the pitches have begun to assist
the spinners, it is evident that the likes of Prosper Utseya and Ray Price
will do well on them. Uyseya, who is also the captain of the side is more famous
for bowling his overs rather economically, but the one exception was the warm-up
game against Pakistan, where the opposition tried to collar him and he ended
up scalping four wickets in the process.
Against Sri Lanka, what the Zimbabweans will need to be careful of is their
batting. With the likes of Ajantha Mendis and Muthiah Muralitharan up
their sleeve, the Lankans may try and come hard at the minnow nations-turned
giant killers, and that is where the true test of Zimbabwe would be.
For Sri Lanka, it is a reasonable possibility that Sanath Jayasuriya may continue
to warm the benches, given his lack of form for a long period of time. The one
reason one would like to believe so is that Mahela Jayawardene seems
to have found himself a new batting slot - as an opener - and with Tillakaratne
Dilshan at the other end, it is only natural that the side goes ahead with the
two.
With Kumar Sangakkara to follow, the question that the Lankans could need to
answer would be on who the rest of the batsmen would be; apart from someone
like an Angelo Matthews probably.
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