Lasith Malinga.He is the Sri Lanka slingshot shock weapon with the fancy goldilocks highlights in his hair. He is also on up on the Australian pace trio of Brett Lee, Shaun Tait and Mitchell Johnson. Two World Cup hat tricks on the Malinga CV makes him special and is why a battle of sharp-edged pace is probable to blow up in Khettarama on Saturday night. This is when Sri Lanka tackles World Cup title-holders Australia in what should be one of the most important contests of this year’s tournament. It sort of blows a hole in the "spin is king" theory this tournament as there have been two hat tricks in 24 hours of high explosive bowling with Kemar Roach destruction the bottom end of The Netherland innings in such a way it left no one in doubt who played a major role in that victory.
So far, Australia have used their pace as a weapon to force the opposition into buckling at the knees and it has worked. Whether they will have the same crash against Sri Lanka on what is expected to be one more flat pitch is a substance at Premadasa Stadium is a question of firing the ball in the right areas. For example, after a back injury kept him out of the side in the first two games, with the important one against Pakistan, it didn’t take goldilocks Malinga long to wind up blow away the Kenyans here on Tuesday as Sri Lanka sauntered to a comfortable nine wickets victory. He had to wait though until 32nd over when he was brought back to do the job the so-called big-named spinners, Muttiah Muralitharan and Ajantha Mendis had mainly failed to do. That is to take wickets.
Up to that, point Kenyan brothers Collins and David Obuya had done a fairly solid job of pulling the innings together and a possible Kenyan total of 200 loomed. Not a challenging one it would be admitted, but at least keep the large crowd entertained for as long as possible.Collins Obuya at least looked the part of a World Cup batsman and put together some stylish strokes and following his dismissal for steady 52 with the score at 102. When the skilled veteran Steve Tikolo followed for seven, cutting an Angelo Mathews delivery to Tillakaratne Dilshan in what was little more than catching practice, the innings imploded as would any damp paper bag when given a solid punch.
Scorecard: Sri Lanka vs Kenya
So far, Australia have used their pace as a weapon to force the opposition into buckling at the knees and it has worked. Whether they will have the same crash against Sri Lanka on what is expected to be one more flat pitch is a substance at Premadasa Stadium is a question of firing the ball in the right areas. For example, after a back injury kept him out of the side in the first two games, with the important one against Pakistan, it didn’t take goldilocks Malinga long to wind up blow away the Kenyans here on Tuesday as Sri Lanka sauntered to a comfortable nine wickets victory. He had to wait though until 32nd over when he was brought back to do the job the so-called big-named spinners, Muttiah Muralitharan and Ajantha Mendis had mainly failed to do. That is to take wickets.Up to that, point Kenyan brothers Collins and David Obuya had done a fairly solid job of pulling the innings together and a possible Kenyan total of 200 loomed. Not a challenging one it would be admitted, but at least keep the large crowd entertained for as long as possible.Collins Obuya at least looked the part of a World Cup batsman and put together some stylish strokes and following his dismissal for steady 52 with the score at 102. When the skilled veteran Steve Tikolo followed for seven, cutting an Angelo Mathews delivery to Tillakaratne Dilshan in what was little more than catching practice, the innings imploded as would any damp paper bag when given a solid punch.
Scorecard: Sri Lanka vs Kenya
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