Following a humiliating defeat to Zimbabwe in the tournament opener, India takes on Sri Lanka on 30 May (Sunday) at the Queens Sports Club, Bulawayo. Both India and Sri Lanka have come to participate in the Tri-nation tournament with a young side, resting a number of regular players.
Time
The match kicks off at 09:00 local time and 07:00 GMT. According to Indian and Sri Lanka time, the match begins at 12:30. Cricket fans in Bangladesh can watch the match from 13:00.
India got off to a poor start to the tournament losing to host Zimbabwe by 6 wickets on Friday. Zimbabwean players under their new captain Elton Chigumbura proved that India’s young cricketers are not yet up to the mark at the international stage.
Sri Lanka, under their new captain Tillakaratne Dilshan, will face an Indian team that lacks of confident after the poor show in the opening game. India would like to return to winning ways against Sri Lanka, while their neighbors would look for a winning start in the tournament.
Sri Lanka has a number of young talented players including two batting all rounder in Lahiru Thirimanne and Thissara Perera, and a bowling all rounder Jeevan Mendis. Though they are not certain for a place in the first eleven, Sri Lankan team would like to test their talent and skill at some point of the tournament.
India’s young pace attack looked unimpressive in the first game. Dinda and Yadav failed to make their presence felt, while Vinay Kumar, though took 2 wickets, was not even close to his IPL form. Indian spinners were also unimpressive against Zimbabwe.
Interestingly, the first match saw no dominating performance from the pacers of either side, even though Zimbabwe condition was thought to be pacer friendly. In fact, the first game saw the fall of only 9 wickets of which 2 were run outs. However, Zimbabwe spinners looked pretty much impressive in terms of economy rate.
The positives from the first game for India were definitely the century of Rohit Sharma and Jadeja’s batting. Except that, Indian batsmen looked shaky in the first game.
The tournament is a big opportunity for Sri Lanka’s young players who would like to prove their skill and talent at international circuit, and thus, clinching a regular place in the Sri Lankan team. It is also a big chance for Ajantha Mendis to return to form, while for other players like Chamara Silva and Dilhara Fernando, this is a big opportunity to retain their places in the national team.
India would go into the match knowing that another defeat would take them close to an early exit from the tournament, while Sri Lankan players would not be less desperate than their Indian counterparts to perform in pursuit of cementing their places in the national set up.
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