 The third edition of ICC World twenty20 will kick start with the game against 2009 twenty20 world cup runners-up Sri Lanka and the confident Kiwis. By seeing the nature of wickets in West Indies, spinner will play vital role in this tournament and whichever team will play the spinners well will play the Final of world twenty20 on 16 th of May 2010. So far in the warm-up games, slow bowlers have done well and it’s good enough to indicate that spinners have key role to play in the tournament. Sri Lanka has two quality spinners in the face of M.Muralitharan and A.Mendis while New Zealand has Captain Daniel Vettori and N.McCullum. So it will be interesting to see how New Zealand batsmen tackle the Sri Lankan mystery spinner A.Mendis and Mralitharan. Sri Lanka who has lost their only warm-up game against South Africa by 5 wickets will look forward to put better show against confident kiwis who manage to win both of their warm-up games against Ireland and West Indies. Sri Lankan lost in the warm-up game cause by batting collapse and that is something if they manage to control in this tournament then they can go long distance as they did in 2009 world cup. New Zealand on the other hand is boosted by the return of Jesse Ryder and he is expected to play a major role along with B.McCullum and R.Taylor in New Zealand chances in the tournament. Watch out for Jesse Ryder: He is one of the most dangerous batsmen at the top and if he gets going then New Zealand can chase down any score. In the warm-up game against Ireland he smashed 64 runs of just 34 balls which was just another good indication of how dangerous player he is. Mahela Jayawardne: He will be the man to watch, when he come out to bat with T.Dilshan. Ever since he started to open the innings for Kings XI Punjab in IPL, he suddenly started to look totally different player. He will try to repeat the similar performance in most important game against Kiwis. Pitch & Condition The Pitch at Providence Stadium, Guyana will be slow and low which means spinner will play key role for both the sides. Team winning the toss would love to bat first and put somewhere around 160 runs on the board. Teams Since this will be big game for both the teams and whoever will win will go through to the Super 8’s stage of T20 world cup 2010. By considering this scenario and pitch condition Sri Lanka and New Zealand will look to go into the game with more spin options. Likely Playing XI for both Teams (Match is Schedule to begin at 22:30 PM India Time) New Zealand Squad: Jesse Ryder, Brendon McCullum (WK), M.Guptil, Ross Taylor, Scott Styris, Nathan McCullum, Jacob Oram, Daniel Vettori (Captain), Kyle Mills, Ian Butler, Shane Bond. Sri Lanka Squad: Mahela Jayawardne, T.Dilshan, Kumar Sangakara (Captain & WK), C.Kapugedara, Sanath Jayasurya, Angelo Mathews, Thissara Perera, L.Malinga, N.Kulasekara, M.Muralitharan, C.Welegedara. |
