Aussies and Sri Lanka in battle of the pacemen

Lasith Malinga

MUMBAI, (Reuters) – A battle for supremacy between  bouncers and yorkers may eventually decide the outcome of  tomorrow’s World Cup Group A showdown between Australia and Sri  Lanka in Colombo.

Brett Lee

On spin-friendly conditions in Sri Lanka, it might sound  surprising that pace will rule but going by current form and  team composition, it may well turn out to be so in a re-run of  the 2007 final won by Australia.

The champions, chasing their fifth World Cup title overall,  have not tried to mask their intentions and have unleashed their  pace battery of Brett Lee, Mitchell Johnson and Shaun Tait on  opposition batsmen.

The pace trio have used the short-pitched delivery with  precise direction and a lot of fire, hitting many a batsman on  the body and the helmet thus gaining the mental edge.

In both their matches, against Zimbabwe and New Zealand, the  pacemen removed the sting in the opposition batting early and  ensured that there was no chance of a late fightback either.

The early strikes from the faster men have allowed the  Australian slow bowlers to breathe easy in the tournament so  far.

The Australian spinners have bagged just four wickets in the  two matches and have got away with that due to the red hot form  of their faster counterparts.

MORE BALANCED

Co-hosts Sri Lanka, on paper, have a more balanced attack  with some smart spin bowling from Muttiah Muralitharan and  Ajantha Mendis, if he plays, backing up pacemen Lasith Malinga  and Nuwan Kulasekara.

But it will be Malinga’s slinging toe-crushers that  Australia will be wary off.

The colourful fast bowler missed the first two matches of  the World Cup due to a sore back, against Canada and Pakistan,  and came back sizzling against outclassed Kenya grabbing six  wickets, including a hat-trick.

Malinga has a great knack of churning out inswinging yorkers  at will and he has made a habit of taking wickets in bunches.

Lasith Malinga

While Sri Lanka will look to the wily Muralitharan to make  life difficult for the batsmen during the middle overs, captain  Kumar Sangakkara will use Malinga mostly during the powerplays  to inflict crucial blows.

The Sri Lankan batting will once again rely heavily on the  experienced Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene for stability and  they will have to ensure that the lower middle order is not  exposed too soon to the new ball.

Talk about Australia not being at the top of their game did  not matter and they are still the team everyone wants to beat,  Muralitharan felt.

“They are the number one and they have won three World Cups  in a row,” Muralitharan said.

“So it’s (still) a team to beat. Everyone wants to beat  them. We are anxious to beat them too but we will try to treat  it as a normal game.”

Given the sides’ bowling prowess, both teams would have to  bat really well to post a score in excess of 300, which has  almost become a norm on the Indian grounds.

“If you really bat well, you can pass 300,” Muralitharan  said.

“But in Indian conditions … with smaller grounds, faster  outfields and better batting wickets 350 is achievable. In Sri  Lankan conditions 280-290 is a good score.”