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Good afternoon and welcome to The Roar‘s coverage of Match 32 of the 2015 Cricket World Cup featuring Sri Lanka up against Australia at the Sydney Cricket Ground. You can follow the live scores and coverage from 2:30pm (AEDT) and leave your comments below.
As the tournament enters its fourth week, you’d be forgiven for losing interest. But fear not! Today we have a match on hands.
The stakes are high for both teams as they look toward the quarter finals. With the unbeaten NZ all but securing first position in Pool A, Sri Lanka and Australia are left to jostle for second position – and what a desirable position it is.
Why? The team that wins today looks set to avoid a quarterfinal against tournament heavyweights South Africa.
But which team will that be?
It’s difficult to assess where Australia stands after their narrow loss to NZ, their abandoned match against Bangladesh and their demolition of Afghanistan. With Clarke failing to bat against Afghanistan, it’s even more difficult to assess the Australian Captain’s personal form.
While Australia’s top order stood tall against Afghanistan, they capitulated against the swing and pace of NZ’s bowlers. Too often, the likes of Haddin are being asked to bail out Australia’s opening and middle order.
This is in stark contrast to Sri Lanka, whose opening batsmen have stood tall since their loss to NZ in their opening match. Kumar Sangakkara, the form batsman of the World Cup, is in superb touch, proving age is no barrier at 37.
He has been supported well by Tillakaratne Dilshan, Lahiru Thirimanne and Mahela Jayawardene. The Sri Lankan batsmen aren’t as flashy as David Warner or Glen Maxwell, but they continue to hold their nerve and get the job done.
Sri Lanka’s bowlers, however, have not been as strong, particularly in the absence of Dimuth Karunaratne and now Rangana Herath who must undergo surgery on a broken finger. And this may prove to be the difference today if Australia’s batsmen can capitalise on the fresh faces in Sri Lanka’s starting XI.
And there may be a few fresh faces for both teams. The dry SCG pitch will suit spin bowlers. If Australia are to opt for spin, Josh Hazlewood looks to be the likely omission.
Sri Lanka’s record at the SCG is impressive – in their past eight matches at the ground, they have lost only twice. But then again, Sri Lanka’s recent record against Australia leaves much to be desired: their last World Cup win against Australia was in 1996.
With both teams looking to secure second position in Pool A, this game is set to be a cracker. Sri Lanka’s batsmen will make runs today – that is a given. What is unknown is whether Australia’s batsmen will turn up like they did against Afghanistan or collapse like they did against NZ.
This may be a day for the bowlers and it remains to be seen whether Sri Lanka have the depth in their bowling attack to cause the same Australian capitulation that Southee, Boult and Milne did at Eden Park.
Prediction: Australia. Just.
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