SA v SL World T20 Preview: South Africa and Sri Lanka will play to salvage some pride

With England winning against Sri Lanka in their group match, they not only qualified for the semi-final along with the West Indies, but they also broke millions of hearts. With their win, the defending champions Sri Lanka were knocked out of the competition, along with South Africa, who ended up being eliminated from yet another World Cup.

Now the two eliminated sides will play each other in the last of the group matches and both Sri Lanka and South Africa will be looking to salvage some pride for themselves. Sri Lanka was unlucky with the knee injury that happened to Lasith Malinga in the Asia Cup prior to the World T20. Both Faf du Plessis and Angelo Mathews will be looking to end their campaign on a high.

Team News & Analysis

Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka came into the tournament as the defending champions. But even before their campaign began, they got a big jolt as Lasith Malinga was ruled out from the tournament. Angelo Mathews took over and tried to defend the title without their best bowler.

They won against Afghanistan but suffered crushing and demoralizing losses to West Indies and England. Now out of the tournament and with no pressure, Sri Lanka will want to end on a winning note. They have found a brilliant leg spinner in Vandersay and would like for him to play a big role against Proteas at Delhi.

Mathews suffered a hamstring injury against England where he and Thisara Perera almost pulled off an impossible win. Sri Lanka would like to give him rest in this dead match. Most likely Shehan Jayasuriya will replace Mathews and Chandimal will lead Sri Lanka.

South Africa

For South Africa, the tournament has been a series of bad lucks. They posted a huge total of 229 in their first match, but England played out of their skins on the back of Joe Roots brilliant 83 in order to chase that total down. They won against Afghanistan, but West Indies spun them out on Nagpur pitch and with England beating Sri Lanka, they are out of the tournament.

Proteas bowlers could not back up their batsmen in one match while they were again spun out on a turning pitch at Nagpur. Now it’s just playing for pride for them in what has been a disappointing tournament for them. The biggest blow for them was losing JP Duminy to a hamstring injury, which put them off balance and they had to sacrifice either a bowler or a batsman to make up for his absence.

They would also like to use their reserves in this match and give their spinners a chance to shine at Delhi.

Probable XI-

Sri Lanka:

Shehan Jayasuriya, Tillakaratne Dilshan, Dinesh Chandimal (C), Milinda Siriwardana, Lahiru Thirimanne, Chamara Kapugedera, Thisara Perera, Dasun Shanaka, Suranga Lakmal, Jeffrey Vandersay, Rangana Herath

South Africa:

Hashim Amla, Quinton de Kock, Faf du Plessis (c), AB de Villiers, David Miller, Farhaan Behardien, David Wiese, Aaron Phangiso, Imran Tahir, Kagiso Rabada, Dale Steyn