World Cup 2015 Match 18 Group A Preview: Sri Lanka v Bangladesh

World Cup 2015 Match 18 Group A Preview: Sri Lanka v Bangladesh:

Date : 26 Feb 2015         Time: 0900 IST
Venue : Melbourne

The Asian derby in Group A will hope to be as good a match to watch out for as both Sri Lanka and Bangladesh need to prove that they are in-form. Bangladesh will be looking to seize the moment and would try to win the game taking into consideration Sri Lanka’s tryst with defeat against Afghanistan.

Sri Lanka:
Sri Lanka survived a close call against Afghanistan thanks to Mahela Jayawardene and Thisara Perera. Jayawardene’s 100 proved to be the deciding factor in Sri Lanka’s win. Though it was a close match, Lankans should not think much into it and look forward to shake it off and get a big win against Bangladesh.
The only concern for them is the support fast bowling to Lasith Malinga and the support in spin department to Rangana Herath. With Jeevan Mendis going back to Sri Lanka, his replacement Upul Tharanga won’t be in time for this match, but they can try Thirimanne as an opener.

Bangladesh:
Bangladesh will be looking forward to beat Sri Lanka when they are a bit frustrated at their result from last game. Bangladesh has the fire power to defeat Sri Lanka. Their last game was rained out and they got 1 point from it. Bangladesh would like Tamim Iqbal to score runs for Bangladesh to have a good start and then Shakib Al Hasan and Mushfiqur Rahim can bat throughout the innings with others batting around them.

While Bangladeshi bowling came good against Afghanistan, Sri Lankans are wounded tigers right now and they have the batting stars that can dismantle any bowling unit and Bangladesh has just 2 bowlers with experience in Mortaza and Shakib. But Taskin Ahmed and Rubel Hossain have the pace to trouble the batsmen up front, for Shakib and Mahmudullah to spin a web around them later.

Last 5 ODIs:
BAN: NR W W W W
SL: W L W L L

Possible playing XI:
Bangladesh: Masrafe Bin Mortaza (c), Shakib Al Hasan, Tamim Iqbal, Anamul Haque Bijoy, Mominul Hoque, Mushfiqur Rahim, Mahmudullah, Nasir Hossain, Rubel Hossain, Taskin Ahmed, Rubel Hossain,Arafat Sunny.

Sri Lanka: Angelo Mathews (capt), Tillakaratne Dilshan, Kumar Sangakkara (wk), Mahela Jayawardene, Lahiru Thirimanne, Dinesh Chandimal,Thisara Perera, Suranga Lakmal, Lasith Malinga, Nuwan Kulasekara, Rangana Herath.