Squads
Sri Lanka (probables)
KusalPerera, Tillakaratne Dilshan, Kumar Sangakkara (wk), MahelaJayawardene, Angelo Mathews (capt), Dinesh Chandimal, LahiruThirimanne, NuwanKulasekara,LasithMalinga, RanganaHerath, ShamindaEranga.
India (probables)
ShikharDhawan, Rohit Sharma, ViratKohli, Dinesh Karthik, MS Dhoni (capt&wk), Suresh Raina, RavindraJadeja, R Ashwin, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Ishant Sharma, UmeshYadav.
Umpires: Aleem Dar and Richard Kettleborough.
Third umpire: Nigel Llong.
Fourth Umpire:Ian Gould.
Match Referee: Chris Broad.
India (Group B winners) will meet Sri Lanka (Group A runners-up) in the 2ndsemi-final of the ICC Champions Trophy 2013 at Cardiff on June 20. Sri Lanka has experienced a few malfunctions in progressing to the knockout stagewhile India is still unbeaten in the tournament. These 2 teams are reasonably well matched when it comes to performance but anything can happen on the day with India’s confidence touching the skies and for Sri Lanka all their players are back in-form including Jayawardene, Sangakkaraand Dilshan.
Match starts at 3 PM IST.
Statistics
- In the last five years, India and Sri Lanka have played 54 matches against each other across formats, the most by any two teams in a five-year span
- Among active players, no batsman has more runs against one team than Kumar Sangakkara has against India – 2435.
- Of Rohit Sharma’s eight ducks, five have come against Sri Lanka.
- Last time these 2 teams met in such an important match was in the final of ICC 2011 World Cup where India beat Sri Lanka.
- India and Sri Lanka have also been the joint winners of the Champions Trophy in 2002.
Last time these 2 teams met was in the warm up match at the same venue where India beat Sri Lanka chasing a huge total of 331.
Team Player to Watch Last 5 Matches
India ViratKohli W L W WW
Sri Lanka LasithMalinga W L L W W
Pitch and conditions
Pitches in Cardiff have been of contrasting nature. More than 600 runs were scored in the opening match, and the next was a low-scoring thriller between Sri Lanka and New Zealand in which 19 wickets went down for 277 runs. The semi-final will be played on a fresh surface that hasn’t yet been used in the tournament.More than the pitch, though, the weather will be key – light to heavy rain is expected through the day, which will lead to a curtailed match or, at worst, a washout.
Who’s saying What
“There’s no room for revenge in sport, but yes, if we can beat the Indians, I think it’ll be a great achievement for the whole team because, you know, there are thoughts about the World Cup final, and the recent history against them is not very good for Sri Lanka.”
Angelo Mathews.
(Sri Lanka Captain).
“We are used to LasithMalinga. We play him so many times in IPL. He reverses the ball and remains dangerous.”
MS Dhoni.
(India Captain).
Overview
Rain: the prime factor in todays match to see who is going through to the finals. Sri Lanka, whose cricket season at home is regularly blighted by rain, are the only team to have been fortunate to get three full group matches, but that run looks set to come to an end with plenty of showers expected in Cardiff.What’s worse for Sri Lanka is that, in case of a washout, India will go through on account of being winners of Group B. The Champions Trophy is marketed as a “short, sharp” tournament, but not having a reserve day for the knockout matches is stretching that concept a bit too far.
India and Sri Lanka have played some nice cricket to reach to the knock-outs. India with a strong batting line-up with the likes of Dhawan,Kohli, Karthik andDhoni looks to take on any bowling attack whosoever comes in their way while Sri Lanka are lucky to have their senior players back in-form with Jayawardene, Sangakkara and Dilshan making some contribution in team’s success from the last few matches. India bowling is more likely to Pakistan i.e. can’t be predicted on the day but still having bowlers like Kumar, Sharma, Jadeja and Yadav, India can do any harm to the opposition at any occasion. Sri Lanka have a dangerous bowling attack with the likes of Malinga, Kulasekara, Herath and Eranaga who had performed so well till date in the tournament. India’s bowling has yet to be strenuously tested in this tournament, and with a callow pace attack that is yet to prove itself under serious pressure while Sri Lankan bowling attack has taken some beating to England and can fail against a strong batting line-up. Fielding will be one of the things to see, India though have an upper hand but Sri Lanka is also not that bad. India has Kohli, Raina, Sharma, Jadeja while Sri Lanka has Mathews, Jayawardene, Dilshan. India is on an unbeaten streak in this tournament and we will hope that the streak continues as long as the tournament finishes Looking at all this both the teams look quite balance so just get ready for a blast as India takes on Sri Lanka in the 2nd semi-final of the Champions Trophy. May the better team on the day win!!!!!!!!!!!!!
My predictions for today’s match goes with India seeing their nail-biting performance and an unbeaten streaktill date in the tournament.