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Sri Lanka - Road to the semis

Making a strong statement to the rest of the teams in the ICC CWC 2011, Sri Lanka would be itching to play against New Zealand in semis.

It was a sensational triumph for Sri Lanka to thrash England by ten wickets in the last quarter-final at R Premadasa Stadium,
Colombo on Saturday.
  Set a target of 230 to win, Upul Tharanga and Tillakaratne Dilshan accomplished the task without any fuss, ensuring England's crashing out of the competition with their first ten-wicket defeat in the ICC Cricket World Cup.

It was a great partnership which helped Sri Lankans to a convincing win.  Tharanga-Dilshan pair, with their unbroken 231-run stand, have created cricket history at the World Cup. 

In ten editions of the World Cup, only twice both the opening batsmen have dominated the proceedings by recording hundreds in the same innings and this feat has been accommplished twice by only one pair - Tharanga and Dilshan - once each against Zimbabwe at Pallekele on March 10 and England at Colombo RPS on March 26.  With their double century stands - 282 against Zimbabwe and 231 (unbroken) against England, the pair has become the first to record the feat for the first wicket at the World Cup.  No other pair has registered two double century stands in the same ICC CWC competition.

Excluding the no-result game against Australia at Colombo RPS on March 5, Sri Lanka have won five of the six games played - all by huge margins - by 210 runs against Canada at Hambantota on February 20, by 9 wickets against Kenya at Colombo RPS on March 1, by 139 runs against Zimbabwe at Pallekele on March 10, by 112 runs against New Zealand at Mumbai and finally by ten wickets against England at Colombo RPS on March 26.  The only defeat suffered by them was against Pakistan, the margin of win being just eleven runs.

The ten-wicket triumph over England has put Sri Lanka and New Zealand into the first ICC Cricket World Cup semi-final, to be played at Colombo, RPS on March 29.

The Sri Lankan dominance before the semi-final can be ascertained by the batting form of their three main players - Tillakaratne Dilshan - 394 (ave.65.66), including two hundreds and one fifty, Kumar Sangakkara - 363 (ave.121.00), including one hundred and two fifties and Upul Tharanga - 363 (ave.72.60), including two hundreds and one fifty.

In the bowling department, Muttiah Muralitharan has topped with 13 wickets at 16.15 runs apiece followed by Lasith Malinga with eight wickets at 21.62 runs apiece while Dilshan, Matthews and Perera has taken six wickets each.

At the moment, Sri Lanka are full of confidence and self-belief but still have room for improvement in the fielding department.  An exciting semi-final is in the offing.

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