India vs Sri Lanka, first encounter between them in 1979, and that was considered an upset, as India was beaten by a non-test playing team, after that, both opponents came across with each other and there was no result due to rain.
The next encounter in the 1996 world cup and India still had to wait to get the first victory, and finally India got it in 1999, where Sourav Ganguly hit 183 runs and India has a big victory with 157 runs, although Sri Lanka has upper hand and beat India 4 times and got defeated thrice by India, the record is 3-4-0-1.
Headingley cricket ground at Leeds is the venue for tomorrow’s match, most of the matches were high scoring, but the pitch was very slow when England encountered with Sri Lanka just two weeks ahead, rest the history shows, high scoring match with easily chased down if the target is below 300, but target can be defendable if the score goes over 300 and the chasing team may feel difficulty to chase it down.
Tomorrow’s match has no such importance for Sri Lanka, as Sri Lanka is already eliminated, in one way it is also not important for India, as India is already through for semi-final, but on the other hand, India can make the match such important for them, as it will decide whether India will stay in the second position and will get the semi-final against England at the Edgbaston or India might get chance to come up at the top spot and will play against New Zealand at Old Trafford, moreover India can try the other players to find the proper selection for semi-final and may be in final.
India can give one more chance to Kuldeep Yadav and may help him to get his confidence back, as he is actually a wicket taker bowler, and may ask Y. Chahal to have rest. In the batting order, India can ask MS Dhoni to have rest and come up with K.Jadhav as well R. Jadeja in place of H. Pandya, as the pitch supported to spinners.
Sri Lanka tried hard to get the spot in the semi-final, but they couldn’t. Sri Lanka beat England on their home ground, but on the other hand got defeated by South Africa, as the team also couldn’t perform as per their standard, so overall, the team is totally unpredictable.
India 11: KL Rahul, RG Sharma, V. Kohli, R. Pant, D. Karthik, K. Jadhav, R. Jadeja, B. Kumar, K. Yadav, M. Shami, J Bumrah / Y. Chahal.
Sri Lanka 11: D. Kurunaratne, K. Perera, A. Fernando, K. Mendis, A. Mathews, L. Thirimanne, D. de Silva, T. Perera, I. Udana, S. Lakmal, L. Malinga.
