NAIROBI, Feb 21: Sri Lanka captain Sanath Jayasuriya has underlined the fact that his in-form team will not be taking their next World Cup Group ‘B’ opponents Kenya lightly.

“We can’t afford any complacency, more so given that Kenya will be playing at home and under their own conditions,” Jayasuriya said on Friday during a net session at Simba Union Sports Club.

“We take Kenya very seriously. Although we beat them in our last encounter (at the 1999 World Cup), we still can’t under-rate them. They have the potential of upsetting any big side, as they did in 1996 (against West Indies),” said Jayasuriya whose side top the group standings after winning their first three matches of the tournament.

“We are so far very pleased by our performance. The victory over New Zealand was particularly impressive and important. But we still need to do something about our middle-order batting,” Jayasuriya said.

“We need to beat Kenya because we have two more important matches against West Indies and South Africa.”

He said conditions in Kenya were good and that the wickets were “looking fine.”

“There is nothing to worry about and I think the arrangements and organisation are good,” said Jayasuriya.

The Kenyan team spent the morning a stone’s throw away from Simba Union at the Nairobi Gymkhana, where they should have been playing New Zealand on Friday.

The New Zealanders forfeited the match because of security concerns.

Kenya captain Steve Tikolo welcomed the four points from the New Zealand game, but said his team still needed to win two more matches to advance to the Super Six.

“In a one-day cricket, anything can happen and we are hoping for the best,” Tikolo said. “Beating Sri Lanka will be good for us because we shall be left with Bangladesh (March 1) and West Indies (March 4). This is why we have to win on Monday.”

Tikolo recalled that when the teams last met at the 1999 World Cup in England, Kenya’s Maurice Odumbe and Alpesh Vadher shared a world record one-day sixth-wicket partnership of 161. Both players are still in the Kenyan squad.—Reuters