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| April 22, 2007 | Sunday | Rabi-us-Sani 04, 1428 |
Sri Lanka confident over pacers’ fitness
KINGSTON (Jamaica), April 21: Sri Lanka captain Mahela Jayawardene believes pace bowlers Lasith Malinga and Dilhara Fernando will be fit for the World Cup semi-final against New Zealand here on Tuesday.
The duo missed final Super Eights game against Ireland with ankle problems but Jayawardene insists there is nothing to be alarmed about.
“I reckon Lasith is 90 percent okay but we didn't want to risk him against Ireland,” he explained. “I'm sure Dilhara will recover in another couple of days. It is not very serious, although he has had this problem for long time.”
Malinga, who took 15 wickets in first six games, missed last three matches, but Jayawardene believes he will be firing on all cylinders on Tuesday.
“We have few more days, before our next game. He bowled 10 overs in nets in morning with no problem so we want to make sure he gradually comes back up.”
“We don't want him, after doing a lot of hard work to get back to full fitness, to take too many risks but he should be ready to go in semi-finals.”
Some critics suggested Sri Lanka could come unstuck in closing stages of competition with surface at Sabina Park and Bridgetown, which hosts final, likely to be lively.
But Jayawardene insists his team can play on different types of tracks. “We love bouncy wickets as much as any other cricketers in the world. Our batsmen love to play on tracks where ball is coming on to bat - it's very difficult to score when it's not coming on.
“I also think we have a decent bowling attack for those conditions, we just need to go to Jamaica and adjust. We've done that for whole World Cup and we're quite sure we can do same in Jamaica.”—Agencies
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