March 5, Colombo, Start time 2.30 pm (0900 GMT)
It would be great to see Australia playing against Sri Lanka in the world cup game after a long time. Last time Australia got a chance to play Sri Lanka in Sri Lanka was denied due the security concern raised by the Australian cricket side. But that was the only sorry part, in the same world cup 2007 they meet each other in the final and after a thrilling match Sri Lanka become the world cup winners.
2011 world cup is not being good for the Sri Lanka side, they beat the minors quite easily but struggled against the strong side like Pakistan, worst part was they gave wickets to the spin bowlers. So this is the match to keep the expectations high as there are many who are considering them to be the world cup winner for 2011. Sri Lankan bowling needs to be better though Malinga is the man for them other needs to bowl better two.
Australia who always played like champions in the world cup got defeated by the Indian side in warm-up matches but they won everything after that with authority and showed the world what they are. They have their bowling line up stronger than their batting which is better them many of other sides playing in the world cup 2011. Shane Watson is the man to look for due to his ability to contribute with bat and bowl and he can be dangerous in either of them.
Hope to see a excited match as there are only couple of world cup matches who made crown sit on their TV sets.
Squad for Australia vs Sri Lanka WC match:
Australia (probable) 1 Shane Watson, 2 Brad Haddin (wk), 3 Ricky Ponting (capt), 4 Michael Clarke, 5 David Hussey, 6 Cameron White, 7 Steve Smith, 8 Mitchell Johnson, 9 Jason Krezja, 10 Brett Lee, 11 Shaun Tait.
Sri Lanka (probable) 1 Tillakaratne Dilshan, 2 Upul Tharanga, 3 Kumar Sangakkara (capt & wk), 4 Mahela Jayawardene, 5 Thilan Samaraweera, 6 Angelo Mathews, 7 Chamara Silva, 8 Nuwan Kulasekara, 9 Lasith Malinga, 10 Ajantha Mendis, 11 Muttiah Muralitharan.
If you would like to see the Australia vs Sri Lanka match world cup live on your TV sets, please read more about world cup telecast on ESPN and other broadcasters. Youtube would be presenting the world cup highlights of all matches on ESPN STAR channel. ESPN STAR are also showing live streaming online world cup 2011 on their website but we are not sure if this is available for other countries except the India,Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Bangladesh.