Sri Lankans face battle for survival

In their opening match, Sri Lanka had done most things right till the last over.
The Islanders posted a good score on board and defended it well before Nathan McCullum stole the match with a six off Lasith Malinga in the final over.

That six off the second last ball has placed the Lankans in a do-or-die battle against Zimbabwe, who are coming into Monday’s match after beating formidable Australia and defending champions Pakistan in their warm-up games.

Sri Lanka boast a very formidable batting line-up with Mahela Jayawardene, who scored a 51-ball 81 against New Zealand, rock solid at the top and Dinesh Chandimal giving him good support in the last match.

On the bowling front, spinners Muttiah Muralitharan, Ajantha Mendis, Chanaka Welegedara and Jayasuriya have all done a decent job on the slow wickets here.
Medium-pacer Mathews also chipped in with a wicket but Malinga’s last match performance should be a cause of worry for the Lankans as the pacer went for 33 runs in 3.5 overs without a wicket.

Zimbabwe, on the other hand, have been quite phenomenal in their warm-ups and would come into the match high on confidence.
Despite being short of experience, Zimbabwe have beaten two formidable teams, which shows there is hardly any scope for error in this format of the game.
For the African team, Elton Chigumbura has done the bulk of the scoring, hitting a 35-ball 76 against Australia and an unbeaten 35-ball 49 against Pakistan.