The Hindu : Sport / Cricket : Sri Lanka looks to maintain winning form

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Oct 06, 2004

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Sport - Cricket

Sri Lanka looks to maintain winning form

KARACHI, OCT. 5. Sri Lanka will try to continue its winning form at this year's Asia Cup when it meets Pakistan on Wednesday, their first one-day International of the triangular series, captain Marvan Atapattu said.

``We want to build on the Asia Cup win, but we also know that it's a new ball game and Asia Cup is history now,'' Atapattu told reporters on Tuesday in Karachi, where Sir Lanka will meet Pakistan at the National Stadium.

He forecast a speed assault on the Pakistanis, whose top order batting line-up was exposed as brittle by a young and inexperienced Zimbabwe last week.

``We have a four-pronged pace attack with the return of Dilhara Fernando, so we have quite a few options available,'' Atapattu said.

``We would definitely try to expose any weaknesses in Pakistan batting,'' he added.

Sri Lanka is in good form without Muralitharan, and whitewashed South Africa 5-0 in their limited overs series in July.

The teams (from): Sri Lanka: Marvan Atapattu (Capt.), Mahela Jayawardene, Sanath Jayasuriya, Kumara Sangakkara, Tillekeratne Dilshan, Saman Jayantha, Avishka Gunawardene, Chaminda Vaas, Upul Chandana, Parvez Maharoof, Nuwan Zoysa, Dilhara Fernando, Kaushal Lokuarachchi, Thilina Kandamby and Rangana Herath.

Pakistan: Inzamam-ul-Haq (captain), Moin Khan, Yousuf Youhana, Shoaib Malik, Abdul Razzaq, Younis Khan, Shahid Afridi, Mohammad Sami, Yasir Hameed, Shoaib Akhtar, Rana Naved-ul-Hasan, Misbah-ul-Haq, Salman Butt, Rao Iftikhar, Bazid Khan.

Umpires: Mark Benson (England), Asad Rauf (Pakistan); TV umpire: Nadeem Ghauri.

Match referee: Jeff Crowe (New Zealand). — AP

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