World Cup '99

Defending Champions ! For about a year and a half after the '96 cup they were totally undefeatable , but then suddenly a couple of their players got injured and some got terribly out of form.This helped in throwing a spanner into the works. They lost a couple of matches , confidence dropped , their once really good fielding fell apart. They lost a good number of matches in a row and the domino effect continued.
Now , both Jayasuria and Muralitharan are back and Aravinda is looking to be in ominous form . Can they pull it off again ? Well a lot will depend on the above mentioned players. Jayasuria may not be able to power hit the way he did four years back , and will have to be more cautious in the first 15 overs.
Muralthatran and Aravinda both have wonderful county records and experience as well. Ranatunga - Captain Courageous will also be leading from the front ;his style of batting of batting could be well suited to the English clime. Jayawardene proved himself in the recent sub-continent Test & One Day series , but will he be able to adjust to the swinging ball & grassy pitches ?
In the seam bowling department , Chaminda Vaas is the mainstay , though Wikramasinghe has shone at teams he is not consistent enough. This is where the Lankans are lacking. They will rely heavily on teir spin bowlers to bowl a strict line and length to restrict the scoring as traditional spin bowling will not work . If they get into the super six , with their confidence restored , they could well lift the trophy .

 

The Team is as follows

Arjuna Ranatunga (captain)	Arvinda de Silva
Sanath Jayasuriya	Romesh Kaluwitharana
Marwan Atapattu	D.P.Mde.S Jayawardene
Chaminda Vaas	Upul Chandana
R. Mahanama	A. Upashantha
H.P. Tillakaratne	Muthhiah Muralitharan
U.C. Hathurusinghe	G.P. Wickramasinghe
R.S. Kalpage

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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