Match Thread, 1st Semi-Final : England vs Srilanka, ST Lucia

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Match Facts
Thursday, May 13, St Lucia
Start time 1130 local (1530 GMT)

England squad
PD Collingwood*, JM Anderson, RS Bopara, TT Bresnan, SCJ Broad, C Kieswetter†, MJ Lumb, EJG Morgan, KP Pietersen, A Shahzad, RJ Sidebottom, GP Swann, JC Tredwell, LJ Wright, MH Yardy

Sri Lanka squad
KC Sangakkara*†, LD Chandimal, TM Dilshan, CU Jayasinghe, ST Jayasuriya, DPMD Jayawardene, S Randiv, CK Kapugedera, KMDN Kulasekara, SL Malinga, AD Mathews, BAW Mendis, NLTC Perera, T Thushara, UWMBCA Welegedara

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Cricinfo Preview: England eye rare final

The Big Picture

While England have not made the final of a ICC global tournament since 2004 Sri Lanka have been beaten finalists in both last year's World Twenty20 and the 2007 World Cup.

Yet ahead of the match it's England who are the more bullish having topped their Super Eights group with three comfortable wins. They are on the verge of fulfilling their transformation that began after losing 5-1 to Australia last summer. Gone is the stuttering top order hoping to 'keep wickets in hand' and in its place is a fearless line-up led by two dashing hitters at the top and followed by the classiest middle-order pair of the tournament, Kevin Pietersen and Eoin Morgan.

Sri Lanka, on the other hand, looked unsteady to begin with but have found increasingly assurance as the tournament went on. Mahela Jayewardene's graceful striking has completely carried Sri Lanka's batting - his 292 runs are more than anyone else in the tournament and over double the next highest Sri Lankan tally of 123 from Kumar Sangakkara - but they showed they could perform without him when they beat India. Nevertheless how England's nagging fast-medium attack fare against Jayewardene could well determine the outcome of the game.


Form guide (most recent first)
Sri Lanka WLWWL
England WWWNL

Watch out for...

Craig Kieswetter has fizzed without quite exploding yet in this tournament. But on the slow pitch his Michael Clarke-like twinkle-toed approach could see England off to a lightning start.

Suraj Randiv has stepped into the place vacated by Murali's injury and, with Ajantha Mendis' mysteries all but revealed, he has become Sri Lanka's leading spin weapon. They may be tempted to open the bowling with him after seeing Michael Lumb's dismissal to Johan Botha when South Africa adopted the same tactic.

Team news

Kevin Pietersen returns just in time after seeing the birth of his first child and will replace Ravi Bopara. Throughout the tournament Ryan Sidebottom has looked set to miss out for England's supposed attack-leader, James Anderson, but the selectors have refused to change.

England (probable) 1 Michael Lumb, 2 Craig Kieswetter, 3 Kevin Pietersen, 4 Paul Collingwood, 5 Eoin Morgan, 6 Luke Wright, 7 Tim Bresnan, 8 Graeme Swann, 9 Michael Yardy, 10 Stuart Broad, 11 Ryan Sidebottom.

Sri Lanka have been far less settled through the tournament so far. Mendis missed out against India but could return for an England side less used to him.

Sri Lanka (probable) 1 Tillakaratne Dilshan, 2 Mahela Jayawardene, 3 Kumar Sangakkara (capt, wk), 4 Dinesh Chandimal, 5 Angelo Mathews, 6 Sanath Jayasuriya, 7 Chamara Kapugedera, 8 Suraj Randiv, 9 Ajantha Mendis, 10 Lasith Malinga, 11 Chanaka Welegedera.

Pitch and conditions

England may have adapted well to the conditions against New Zealand in their last game, but the slow and low surface in St Lucia will suit Sri Lanka. Their batsmen proved a touch shy of the pace and bounce in Barbados but will be much more comfortable here.


Stats and trivia

Sri Lanka won the only T20 encounter these two sides have played before. Way back in 2006 at Southampton, in a game where Tim Bresnan, England's best bowler this tournament, made his T20 debut.

Quotes

"Life is not exactly a hardship at the minute, you know?"
Tim Bresnan keeps things in perspective.

"We would love him to play. He's a top quality spinner, and England have probably played him once."
Kumar Sangakkara would love to play his mystery spinner, but won't quite confirm he will.

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Collingwood confident of resurgent England

There will be no rousing speech or chest-thumping patriotism from Paul Collingwood when England take the field for their semi-final against Sri Lanka because he doesn't think his team needs it. The prospect of securing a place in their first major final since 2004 is motivation enough.

"The guys are ready; they are excited," he said. "If there was a feeling around the camp that the guys are nervous or anything like that then maybe something would have to be said. But the guys are so focused in the jobs they've got to do, roles they've got to play. We'll have a team meeting tonight, but let me tell you I'm not going to come out with any rip-roaring speech."

England have been the surprise package at this tournament (Australia were always going to get the hang of Twenty20 eventually) and there has been a supreme confidence about their play since a nerve-wracking evening in Guyana when they feared a short run chase would give Ireland a chance of piping them. That would have been a cruel exit and since then they have shown how far they have developed as a Twenty20 unit.

From the power-packed top order led by the selfless styles of Michael Lumb and Craig Kieswetter to the in-form middle order of Kevin Pietersen (who is due back in the Carribbean on Wednesday afternoon after being at the birth of his first child) and Eoin Morgan right down to the allrounders in Luke Wright and Tim Bresnan who have contributed important innings England have their batting bases covered. With the ball the seamers have held their own while the spin duo of Graeme Swann and Michael Yardy have excelled. In the field they have been as sharp as anyone, barring perhaps the Australians.

They have also shown an adaptability and quickness-of-thinking that hasn't always been an attribute of England's one-day cricket. When the batting suffered mini wobbles against West Indies and New Zealand there was calm consolidation before the accelerator was pushed again - on both occasions by Morgan. With the ball there has been no one-dimensional game plan and the only aspect we have yet to see is how flexible the batting line-up can be and how the bowlers react of a sustained onslaught.

"This is certainly the most powerful England side that I've played in, definitely," Collingwood said. "When you look at all the guys going down to probably number ten, everyone can hit sixes, so also what the guys are doing with the ball, a lot of credit has to go to them as well because they are thinking for themselves a lot.

"Whereas maybe in the past they were always kind of guided by the captains or whatever but they really are going out there and thinking for themselves and thinking what the oppositions strengths and weaknesses are and adjusting the fields accordingly, that's been one of the crucial things in our development."

Collingwood has admitted he feared for England's future in the tournament as Duckworth-Lewis played a major part in Guyana and all he wanted was a chance for his team to show their full potential.

"It hasn't surprised me at all, but we've got to take all that talent we've got on the team sheet out into the middle," he said. "Thankfully, we've done that [so far]. There were times against Ireland, where we were close to going out of the tournament.

"You were thinking 'all this potential we've got, and we were nearly going out'. We had that little bit of an early scare, which wasn't probably a bad thing - because it kickstarted us into something special."

This is England's second semi-final in a row after they reached the same stage at the Champions Trophy in September. On that occasion they were hammered by nine wickets against Australia, but there is now a far more confident air about the side.

"I think the belief is the key thing," Collingwood said. "We have done a few different things in training, there have been a couple of different selections that have proved crucial as well and overall that has given the side a lot of belief in areas that we were probably a little bit weaker. Once you see these guys on the team sheet its kind of, oh, we can take the opposition on now."

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Sri Lanka hope for spin threat

Sri Lanka left it late to secure a place in the World Twenty20 semi-finals but now they are in the knockout stage their varied bowling attack could hold the key to success. Although without the services of Muttiah Muralitharan they can still throw the ball to Lasith Malinga and Ajantha Mendis, who was left out of the final Super Eight match, and youngster Suraj Randiv.

Mendis has a strong chance of returning to face England who have seen little of his variations. The one occasion he has played against them was in the Champions Trophy last year when England thwarted him effectively at the Wanderers during a successful run chase as he went wicketless in nine overs. However, facing Mendis on a spring day in Johannesburg is a very different proposition to facing him on a low, slow surface that has aided spin in St Lucia.

Kumar Sangakkara was keeping his cards close to his chest, but it will be hugely tempting to use Mendis against a team that, even taking into account their impressive form, have a poor history against mystery spin.

"We'll have to have a think about that, how that works with our combinations and batting. We would love him to play," Sangakkara said. "I think he's a top quality spinner and England's probably played him once. It's a realistic possibility but we've got other spinners, even part-timers who are pretty good."

But he isn't the only threat. Malinga, like a few of the big-name Sri Lankan players, hasn't quite been at his best in this tournament but with the sudden death stages now here he can be the ultimate matchwinner. He was impressive against India where his 2 for 25 played a key role in restricted a late-order charge and Paul Collingwood is certainly on his guard despite the strong form of England's top order.

"A few of us have played against them. But it is obviously a little slight concern," he said. "Quite a lot of the guys haven't played against the angle of Malinga, his skiddiness, his change-ups - and not many of us have played much against Mendis.

"When guys are bowling 24 balls at you, you can't give yourself six or seven to get yourself in against them. That's one of the things we need to make sure we overcome; we need to watch as much footage as possible and talk about it between ourselves. That's another great thing, that we are communicating really well. Players who have played against them are passing tips on to the other guys, and I think that's helping a lot."

England haven't seen anything of 25-year-old Randiv but despite playing just three Twenty20 internationals he is highly regarded by the Sri Lanka hierarchy. He started life as a pace bowler before finding offspin was his vocation and despite not possessing the variety of Muralitharan and Mendis he can still be a handful as he showed against Australia.

"The one thing Sri Lanka have got is that they are quite unorthodox in terms of a lot of the bowlers. That is something the batters will have to come up against," Collingwood said. "But we have a lot of strength in our side now so as much as we will prepare for Sri Lanka and the kind of unorthodox styles that they do have we also have to remember our strengths as well and I think there are plenty of them in our side as well."

Sangakkara, while acknowledging how well England have played over the last week, remained confident that conditions would suit his attack. "We would like to think so, we've got a lot of variation in our bowling attack. We will try to exploit that in these conditions but we've got to think of all the angles.

"We are trying to concentrate a lot on what we do best and how we can get England reacting to us with our bowling, our field-placings and our batting," he added. "It's going to be about how we exploit the conditions to our strengths."

Semi-finals of major tournaments can be won with a little bit of magic and Sri Lanka have players who can produce such moments.

[Tigers_eye]

Lets go SL. Send England home. BD is waiting!!

[Nadim]

Don't support anyone. just want my players (fantasy) to do well, specially my TP.

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Originally Posted by nadim 98
Don't support anyone. just want my players (fantasy) to do well, specially my TP.

its really a strange feeling to watch a game when u have teams to support and also players to support who are in ur fantasy team.

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Originally Posted by nadim 98
Don't support anyone. just want my players (fantasy) to do well, specially my TP.

the top 6 players have 5 different TP today

[Nadim]

Originally Posted by offstump
the top 6 players have 5 different TP today

yh.only me and TE vai have Mahela. TE vai copied me.lol

[Tigers_eye]

Originally Posted by nadim 98
yh.only me and TE vai have Mahela. TE vai copied me.lol

If I can get an access to Fantasy I will change it now. For some reason I can't get in.

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Originally Posted by Tigers_eye
If I can get an access to Fantasy I will change it now. For some reason I can't get in.

i too cant get access. taking a lot of time.

looks like the whole world is making their last minute adjustments

[Nadim]

Originally Posted by Tigers_eye
If I can get an access to Fantasy I will change it now. For some reason I can't get in.

ru taking it seriously? i was joking

[Nadim]

SL won the toss and batting first.

Mendis is back in place of Tushara

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Sri Lanka have won the toss and will bat first.

[Nadim]

England have one change.......KP is back in place of Bopara.

[Nadim]

Ground is big.....83m stright...

[Naimul_Hd]

pommie pommie pommie.....hoi hoi hoi !!!! really want pommies in the final against aussies

[Nadim]

444444444 in the first ball.good start mahela!

[Nadim]

Jaysura gone.Sidebottom strikes.


Jaysuria should retire now......bura hoye geche to...

[Nocturnal]

MP saheb gone!

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Originally Posted by Nocturnal
MP saheb gone!

time for him to concentrate on politics

[Ajfar]

the old fella gone for one. lol. poor jaya he needs to retire

[Nadim]

by Dilshan in the first ball he faced.

[Tigers_eye]

Dillu aj kay flop marish na!!!

[Ajfar]

I thought the semifinal was yesterday. I freaking set up my alarm and everything. I woke up at 8 in the morning changed my team. and found out game is not till the next day. I was so mad.