Sri Lanka Under 19 coach Roger Wijesuriya has pledged to stick to the teams’ strengths when they take on tournament favourites India in the 1st ICC U19 World Cup semi-final to be held in Dhaka tomorrow.
The team started off the tournament with a thumping win over Canada but then faced a scare from the much improved Afghan outfit. In Sri Lanka’s last match of the group stages, against Pakistan, poor batting meant that they failed to chase down what looked like a relatively easy target.
Sri Lanka have relied heavily on spin and the batting of Captain Charith Asalanka and Vice-captain Sammu Ashan throughout the tournament but will take a lot of confidence from the win against England on Sunday in which opener Avishka Fernando made a scintillating run a ball 95. That and the fact that pacie Asitha Fernando has been getting them the early breakthroughs will give them confidence as they face a team that has gotten the better of them in the recent past.
“India is a strong side, a good all-round side. “We know their strengths. I know Indians play spin well but spin bowling is our strength and we will stick to that. We will take on the Indians with a lot of confidence. We have nothing to fear. It should be a very good game.” – Roger Wijesuriya (Sri Lanka Coach)
India on the other hand, come into the crunch match after facing little resistance over the tournament so far. They breezed through Group D with 3 comfortable wins against New Zealand, Nepal and Ireland, before crushing Namibia by 197 runs in the quarter-final. A team that already features some well-known characters like Captain Sarfaraz Khan and Rishabh Pant have been tipped as favourites to lift the trophy this year.
The in-form India side will have the mental edge having won a tri-series in Sri Lanka last December, which also featured England.
“It should be a good contest. We have been playing very good cricket of late and the lead-up to the tournament was good. We need to play well, irrespective of whether we bat or bowl first. If we play good cricket and bring our A game to the party, we will give ourselves a good chance to win.” – Rahul Dravid (India Coach)
India will feature in its seventh semi-final, having won the tournament thrice. Sri Lanka, looking for their maiden title, will be appearing in its third semi-final.
