Sri Lanka and Australia are set to lock horns in the 14th match of the ongoing ICC World Cup 2023 at the Ekana Sports City, Lucknow, India on Monday.
Both sides have underperformed in their World Cup journey with the Aussies losing against two dominant teams, India and South Africa, while the Lankan side, despite losing against the Proteas and Pakistan, put up a great fight and scored 326 and 344 runs.
Australia have been struggling overall, their batters failed to score big in both games and their bowlers, as well, couldn’t provide their side the breakthrough they needed. On the other hand, Sri Lankan bowlers are, indeed, struggling to stop the leakage of runs but their batters, Kusal Mendis to be specifically mentioned, is in red-hot form, having scored 198 runs in two matches including a century.
Sri Lanka, who were already facing multiple injury issues with Wanindu Hasaranga and Dushmanta Chameera not included in the World Cup squad, were met with two more blows as their pacer Matheesha Pathirana was ruled out for their next two games due to a shoulder injury while skipper Dasun Shanaka was ruled out of the mega event with a thigh injury.
However, playing on the rough surface of Lucknow will not be a walk in the park for Sri Lankan batters as their previous matches were played on the batting-friendly wicket of Delhi and Hyderabad. On the other hand, Australia, are aware of the playing conditions as they played Temba Bavuma’s men at the same venue.
This will be completely different as the two sides would be willing to give their all to get back in the tournament because a defeat in tomorrow's match would make things very complicated for both sides to qualify for the knockout stage.
Pitch report
The pitches in Lucknow are bowling friendlies, providing strong support to bowlers and making it difficult for batters to score runs. However, at some point in the match, the pitch will be balanced. Before the last World Cup game there when South Africa posted 311 runs, four ODIs were played and the highest total was 253. The captain winning the toss would want to bat first as pacers get extra seam and movement under floodlights.
Head-to-Head record
The two sides have faced each other 11 times in ODI World Cup history. Australia lead Sri Lanka 8-2 in the event, with one match ending in no result due to rain.
Their match in 1996 was awarded to Sri Lanka because the Aussies refused to travel to Colombo following security concerns.
Probable Playing XIs
Australia: David Warner, Mitchell Marsh, Steven Smith, Marnus Labuschagne, Josh Inglis (wk), Glenn Maxwell, Marcus Stoinis, Mitchell Starc, Pat Cummins (c), Adam Zampa, Josh Hazlewood
Sri Lanka: Pathum Nissanka, Kusal Perera, Kusal Mendis (c,wk), Sadeera Samarawickrama, Charith Asalanka, Dhananjaya de Silva, Dunith Wellalage, Chamika Karunaratne, Maheesh Theekshana, Kasun Rajitha, Dilshan Madushanka
