New Zealand will be playing their sixth World Cup semis, but can they spoil an All-Asian final in Mumbai?
It is hard to imagine Muttiah Muralitharan won’t be playing his last international game in front of his home crowd on Tuesday. There is nothing like retiring amidst your own passionate fans. But if Kumar Sangakkara is to be believed, Murali is fighting two injuries and may have to be benched.
Murali spent most of Monday morning with the physio. He pulled his quadriceps during Saturday’s quarterfinal clash against England. The 39-year-old had earlier hurt his knee in Mumbai. On big occasions, sportspersons are known to conquer the pain barrier and it is hard to envisage Murali won’t be playing a World Cup semifinal and against an opponent, who could help him add to his mammoth haul of 532 ODI wickets!
“Everyone around him is trying to get him as fit as possible and fit enough to play,” said Sangakkara. “It's no use thinking about the final and saving him for other games, this is the crunch game and if he can play, that'll be great for us, but if that doesn't work out, we've got enough cover to make sure that we are still a solid winning side,” the skipper added.
Sangakkara’s reaction reflects the strength of the Lankan bench because the 1996 world champions and 2007 finalists have been able to consistently produce quality back-up over the years. It is unlikely Sri Lanka will opt for three specialist spinners as they did against England. Medium-pacer Nuwan Kulasekara is set to win his place back and either Ajantha Mendis or the non-performing Chamara Silva could make way for the talented all-rounder, Thisara Perera. The options, however, are many.
Even after upsetting South Africa in the quarterfinals, New Zealand just can’t make us believe that they have the capability to push the marauding Lankans. Most pundits are of the opinion that the Kiwis didn’t beat the South Africans at Mirpur, the Proteas lost it.
This will be New Zealand’s sixth World Cup semifinal and history doesn’t seem to favour the only non-Asian team in the last-four of this championship. In the 2007 World Cup in the West Indies, they lost to Sri Lanka by 81 runs. On a blustery day in Jamaica, Mahela Jayawardene smashed his first World Cup ton (115) and Murali trapped the Kiwis in a web of spin, taking four for 31.
New Zealand have a horrible record in the sub-continent. In recent times, they lost four-nil to Bangladesh and were drubbed five-nothing against India. Unless New Zealand lift their game by several notches, a mismatch could well be on the cards.
Consistency is something Vettori is yearning for. “When we've won well, we've followed it up with a poor performance,” he said referring to the group stage. “We've got to make sure we have another big performance in the bag because Sri Lanka will be very strong in home conditions,” said the Kiwi skipper, who is stepping down as captain after the World Cup.
Sri Lanka have basked in tremendous home support. A match at Premadasa is nothing short of a carnival. To spoil their party, Vettori is looking for a couple of winners who will make themselves count on Tuesday. He said New Zealand were fortunate to have “one or two batsmen and a bowler or two who could stand up in the knockouts.”
“It was Jesse Ryder and Jacob Oram who did it against South Africa. That made the difference and it may have to be someone else who does it now,” Vettori added. All eyes, of course, will be on Ross Taylor and Brendan McCullum.
Only, if wishes were horses, the Kiwis would fly!
Statistics
ODIs
New Zealand have won 35 and lost 33 out of 73 played against Sri Lanka (NR 4 and Tied 1).
New Zealand's success % is 51.44 and Sri Lanka's 48.55
World Cup
New Zealand have won three and lost five out of eight played. New Zealand's winning % is 37.50 and Sri Lanka's 62.50.
Overall World Cup record
New Zealand's tally of 40 wins is the second highest at the World Cup, next only to Australia's 55. With 28 defeats and one no-result game, New Zealand's success % is 58.82 in 69 matches.
Sri Lanka have won 30 and lost 31 out of 64 contested (NR 2 and Tied 1), the success % being 49.19.
Approaching milestones
- Having lost the previous five semi-finals, New Zealand, in case of a win, would be making their first entry into the finals.
- New Zealand (69) would become the second team after Australia (76) to appear in 70 World Cup games.
- Kumar Sangakkara (889) requires 111 runs to become the third batsman to aggregate 1,000 runs for Sri Lanka at the World Cup. Sanath Jayasuriya (1165) and Aravinda de Silva (1064) are the only two Sri Lankas with 1,000 runs or more at the World Cup.
- Tillakaratne Dilshan (394) Kumar Sangakkara (363) and Upul Tharanga (363) are on the verge of completing 400 runs in the present competition.
- Mahela Jayawardene (548 in 2006-07), Sanath Jayasuriya (467 in 2006-07) and Aravinda de Silva (448 in 1995-96) are the only three Sri Lankans with 400 runs or more in a World Cup competition.
- Muralitharan, with just one five-wicket haul, will equal Glenn McGrath's all-time record of 71 wickets at 18.19 runs apiece in 39 matches. Muralitharan's present tally is 66 wickets at an average of 19.00 in 38 matches.
- Tharanga (3866) requires 134 runs to complete 4,000 runs in ODIs.
- Sangakkara (74) requires just one stumping to equal a record in ODIs. Just for the record, Romesh Kaluwitharana is the only one with 75 stumpings in ODIs.
- Scott Styris (two), in case of a hundred, would be the first New Zealander to register three centuries in the history of the World Cup
- Jacob Oram, in case of a four-wicket haul, would become the first New Zealander to produce three four-wicket hauls at the World Cup.
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