Kumar Sangakkara warns his men of complacency against New Zealand
Sri Lankan captain Kumar Sangakkara, on Monday, warned his side of complacency against New Zealand after crushing England by 10 wickets in the World Cup quarter-final over the weekend.
"The guys have done that pretty well and tomorrow is not going to be any different. You can't play too much to the crowds or too much to show off," said the Lankan captain in the pre-match media conference. "There's no room for complacency — at all," he stressed.
The co-hosts were simply amazing against Andrew Strauss and his men on Saturday and the same wicket will be used for the first semifinal between http://www.senore.com/Cricket/March-c74391.
The home side will start tomorrow’s game as favourites and must be eying second World Championship title in 15 years. The only concern that the Lankans are facing at the moment is their spin wizard, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Muttiah-Muralitharan-c78157, who is a doubtful starter for tomorrow’s semifinal as he is yet to recover from a hamstring injury and knee problem.
Sangakkara said that it is a question of playing good solid cricket adding that if they concentrated on doing the best and kept their heads they can turn it into a solid performance.
Whilst Sri Lanka’s batting and bowling were outstanding against England, their fielding was below par as they dropped three catches of Eoin Morgan. But that did not hurt the home side much after their opening duo, featuring Dilshan and Tharanga, notched centuries and chased down the gettable target of 230 runs without losing a wicket.
Talking about Saturday’s misfields, Sangakkara said that what has happened before is gone and it would be a new day and what would ultimately count is how they perform tomorrow.
The co-hosts had a relaxing group stage schedule with long breaks before playing its two elimination games within four days in the host and humid Colombo weather. But the wicketkeeper batsman said that scheduling was not at all an issue.
"All the cricketers would like a big break, especially from matches in the heat," Sangakkara said. "But that's not something that we can control," said Sangakkara.
The winner of tomorrow’s game would head to http://www.senore.com/Cricket/India-c750 in the tournament finale on 2 April.
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