http://www.senore.com/Cricket/New-Zealand-c754 win toss and elect to bat fist against Sri Lanka
New Zealand captain Daniel Vettori has won the toss and elected to bat first in the semi-final match of the ICC World Cup, 2011 against Sri Lanka, at the R Premadasa Stadium, Colombo in http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Sri-Lanka-c758.
The second semi-final will be played between India and http://www.senore.com/Cricket/India-c750.
The wicket at Colombo is slow and is expected to assist the spinners. Batting will be tougher in the second half of the game, but the hosts will not be worried by that fact, as they won their quarter-final match batting second against England, on the same
venue.
The Poms had posted a decent total of 229 runs and Sri Lanka were expected to struggle. However, all the experts were proved wrong by the home team’s openers Tillakaratne Dilshan and Upul Tharanga. They scored unbeaten centuries, guiding their team to an
easy 10 wicket victory.
There haven’t been any changes made to the Sri Lankan squad, which featured in the last game. The team will go with a spin attack of http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Ajantha-c42419 Mendis and Rangana Herath.
On the other hand, one change has been made to the Kiwi squad. They have brought in seamer Andy McKay in place of left-arm spinner http://www.senore.com/Cricket/South-Africa-c757. However,
they have decided to drop Woodcock, as the hosts are good players of spin bowling.
Today’s match will be a very good chance for New Zealand to qualify for the World Cup final for the first time in history. They have qualified for the semi-finals on numerous occasions, but haven’t featured in a World Cup final.
A lot will depend on the Kiwi top-order to give a solid start to their team. Openers Martin Guptill and Brendon McCullum have given good starts against the minnows, but they haven’t been able to score big runs against tougher opponents.
Other than the openers, Ross http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Taylor-c92915, Jesse Ryder and Scott Styris will hold the key for New Zealand, as they are good players of spin bowling. If the Black Caps manage to score more than 250, they may pose a tough fight to the Sri Lankan team.
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