West Indies, Sri Lanka look for victory in final warm-up

Birmingham: Before going into the actual matches of the Champion Trophy, West Indies and Sri Lanka clash in their last warm-up with the aim of a win under their belt today (4).

Both the teams lost their respective first practice matches and would strive hard for a win to kick-start their campaign in the tournament in a positive frame of mind. Sri Lanka, despite scoring a massive 333 against India, failed to defend the total and lost the match by five wickets. On the other hand, West Indies didn’t do that bad, but Shane Watson’s century guided Australia to a four-wicket win with 67 balls to spare.

For Sri Lanka, batting doesn’t seem to be a problem with their top batsmen – Kusal Perera, Tillakaratne Dilshan, Kumar Sangakkara and Dinesh Chandimal – getting the runs. Opener Perera especially looked in great form as he scored a fluent 82 and so also Dilshan with his 84 against India in the first warm-up.

It is the bowling that they should be looking to improve in their match against West Indies. After posting a huge total on the board, the Lankan bowlers leaked runs in plenty. Almost all the lead bowlers including Nuwan Kulasekara, Shaminda Eranga, Sachitra Senanayake and Rangana Herath went for runs.

However, West Indies have to raise the bar of their batting and bowling in comparison to the match against Australia. Johnson Charles (55) and Darren Bravo (86) were the ones who scored and the middle-order batsmen got the starts but couldn’t convert them into big scores.

Dwayne Bravo would be the key player for them after coming from a successful IPL stint. But Bravo didn’t click with the bat or the ball as he took a wicket and conceded 44 runs in 4.5 overs. Their strike bowlers, Tino Best and Kemar Roach, have one last chance to get their rhythm back at the earliest. Not to forget two key players, Chris Gayle and Sunil Narine didn’t feature in the first one and would like to make the most out of this final warm-up.

Both the teams are strong contenders for the title and what they need is a quality match practice, more preferably a win, before entering the main tournament.