Sri Lanka have won the toss and elected to bat first against Zimbabwe at the Providence Stadium in Guyana. There is tremendous amount of pressure on the Lankans after they come off a defeat against New Zealand at this same venue. They now have no choice but to defeat Zimbabwe to enter into the next round. And Zimbabwe are no push overs when it comes to T20 cricket! They had defeated Australia before in a T20 World Cup game and just a few days back defeated them and Pakistan in the warm-up games.
Sri Lanka have made a couple of changes with the young offie Suraj Randiv coming in for the injured Muttiah Muralitharan (out with a groin injury) and all-rounder Thissara Perera for Chanaka Welegedera. The pitch is expected to be extremely slow and give plenty of purchase for the spinners. The conditions for now seem to be overcast with a possibility of some rain.
Sri Lanka Playing XI : Tillakaratne Dilshan, Mahela Jayawardene, Kumar Sangakkara (W&K), Dinesh Chandimal, Chamara Kapugedera, Angelo Mathews, Sanath Jayasuriya, Thissara Perera, Suraj Randiv, Ajantha Mendis and Lasith Malinga
Zimbabwe Playing XI : Hamilton Masakadza, Brendan Taylor, Tatenda Taibu (WK), Craig Ervine, Elton Chigumbura, Charles Coventry, Gregory Lamb, Graeme Cremer, Prosper Utseya (C), Ray Price and Chris Mpofu
