Aussies face plucky Lankans

PORT ELIZABETH: Defending champion Australia face a semi-final showdown against a plucky Sri Lanka after losing their best batsman in an otherwise record-breaking tournament.

No 4 batsman Damien Martyn, 31, was ruled out yesterday, on the eve of the Sri Lanka match, after medical scans revealed he had a broken right index finger. Already ruled out were fast bowler Jason Gillespie (heel) and allrounder Shane Watson (back) to injuries and legspinner Shane Warne, who failed a drug test. It will be Australia’s biggest test mentally under Ricky Ponting’s leadership and coach John Buchanan conceded losing Martyn was a setback. “It’s a setback, obviously Damien is a key member of our top-order,” said Buchanan. “We’d prefer to have him in the side, but it’s just (hoped) that another player comes in and replaces him adequately.” Michael Bevan, one of the leading batsmen in limited-overs cricket, is expected to return from a back problem that kept him out of the five-wicket win over Kenya and slot in at No. 4 for Australia.

That would allow Buchanan to retain allrounders Andrew Symonds and Ian Harvey to build the all-around strength of the lineup. Australia have won a record 15 consecutive one-dayers and is just one match away from reaching their third final in as many World Cups. They lost to Sri Lanka in the 1996 final at Lahore and beat Pakistan in the final at Lord’s in 1999. Australia have only lost three times in 10 matches against Sri Lanka since winning the last World Cup. Both of Australia’s losses in their last 24 One-Day Internationals have come against Sri Lanka, including a seven-wicket loss at Colombo in the Champions Trophy semi-final last September and a 79-run defeat in Sydney on January 9.

The ruthless Australians will use anything to win, but the controversial St George’s Park pitch might curtail their fast bowlers. Paceman Brett Lee left Sri Lanka battered and bruised in Australia’s 96-run win in the opening Super Six match at Centurion and will once again be called upon to crush the Lankans. Ponting said the Australians have been promised of a “quicker and bouncier” pitch after he’d criticised the wicket following narrow wins over England and New Zealand. “If it looks like it’s going to be bit quicker and bouncier ... he’ll be able to bowl the same way at Sri Lanka as he’s done in the last few matches,” Ponting said. “If it’s not conducive to bounce, then swing them out or beat them with pace.” “Intent and intimidate,” Ponting added, were the key words in the campaign.

Despite just scraping into the final four ahead of New Zealand with a win over Zimbabwe on Saturday, Sri Lanka skipper Sanath Jayasuriya said his lineup could match the “aggressive and in-your-face” style of the Aussies. Sri Lanka are considering a two-pronged pace attack — Vaas and Pulasthi Gunaratne —and replacing the third seamer Dilhara Fernando with a batting allrounder Jehan Mubarak, who can bowl offspin. Sri Lanka is confident the Port Elizabeth pitch will encourage spin bowling. Despite being upgraded, the pitch is expected to make run-chasing difficult, particularly against a Sri Lankan attack which has mastered the art of taking the pace off the ball.

“We’re underdogs. We’ll just go and enjoy our game. Nothing to worry about,” he said. “We play a similar brand of cricket to theirs ... that’s why we’ve been able to beat Australia. We need to play our aggressive and positive cricket. “This is an important match ... It will be anybody’s match. There is no guarantee that Australia is going to win if our boys can match them on the particular day.” Jayasuriya said the team that won the World Cup seven years ago was more experienced than the present one. “This side has youth and experience and we have been sometimes playing extremely well and sometimes badly,” he said. “The problem is with the middle-order batting. We have been going through a hard time with Mahela (Jayawardene) out of form. We have to make it solid,” Jayasuriya said.