Lanka look to choke out South Africa

Sydney, March 17

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South Africa have a chance to finally shed their reputation as one of the most mentally fragile teams in international sport when they take on Sri Lanka in what should be a tight World Cup quarterfinal on Wednesday.
The Proteas boast the No.1 ranked batsman in AB de Villiers, while elegant Sri Lanka lefthander Kumar Sangakkara’s four successive centuries make him the form batsman of the tournament.
Neither side has had the bowling performances they had hoped for so far but both are expecting key interventions from their top pacemen in the knockout stages, Dale Steyn for South Africa and Lasith Malinga for Sri Lanka.
Sri Lanka have a clear edge in the World Cup record books. Champions in 1996 and finalists in the 2007 and 2011 tournaments, the islanders have shown the ability to hit form at the right time and flourish in the pressure of the knockout stage.
South Africa, in contrast, have lived with the “chokers” tag for many years now and defeat at the Sydney Cricket Ground on Wednesday will trigger another bout of soul-searching back home.
On paper, the 2015 side is the equal of any of their predecessors and, it appears, the biggest threat to them winning a first knockout match at a World Cup is themselves.
Sri Lanka know that and will take any opportunity they have to ramp up the pressure, especially if skipper Angelo Mathews wins the toss. Muttiah Muralitharan’s simple advice to his compatriots was “win the toss and do not get too hung up thinking about AB de Villiers”.
Unless there is cloud cover over the SCG, and the weather forecast indicates there will not be, both sides are likely to follow the spin-bowling great’s advice and bat first.
With Hashim Amla at the top of the order and Faf du Plessis fit again after a back problem, South Africa have enough batting to carry one out-of-form player even before you consider the carnage de Villiers can wreak on his day.
Sri Lanka’s top order, which also features Mahela Jayawardene and Tillakaratne Dilshan, have carried them through to the last eight and they have managed well enough without frontline spinner Rangana Herath, who remains an injury doubt, for their last two matches.
SL banking on ‘home’ support and Sanga ton
Sri Lanka skipper Angelo Mathews is looking to overwhelming support from the crowd and a fifth successive century from Kumar Sangakkara to keep his side on track for a third consecutive World Cup final.
Sri Lanka supporters remarkably made up 70 percent of the crowd, and were responsible for most of the noise, when the islanders took on co-hosts Australia in Sydney two weeks ago. Mathews is looking for more of the same on Wednesday.
“If you play at the SCG it’s like playing at home,” he said. “Most of the Sri Lankans across Australia or across the world, they fly into Sydney with immense support for us, and we really enjoy playing in Sydney.”
We won’t choke:  de Villiers
AB de Villiers cut through years of cod psychology and analysis of South Africa’s inability to win a World Cup with a simple statement of intent on Tuesday. Wrapping up his news conference on the eve of the quarterfinal, the Proteas captain was finally asked the question about his team’s mental strength.
“All I can say is we’re not going to choke tomorrow,” he said. “We’re going to play a good game of cricket and come out on top. Simple.”
Just how good that performance would be was not too much of a concern for the 31-year-old either. He has been in brilliant form and hit a magnificent unbeaten 162 from just 66 balls in Sydney to lead South Africa to a victory over West Indies.
He suggested, however, that he did not care whether victory came from another of his destructive innings or a rushed single from a tail-ender. “We have to win tomorrow,” he said. “That’s what it comes down to, no one is going to ask us if we played exceptional cricket when we win the World Cup. “We are just going to say that ‘we won the Cup’. So we just want to find a way to win the game tomorrow.”
South Africa have never won a knockout match in their six World Cups and
De Villiers said from his experience in two earlier tournaments, Proteas sides have tended to over-analyse ahead of big matches. De Villiers gave his team the day off training on Tuesday and said they were trying to keep everything as simple as possible. “We’re a bunch of good guys, we really enjoy each other’s company,” he added. “There’s enough laughing, there’s enough stress, there’s enough nerves, there’s enough good cricket, there’s enough bad cricket, we’ve got a mixture of everything in this team.” — Agencies

Herath ‘50-50’
Sri Lanka spinner Rangana Herath was rated as only “fifty-fifty” by captain Angelo Mathews for the quarterfinal. The 36-year-old Herath needed four stitches in the spinning finger of his left hand after he tried to stop a full-blooded drive from Jos Buttler on March 1 and hasn’t played since.

7-6 - Sri Lanka’s win-loss record against South Africa in ODIs between the two teams since the last World Cup

6 - successive knockout matches that South Africa have lost in the World Cup or Champions Trophy tournaments

South Africa vs Sri Lanka

Head to head
59 (South Africa won 28, Sri Lanka won 29, tied 1, no result 1) Never faced each other at the SCG

Form so far
South Africa: P6 W4 L2
Sri Lanka: P6 W4 L2

Last match
South Africa beat Sri Lanka by 82 runs at Hambantota on July 12, 2014

Best Performances
SA: Morne Morkel (13 wickets): Outshone pace colleague Dale Steyn (in pic), generating disconcerting bounce from lively pitches to trouble opponents
AB de Villiers (417 runs): Enhanced his 360-degree batting reputation with scintillating shot-making. Third in the run-getters’ list with a mind-boggling 144-plus strike rate.
SL: Kumar Sangakkara (496 runs): First batsman to hit four successive World Cup centuries and looks unstoppable
Lasith Malinga (11 wickets): Getting better with every match while sending down toe-crushing yorkers and slow bouncers

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