ARTHUR URGES PAKistan TO STAY RUTHLESS AGAINST SRI LANKA

Bristol: Pakistan coach Mickey Arthur has urged his team to “stay ruthless” at the World Cup as they train their sights on Sri Lanka after shocking England. The notoriously unpredictable Pakistan held their nerve to beat the hosts by 14 runs in Nottingham on Monday, just three days after crashing to a seven-wicket defeat against West Indies at the same venue. That ended a sequence of 11 consecutive defeats in completed ODIs. Arthur praised his team’s resolve after a “shocking” defeat in their tournament-opener. “It was just so good to see us go out and play with the belief and intensity that we had spoken about. When we put all three disciplines together we know we can beat anybody. We now need to stay consistent and ruthless,” Arthur said.  — AFP

PAK vs SL in World Cup
Matches: 7
Pakistan won: 7
Sri Lanka won: 0

Form guide
Pakistan: WLLLL
Sri Lanka: WLWLL 
(L=lost W=won; Last five completed matches, most recent first)

Pitch and conditions
The ground has witnessed three 350-plus scores in one month, including West Indies’ 421 in the warm-up game. The forecast is mostly cloudy, with intermittent showers

55.3 Babar Azam’s average against Sri Lanka in the ODIs. He has with two centuries in eight games against them 
32  Times Sri Lanka have been bowled out — more than once every alternate innings — in the last 56 innings since 2017
5 Sri Lanka lose five wickets inside 29 overs on an average in ODIs since 2017, they are the quickest to lose half their side. Pakistan’s average for the same stands at 34.4 overs
1 Shadab Khan is one short of 50 ODI wickets, while Mohammad Hafeez needs to score one half-century for 50 ODI half-centuries