India's Real Test Against Sri Lanka on Saturday

Colombo: The third match of the tri-series, between India and Sri Lanka at the Premadasa Stadium on Saturday, is important for MS Dhoni and his boys for more than one reason.

A win will not only earn them a spot in the final but the match will also give them vital practice before the Champions Trophy starts in South Africa on September 22 but the real test will come against Sri Lanka.

Dhoni said during a media briefing on Thursday that the team wanted to continue the winning run in Sri Lanka, having won both the bilateral series in 2008 and 2008-09.

"We know the conditions here and have won back-to-back series here during our previous two visits so we would like that continue," the skipper said.

But the Lankans too want to break that jinx. They have won the ODI series here against Pakistan recently and also triumphed in the Tests series against Pakistan and New Zealand. They would surely want to put the record straight against India.

"India are a good side, but we have been playing good cricket of late and everybody is in form so it should be a good contest," Sri Lankan skipper Kumar Sangakkara said.

Team news

Sri Lanka: Their top-order completly collapse against Kiwis. They hopefully will play same XI against New Zealand cons of the Indian team in a dress rehearsal to the finals on Monday.

Squad (likely): Tillakaratne Dilshan, Sanath Jayasuriya, Kumar Sangakkara (capt & wk), Mahela Jayawardene, Thilan Samaraweera, Chamara Kapugedera, Angelo Mathews, Nuwan Kulasekara, Muttiah Muralitharan, Lasith Malinga, Thilan Thushara.

India: The World No. 1 team started the season on a good note, prevailing over the Kiwis in a low-scoring encounter, and thereby knocking them out of the tri-series. While the bowlers did a good job restricting New Zealand to 155, the Indian batsman struggled initially, giving the Kiwis an opportunity to make a game out of it. India may be made one change all-rounder Abhishek Nayer in for Dinesh Karthik.

Squad (likely): Sachin Tendulkar, Dinesh Karthik/Abhishek Nayar, Rahul Dravid, Yuvraj Singh, MS Dhoni(capt & wk), Suresh Raina, Yusuf Pathan, Harbhajan Singh, RP Singh, Ashish Nehra, Ishant Sharma

Pitch and conditions
In the last match the pitch was two-faced and not an ideal one for one-dayers. It remains to be seen what is rolled out for Saturday's encounter, when host face world no. 1 India. As usual, scattered showers are forecast but fans will hope the rain stays away, as it did on Tuesday.

Stats & Trivia

• Two centuries scored by Sachin Tendulkar at the RPS, Colombo.
• India played first match as World No. 1 team
• Sanath Jayasuriya needs 17 runs to become the leading run-scorer against any country in ODIs. Jayasuriya has scored 2714 runs against India. Sachin Tendulkar holds the record with 2730 runs against Australia.
• Tillekeratne Dilshan needs three wickets to complete his 50 wickets in ODIs.
• One century need Sachin Tendulkar will hold the record of scoring most hundreds against Sri Lanka. He currently shares this record with Pakistan's Saeed Anwar with seven hundreds.

Match Facts
Saturday, September 12, 2009 (day/night)
Start time 14.30 local (9.00 GMT)

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