New Zealand and Sri Lanka Fight Battle of Equals

Colombo: Reinvigorated after back-to-back Twenty20 triumphs, New Zealand will hope to continue the trend when Daniel Vettori's men lock horns with Sri Lanka in the Compaq Cup cricket tri-series opener on Tuesday.

After the battering in the Test series, which the hosts won 2-0, New Zealand managed to lift their morale winning both the Twenty20 matches and the players from both sides would have little time to adjust to the 50-overs format when the tri-series gets underway.

India is the third team in the tournament and Mahendra Singh Dhoni and his men would start their campaign against the Kiwis on September 11.

The Twenty20 triumphs did a world of good to the Kiwis and Brendon McCullum, whose performance with the bat is crucial to New Zealand's prosperity in the tournament, said they would be a force to reckon with in the tri-series.

McCullum and Jesse Ryder have been in good nick and the burly left-hander in fact went on to win the Man of the Series award because of his sterling show in both the Twenty20 matches.

So confident are the Kiwis that they believe they have sorted out the enigma called Ajantha Mendis.

Sri Lanka, on the other hand, is sulking after the twin defeats and captain Kumar Sangakkara has told his teammates that he was far from happy.

"Apart from that we gave it our all, I have to say they outplayed us," the Lankan captain said after the Twenty20 defeats.

"Our batting unit needs to start firing," he added, placing the onus on the inconsistent willow-wielders.

India had last won the final of a major One-day event on Lankan soil in 1998 and then shared the rain-marred ICC Champions Trophy with the hosts in 2002.

Team news

Sri Lanka: Murali's fitness will be evaluated later this evening and tomorrow morning before the game and Sri Lanka are hopeful he will be ready. Sri Lanka may hand young left-handed batsman Gihan Rupasinghe a debut, meaning Angelo Mathews may drop down a spot.

Squad (likely): Kumar Sangakkara (c & wk), Tillakaratne Dilshan, Sanath Jayasuriya, Mahela Jayawardene, Chamara Kapugedera, Nuwan Kulasekara, Lasith Malinga, Ajantha Mendis, Muttiah Muralitharan, Gihan Rupasinghe, Thilan Thushara.

New Zealand: Daniel Vettori, Ross Taylor and Shane Bond will be back after sitting out the warm-up loss on Sunday. Bond will replace Daryl Tuffey, who is not part of the ODI squad. The second spinner's spot will be a toss-up between Jeetan Patel and Nathan McCullum, who impressed in the second Twenty20 and the practice match and brings more depth in batting and fielding.

Squad (likely): Daniel Vettori (c), Shane Bond, Neil Broom, Ian Butler, Martin Guptill, Brendon McCullum, Nathan McCullum, Kyle Mills, Jacob Oram, Jesse Ryder and Ross Taylor.

Pitch and conditions
The pitch at the Premadasa is a dry one and favours batting. Going by the recent trend, the side winning the toss will almost certainly opt to bat. The weather cannot be discounted, however, with rain never too far from Colombo. Scattered showers are forecast.

Stats and Trivia

• Sri Lanka have won 46 out of 75 ODIs at the Premadasa.
• New Zealand have won three out of nine matches here, but only one against Sri Lanka.
• In 30 matches since 2004, a 300-plus total has been achieved only four times at the Premadasa. On average, teams have managed 26.77 per wicket at a rate of 4.73.
• Fast bowlers have taken more wickets at the Premadasa since 2004 - 262 at an average of 27.04. Spinners have managed 160 wickets at 32.53 apiece.
• Since 2004, the team winning the toss has batted first on 24 out of 30 occasions. In the last 11 ODIs, teams chose to bat every time and the result went their way on each occasion.
• Murali has a bowling average of 26.37 and a best of 5 for 44 at this ground, with 69 wickets from 52 ODIs.

Match facts
Tuesday, September 08, 2009 (day/night)
Start time 14.30 local, 09.00 GMT

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