Sri Lanka News Updates with Discussions

Ranjan ANANDAPPA reporting from South Africa

CRICKET: Kumar Sangakkara pledged to bounce back strongly in Sri Lanka`s final league game against New Zealand in a `must win` day game to be played today (Sunday) at the Wanderers, Johannesburg.

Sri Lanka lost to England on Friday and the encounter against New Zealand too will be played on the same square. The wickets at Wanderers are expected to be another fast track.

The match is scheduled to start at 1.00 p.m Sri Lanka time. Referring to the game against England Sri Lanka skipper Kumar Sangakkara said that he thought that the fight back from Kandamby, Samaraweera and Mathews was excellent and they showed a lot of character and Kulasekera and Muralitharan getting us beyond the 200 run mark.

England are still smarting from a humiliating 6-1 defeat against Australia and arrived in South Africa late, with no time for a warm-up match and little time to acclimatize to local conditions.

Sri Lanka have just beaten South Africa, the tournament favourites and until recently the No. 1 ODI side in the world. They are unquestionably favourites going into Friday`s Group B match at the Wanderers but Trevor Bayliss, the Sri Lanka coach, has said his side is `not taking any team lightly` in a tournament where one bad match could cripple the campaign.

Sri Lanka captain Kumar Sangakkara called for a repeat performance in the final of the triangular one-day series for the Compaq Cup after they comprehensively defeated India in Colombo.

Sanath Jayasuriya made a bustling 98 and Thilina Kandamby smacked an unbeaten 91 as Sri Lanka piled a formidable 307 for six batting first.