The penultimate game of the Super Eights portion of the tournament will feature a virtual quarter-final between New Zealand and Sri Lanka from Group F, after Pakistan has already gone through to the semi-finals with a much superior run-rate.
The Sports Pundit Fantasy experts will have it tough in this game because most would want to have players from teams who will play at least one more game – semi-finals – and this game does not carry any assurances along with it; the question that many experts may ask is whether they should pick up any player from this game.
It is already known that Jesse Ryder has flown back home, while the chances of Ross Taylor playing a game are rather bleak, while Iain O’Brien looks like injuries have played a part there as well.
For Sri Lanka, there are no such problems, but they would have the pressure of knowing that despite not having lost a game so far in the tournament, they could bow out if they lost this one! Kumar Sangakkara would love to get back to his best and play that dual role that he does so often; aggressor in the first six overs and then an anchor through the rest of the innings. T.Dilshan will another who has had a great tournament leading up to the previous game against Ireland where he was dismissed for a duck and would look to get his bearings right again.
Between Ajantha Mendis and M.Muralitharan, I have an inkling that Murali may just get amongst the wickets while everyone concentrates on Mendis, and my advise will be not to sub him if you already got him in the line-up!