Sri Lanka will kick start their ICC World Cup 2011 campaign when they take on minnows, Canada, in this Group A encounter at the Mahinda Rajapakse International Stadium in Hambantota on Sunday, February 20. Sri Lanka are touted as one of the favorites for the championship and will want to start the campaign brightly.
They have been in good form over the last year or so and the fact that they are playing most of the games at home could prove to be a great advantage for the island nation. They are likely to rely on their spin attack which has Muttiah Muralidharan and Ajantha Mendis. However, they also have a world class fast bowler in their ranks in Lasith Malinga, who will be more than a handful in the slow tracks of the sub continent.
There is very little chance of Sri Lanka losing this game as they have too many good players to slip up. Three out of the top four, Tillakaratne Dilshan, Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene, are top class and have been in great form in the limited overs format in the last few months. Upul Tharanga and Angelo Matthews have also matured a lot over the last year and will be handy batsmen.
Canada will look to avoid a heavy defeat. They have had a mixed bag of results in the warm up matches, having started the campaign beating the Netherlands but losing their last three to Afghanistan, Bangladesh and England. However, they could be a banana skin if not approached warily. They have a lot of players who are of Indian or Pakistani origin and could be dangerous on their day. Jon Davison, the explosive batsman is also a dangerous batsman, even though he is 40 years old.
Sri Lanka will not want to break a sweat in this game and would want to finish it off quickly. They have the ammunition to do so and are most likely to hand a heavy defeat to Canada.