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Lankans will look for better show today
 

Sri Lanka will go in for today’s final ODI outing against cricket woodenspoonists Zimbabwe with a determination of lifting their game that has been sagging below expectations at Harare.

Surely the Lankans do have a list of problems. Toping the list is their plight of possessing a misfiring opening pair of Upul Tharanga and Mahela Udawatte who are yet to post a fifty run stand against arguably one of the weakest attacks in World cricket today. Besides that the current form of skipper Mahela Jayawardena may be a problem, but, with his inbuilt class he has the correct ingredients to overcome that shortcoming with a bit of application.

Kumar Sangakkara with an aggregate of 154 at 77.00 has been the mainstay as usual, but the in-out attitude of talented Chamara Kapugedera also may be causing some concerns in the Lankan dressing room.

In the bowling department Ajantha Mendis who had a sixer in the last game so far has bagged wickets at a cost of 7.06 per head, and he also has the chance of claiming the fastest 50 wicket mark in ODIs. With Mendis experienced Muralitharan who took a day off in their last outing has bowled in tandem with his younger partner.

After two hapless initial outings Zimbabwe came back to corner the much experienced Lankans in the third and the fourth games, but, their scores of 127, 67, 166 and146 hardly have been match winning totals.

For Zimbabwe their top three batsmen – Hamilton Masakadza, Vusi Sibanda and Tatenda Taibu have handled the wayward Lankan seam attack with ease, but, their lack of exposure to cricket at the highest level have thwarted their consistency.

Sri Lanka (probable): Upul Tharanga, Mahela Udawatte, Kumar Sangakkara (wk), Mahela Jayewardene (capt), Jehan Mubarak, Thilina Kandamby Angelo Matthews, Thilan Thushara, Ajantha Mendis, Muttiah Muralitharan, Dilhara Fernando

Zimbabwe (probable): Hamilton Masakadza, Vusi Sibanda, Tatenda Taibu (wk), Chamu Chibhabha, Shingirai Masakadza, Elton Chigumbura, Prosper Utseya (capt), Sean Williams, Raymond Price, Tawanda Mupariwa, Ed Rainsford

 
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