Spinner Dhananjaya de Silva is eyeing an upset against India in Sri Lanka’s final match to lift his side into fifth place in the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2019 group table. Sri Lanka’s topsy-turvy tournament continued in Durham with a 23-run victory over West Indies, just four days after their were beaten by nine wickets on the same ground by South Africa.
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This was their third victory in the tournament and while they can no longer qualify for the semi-finals, they have already upset hosts England and de Silva believes they can claim another scalp against Virat Kohli’s side at Headingley.
Sri Lanka have won only one of their last eight ODIs against India but they did beat them by seven wickets in the ICC Champions Trophy 2017 at The Oval.
And the game is a repeat of the 2011 ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup final in Mumbai which India won.
The 27-year-old off-spinner admitted that his side have nothing to lose against one of the favourites to lift the trophy at Lord’s on July 14th.
He said: “We’ve done well against India in other ICC tournaments and we’ve just beaten West Indies so if we can take that confidence and momentum into the next game then we can beat India again.
“We’re trying hard to win every game and if we beat India then we can finish fifth.”
He admitted that the decision to bring Angelo Mathews on to bowl was a surprising one given that the former captain had not bowled in an ODI for 18 months.
However, Mathews had Windies century-maker Nicholas Pooran caught behind with his first ball and tilted the enthralling game back in Sri Lanka’s favour.
De Silva said: “Angelo put his hand up and he did the job.”
(Inputs from ICC)
