huge start by pakistan

huge start by pakistan

Sri Lanka v Pakistan, World Cup 2011, Group A, Colombo

No Malinga, Herath in, Pakistan bat

Sri Lanka struck back with two wickets
 after Pakistan made a steady start in Colombo
 © AFP

On a slow track, expected to aid turn as the game progresses, Shahid Afridi chose to bat in a big encounter against Sri Lanka.

Pakistan went in with an unchanged team and Afridi said he would be happy with a score of 270-280. For his part, Kumar Sangakkara said he would be happy chasing 270-280.

Sri Lanka didn't take any risk with Lasith Malinga and made two further changes from the team that thrashed Canada. Chamara Silva came in for Chamara Kapugedera and left-arm spinner Rangana Herath replaced Ajantha Mendis.

Sri Lanka: 1 Tillakaratne Dilshan, 2 Upul Tharanga, 3 Kumar Sangakkara (capt & wk), 4 Mahela Jayawardene, 5 Chamara Silva, 6 Thilan Samaraweera, 7 Angelo Mathews, 8 Thisara Perera, 9 Nuwan Kulasekara, 10 Rangana Herath, 11 Muttiah Muralitharan

Pakistan: 1 Mohammad Hafeez, 2 Ahmed Shehzad, 3 Kamran Akmal (wk), 4 Younis Khan, 5 Misbah-ul-Haq, 6 Umar Akmal, 7 Shahid Afridi (capt), 8 Abdul Razzaq, 9 Umar Gul, 10 Abdur Rehman, 11 Shoaib Akhtar

Sriram Veera is a staff writer at ESPNcricinfo