Herschelle Gibbs during practice in Georgetown on Tuesday. (AFP)

Georgetown: South Africa skipper Graeme Smith has said his team are well-equipped to deal with Sri Lankan spinner Muttiah Muralidharan in their World Cup Super Eight game here on Wednesday.

“He is obviously Sri Lanka’s massive weapon and the way we cope with him is going to be important. We have played against Murali quite a lot now, (but) it still doesn’t make it easy to face him. He’s a world-class bowler,” he said.

“Even though he took wickets in the Test series when we toured there with a lot of our young guys, the guys played him well. That was quite encouraging. I think most of the guys have had a reasonable amount of success against him.”

Off-spinner Muralidharan is the second-highest wicket-taker in one-day Internationals with 438, behind only retired Pakistani left-arm fast bowler Wasim Akram (502).

South Africa lost a two-Test series in Sri Lanka last year, but Smith said his team were prepared and ready for the challenge in the important game against Mahela Jayawardene’s side.

The last Cup clash against Sri Lanka in 2003 ended in a big disappointment for South Africa, who failed to qualify for the semi-finals after a tied group league match at home following rain. But Smith said the team had learnt lessons from that game and were now trying to set new standards.

“I remember it being a pretty sad day. I remember the disappointment on the guys’ faces when we knew we were not going forward in the World Cup. The team has moved away from that. We have learnt from those disappointments,” he said.

“There are some guys who were part of some of those disappointments, but we are trying to set new standards for ourselves, trying to take ourselves to new levels. It’s now an important game and the 2003 has nothing to do with it.”

Smith said it was necessary do well in early Super Eight matches as his team had not carried points after losing to defending champions Australia in their last group match.

Sri Lanka captain Jayawardene, however, has warned his World Cup opponents, saying his team are keen to maintain their ruthless streak in the Caribbean.

Sri Lanka qualified for the Super Eight with an all-win record in group matches, showing no mercy to former champions India, Bangladesh and debutants Bermuda in Trinidad.

“We win pretty well at home and we have that ruthless instinct, but we never seemed to have that kind of edge when we travelled. Over the last 15-16 months, we have developed that,” he said.

Sri Lanka won 5-0 in England last year before sharing a one-day series in New Zealand.

“We have now managed to take that ruthlessness when we are playing abroad as well. This was something we wanted to do and now it has come into our game,” said the Sri Lankan skipper. “We always had the talent to perform well, but we just could not win that many matches abroad. As a team we have realised that we have to compete harder and we have to be ruthless.”

Jayawardene said coach Tom Moody had played a big role in making the side a highly competitive unit. “Tom has brought something new to the table for us,” he said.

“He has pushed us from our comfort zones and pushed us to be better players. Mentally he wanted us to be much tougher as a group.”

Teams

South Africa (from): Graeme Smith (captain), Jacques Kallis, Loots Bosman, Mark Boucher (wicketkeeper), AB de Villiers, Herschelle Gibbs, Andrew Hall, Justin Kemp, Charl Langeveldt, Andre Nel, Makhaya Ntini, Robin Peterson, Shaun Pollock, Ashwell Prince, Roger Telemachus.

Sri Lanka (from): Mahela Jayawardene (capt), Kumar Sangakkara (wk), Marvan Atapattu, Sanath Jayasuriya, Upul Tharanga, Tillakaratne Dilshan, Russel Arnold, Chamara Silva, Farveez Maharoof, Chaminda Vaas, Dilhara Fernando, Lasith Malinga, Nuwan Kulasekara, Muttiah Muralitharan, Malinga Bandara

Umpires: Steve Bucknor, Daryl Harper. TV: Mark Benson.

Match Referee: Jeff Crowe.

Match starts at 7 pm. (Agencies)

HIGHS AND LOWS

South Africa and Sri Lanka have clashed with each other 44 times and, interestingly, both teams won 21 times each while there has been one tie and one abandoned match between them. In World Cup also, they have won one match each while the other has been a tie.

The following is a look at some of the highs and lows of the two teams:

HIGHEST TEAM SCORES

For SA — 317/6 in 50 ovs in Centurion on Nov. 29, 2002
For SL — 308/8 in 50 ovs in Colombo (SSC) on Aug. 31, 2004

LOWEST TEAM SCORES

For SA — 154 in 46.1 ovs in Colombo (RP) on Sept. 2, 1993
For SL — 98 in 34 ovs in Colombo (RP) on Sept. 2, 1993

HIGHEST INDIVIDUAL SCORES

For SA — 125* by B. Dippenaar in Adelaide, Jan. 24, 2006
For SL — 124 by M. Atapattu in Durban, March 3, 2003

BEST BOWLING

For SA — 6/49 by L. Klusener in Lahore on Nov. 6, 1997
For SL — 5/26 by N. Zoysa in Colombo (RP) August 22, 2004

COMPILED BY MOHANDAS MENON