|
Calcutta: Mahela Jayawardene stopped short of saying his team might tinker with their combination for the South Africa match on Saturday. Jayawardene said Sri Lanka would leave the decision on the playing eleven till the last moment, but reiterated that the team would not be taking the game lightly simply because they have already qualified for the Super Eights.
“We’re not looking at it as a dead rubber. We need to win and get momentum going. As for the combination we’ll decide after looking at the final wicket tomorrow (Saturday),” said Jayawardene. “The weather has also been unpredictable, so we’ll leave it to the end.”
After a heavy downpour on Friday morning, normal service resumed in the afternoon as the unforgiving sun beat down on the Mahinda Rajapaksa International Cricket Stadium. “We’re playing on the same wicket that we played on the other day (against Zimbabwe). I think they’ve prepared wickets expecting to play a lot of matches on them, so in the initial matches it will be a lot firmer,” said Jayawardene.
The temptation for Sri Lanka would be to leave out Ajantha Mendis, preserving the element of surprise for the later stages of the competition where they may come up against South Africa. “Some of the guys haven’t played a lot of cricket, so it’s important that we strike the right balance, and give everyone a good opportunity,” said Jayawardene.
| 
