Jubilant Pakistan hope to down hosts today

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COLOMBO: In Hambantota last Wednesday, it was child's play for Pakistan as they toyed with minnows Kenya on their way to a 205-run triumph.

But fun time is over for the Greenshirts. They will have to raise their game to a higher level as they look to conquer Sri Lanka, one of the serious contenders for World Cup 2011.

In a way, it's not really a do-or-die match for either team. Even the side that loses the game on Saturday (today) would most likely be progressing to the quarter-finals.

But then it's also quite an important game as its outcome could impact the quarter-final line-up, as Waqar Younis, the Pakistan coach aptly pointed out here on Friday.

"It's an important game of course. In this tournament, for momentum it is important and to get to the quarter-finals and in which stage, position you get there, in that sense it's very important. If you want to go ahead, you have to build momentum," said Waqar.

Waqar admitted that Sri Lanka will be a tough team to beat. "Sri Lanka in their home ground is very good. It's very difficult to beat them because the conditions and weather here help them. But the way we've played and trained and with the momentum, I am hopeful we can beat them."

Sri Lanka have a much-touted bowling attack with spin ace Muttiah Muralitharan being one of their most potent weapons.

But Waqar is confident that his batsmen have the ability to tackle Murali.

"We've played really well against him in this country. I don't think we should worry about him that much, he is not 28 anymore. It is not going to be easy for him anymore. We're prepared not only for him but the entire team," he stressed.

Both teams began their World Cup campaigns with a bang with Sri Lanka thrashing Canada by 210 runs and Pakistan recording a 205-run win over Kenya. Both know it's going to be much more serious business as they clash here at the R Premadasa Stadium in front of over 30,000 spectators.

Pakistan have won all their six World Cup games against Sri Lanka but Kumar Sangakkara is confident that his team has the firepower to reverse the tide. "I wasn't really aware of that history so yeah maybe it's time to change that now, hopefully tomorrow if we can do our basics better than Pakistan I think we have a pretty good chance," the Sri Lankan captain told reporters here on Friday.

But Sangakkara admitted that his team is wary of the dangerous Pakistanis. "I think they've got a team all 11 players are capable of doing that they've got a great batting line-up well balanced - good pace and good spin, so against them you just got to be mentally strong and absorb as much pressure as you can and keep competing with them because you can make them crack under pressure at certain situation so you got to be in the game until those situations come up," said the seasoned batsman.

Sangakkara believes that both teams are almost evenly-matched in the bowling department. "I think both the sides have good pace and good spin. I think that's been a vast improvement for us actually to have good fast bowlers in our squad, we have guys who bowl over 140, we

have guys who could swing and seam as well so I think it's going to be a battle between two teams who are looking forward to a very keen contest and whichever side can do whatever their discipline is better than the other will probably come out on top."

Teams:

Pakistan: Shahid Afridi (captain), Misbah-ul-Haq (vice-captain), Mohammad Hafeez, Ahmed Shehzad, Kamran Akmal, Younis Khan, Umar Akmal, Abdul Razzaq, Abdur Rehman, Umar Gul, Shoaib Akhtar.

Sri Lanka: Kumar Sangakkara (captain), Tillakaratne Dilshan, Upul Tharanga, Mahela Jayawardene, Thilan Samaraweera, Chamara Kapugedera, Angelo Matthews, Nuwan Kulasekara, Lasith Malinga, Muttiah Muralitharan, Rangana Herath.