COLOMBO, Sri Lanka, CMC – With their eyes already firmly fixed on their pending World Cup campaign, West Indies will search for a confidence-boosting win when they face Sri Lanka in the final One-Day International of their three-match series today.
The Caribbean side looked impressive in the first game which finished in a no-result a week ago after rain intervened but lost the second last Thursday following a lacklustre display.
A win today, however, is likely to put the Windies in the right frame of mind heading into the Cricket World Cup which bowls off across Asia from February 19 to April 2.
“Both teams are using this series as preparation for the World Cup and we have indentified the areas we need to improve in if we are going to challenge for the World Cup,” captain Darren Sammy said.
“Like any other team, there are some areas where we are strong and there are some areas we need to get better at, so planning will be very important in the coming days.
“Overall it comes down to how we execute and we want to make sure we put in the correct amount of planning, attention to detail, and preparation to be sharp and ready when the World Cup starts.”
West Indies have been grouped with the likes of pre-tournament favourites India, dark horses South Africa, England, Bangladesh, Ireland and the Netherlands, in what is expected to be a tough campaign.
They will remain in Colombo for warm-up matches against Kenya next Saturday and against Sri Lanka on February 15, before travelling to New Delhi for their opening game against South Africa on February 24.
Sammy said West Indies are determined to beat Sri Lanka today and enter their World Cup warm-up matches on a high.
“We will bounce back on Sunday (today) and come up with a game plan and approach. We can’t win the series so the plan is not to lose it. That would mean a victory on Sunday (today), so there is all to play for,” Sammy said.
West Indies were a far cry from their best in the last ODI, squandering a position of 132 for three to be dismissed for a paltry 203.
They were then undone by opener Upul Tharanga’s unbeaten century as Sri Lanka cruised to an easy eight-wicket win.
Reflecting on the performance, Sammy said while they remained upbeat they also needed to definitely improve.
“We lost the second match but we remain a confident team. We were dismissed for 203 and that was simply not enough runs on that pitch,” the all-rounder pointed out.
“We will go back to the drawing board and look at ways we can post a bigger total against the Sri Lanka bowlers. They bowled well but we will look at way to counter that.
“We got up to 245 for five in the first match and that was a decent score, so we know that with the right kind of application we can get big scores against their bowlers.”
West Indies: Darren Sammy (captain), Chris Gayle, Adrian Barath, Darren Bravo, Ramnaresh Sarwan, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Dwayne Bravo, Kieron Pollard, Carlton Baugh, Sulieman Benn, Kemar Roach, Nikita Miller, Andre Russell, Devon Smith, Ravi Rampaul.
Sri Lanka: Kumar Sangakkara (captain), Upul Tharanga, Tillakaratne Dilshan, Chamara Kapugedera, Thilan Samaraweera, Angelo Mathews, Mahela Jayawardene, Rangana Herath, Nuwan Kulasekara, Lasith Malinga, Muttiah Muralitharan, Chamara Silva, Thisara Perera, Dilhara Fernando, Ajantha Mendis.
