Sri Lanka pays special attention to Ross Taylor as it prepares to face New Zealand
MUMBAI, India — Sri Lanka skipper Kumar Sangakkara believes the key to getting on top of New Zealand will be to stop Ross Taylor from gaining any momentum in their World Cup Group A match on Friday.
Taylor goes into the match on the back of an unbeaten 131 against Pakistan and a whirlwind 74 from 44 balls against Canada.
"We understand how destructive he can be when he spends a lot of time at the crease," Sangakkara said. "We will try to mix it up as much as possible and put him under a lot of pressure to stop delivering runs for his side."
Coming in at No. 4, Taylor has scored 212 runs in his last three innings at a strike rate of 111.57, but Sangakarra backed his bowlers to stop that run of form.
"We have prepared whatever we can throw at him. Our main target is to get him out as early as we can," he said. "You can cover all the angles but one has to understand that we are prepared for these things."
Both sides know a win on Friday will guarantee a place in the top two in Group A, and Sangakkara stressed the importance of momentum going into the knockout stage of the tournament.
"It is always nice to win, (you) get a lot confidence from that," he said. "For us we are not looking too far ahead ... we are concentrating on tomorrow's game, play as well as we can and if we win, take that confidence."
A win over New Zealand would also go a long way to banishing doubts about Sri Lanka's form.
Having begun the tournament among the favourites, the Sri Lankans easily beat Canada, Kenya and Zimbabwe as expected, but they lost to Pakistan and had the game against Australia washed out, meaning they haven't yet beaten one of the top teams.
Sangakkara is hoping a change of surroundings — the game will be played at Mumbai's Wankhede Stadium rather than in Sri Lanka — will work in his team's favour.
"Sometimes at certain stages there will be no huge expectations, maybe it is easier," he said. "That expectation is going to go away but we love playing in Sri Lanka in front of our crowd. Their support really lifts us.
"We will miss them greatly but at the same time we know that if we win tomorrow, we can give something special."