ICC Champions Trophy, 4th Match, Group B: England v Sri Lanka at Johannesburg, Sep 25
Match scheduled to begin at 6.00 p.m SL time (12:30 GMT)
"As a side, I feel we are still firing at 75% maybe. So we have a lot of areas to improve, but the good thing is that we're still winning."
Ominously, Kumar Sangakkara believes Sri Lanka's best is yet to come.
"It's not a long tournament, a bit of a sprint and quite exciting to know if you play well in three games you're in the semi-final. We can wipe the slate clean to be honest."
Strauss is optimistic that England's revival is on the cards.
Watch out for...
An ICC event in South Africa was where James Anderson made his name way back in 2003, when he was the rising star of England's attack, not least during a monumental performance against Pakistan in Cape Town when, in the immortal words of Cricinfo's erstwhile scribe, Rob Smyth, he proved "so good under the lights, he ought to have been a moth". If he can replicate the hostility that he showed in patches during the Ashes, and exploit the moist conditions that tend to prevail when the evening dew kicks in, he can cause a flap once again. Assuming England's batsmen give him a total to defend, that is. With 71 wickets in 34 ODIs since his debut in April 2008, Ajantha Mendis has been one of the bowling sensations of the past 18 months, but England as yet have been denied an opportunity to sample his unique bag of tricks. A three-wicket haul in the opening game against South Africa confirmed that his carrom ball is flicking out nicely, and it remains to be seen how England manage to counter his wiles. Traditionally they've not been too impressive when it comes to figuring out mystery spinners ...
Stats and trivia
Pitch and conditions
It's early in the season on the Highveld, so who knows what to expect? So far, there has been evidence of helpful bowling conditions, unsurprisingly, and there has been plenty of rain in the high-altitude air as well.
Sri Lanka (probable) 1 Sanath Jayasuriya, 2 Tillakaratne Dilshan, 3 Kumar Sangakkara (capt/wk), 4 Mahela Jayawardene, 5 Thilina Kandamby, 6 Thilan Samaraweera, 7 Angelo Mathews, 8 Nuwan Kulasekara, 9 Muttiah Muralitharan, 10 Lasith Malinga, 11 Ajantha Mendis.
England (possible): 1 Andrew Strauss (capt), 2 Joe Denly, 3 Owais Shah, 4 Paul Collingwood, 5 Matt Prior (wk), 6 Eoin Morgan, 7 Stuart Broad, 8 Graeme Swann, 9 Tim Bresnan, 10 Ryan Sidebottom, 11 James Anderson.
"As a side, I feel we are still firing at 75% maybe. So we have a lot of areas to improve, but the good thing is that we're still winning."
Ominously, Kumar Sangakkara believes Sri Lanka's best is yet to come.
"It's not a long tournament, a bit of a sprint and quite exciting to know if you play well in three games you're in the semi-final. We can wipe the slate clean to be honest."
Strauss is optimistic that England's revival is on the cards.
Watch out for...
An ICC event in South Africa was where James Anderson made his name way back in 2003, when he was the rising star of England's attack, not least during a monumental performance against Pakistan in Cape Town when, in the immortal words of Cricinfo's erstwhile scribe, Rob Smyth, he proved "so good under the lights, he ought to have been a moth". If he can replicate the hostility that he showed in patches during the Ashes, and exploit the moist conditions that tend to prevail when the evening dew kicks in, he can cause a flap once again. Assuming England's batsmen give him a total to defend, that is. With 71 wickets in 34 ODIs since his debut in April 2008, Ajantha Mendis has been one of the bowling sensations of the past 18 months, but England as yet have been denied an opportunity to sample his unique bag of tricks. A three-wicket haul in the opening game against South Africa confirmed that his carrom ball is flicking out nicely, and it remains to be seen how England manage to counter his wiles. Traditionally they've not been too impressive when it comes to figuring out mystery spinners ...
Stats and trivia
- Jayasuriya has scored 28 ODI hundreds in 439 matches spanning 18 years. The 11 players who took the field for England in the seventh ODI at Chester-le-Street have a grand total of nine hundreds between them. Paul Collingwood, the most-capped player by a distance, has notched up 166 appearances.
- Sri Lanka have won only one of the four ODIs they have played at the Wanderers, and that was to avoid a 6-0 whitewash in 2000-01. Their last visit, during the 2003 World Cup, culminated in a 183-run drubbing at the hands of the eventual runners-up, India
- England have played three matches at the venue, all against South Africa, and at the third attempt they recorded their first win, by 26 runs in a rain-affected contest in 2005, notable for Kevin Pietersen's hostile homecoming.
Pitch and conditions
It's early in the season on the Highveld, so who knows what to expect? So far, there has been evidence of helpful bowling conditions, unsurprisingly, and there has been plenty of rain in the high-altitude air as well.
Sri Lanka (probable) 1 Sanath Jayasuriya, 2 Tillakaratne Dilshan, 3 Kumar Sangakkara (capt/wk), 4 Mahela Jayawardene, 5 Thilina Kandamby, 6 Thilan Samaraweera, 7 Angelo Mathews, 8 Nuwan Kulasekara, 9 Muttiah Muralitharan, 10 Lasith Malinga, 11 Ajantha Mendis.
England (possible): 1 Andrew Strauss (capt), 2 Joe Denly, 3 Owais Shah, 4 Paul Collingwood, 5 Matt Prior (wk), 6 Eoin Morgan, 7 Stuart Broad, 8 Graeme Swann, 9 Tim Bresnan, 10 Ryan Sidebottom, 11 James Anderson.
Good Luck Sanga &
Sri Lanka Team
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Sri Lanka Team
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Congraadz SL 
