England-Lanka WC quarterfinal, a battle of two great off spinners
March 26th, 2011 - 12:06 pm ICT by ANIColombo, Mar. 26 (ANI): England’s World Cup showdown against Sri Lanka here on Saturday, will essentially be a battle between the best current off-spinner Graeme Swann against the greatest of all time Muthiah Muralitharan.
Both Swann and Muralitharan have a super average of around the 23-run mark, a lethal strike rate and a tight economy rate.
Amazingly, according to a report in The Sun, they have played against each other just once before in a one-day international. Neither, however, had a good game during the Champions Trophy clash in 2009. Swann was wicketless as Sri Lanka were skittled for 213, then Murali took 1-60 as England knocked off the runs.
Murali has a decent overall record facing England, being part of a squad that won eight one-dayers in a row against them before that defeat in Johannesburg.
Swann has fine stats against Sri Lanka, winning four out of five matches.
Likely line-ups: Sri Lanka: Tharanga, Dilshan, Sangakkara (captain and wicketkeeper), Jayawardene, Samaraweera, Silva, Mathews, Kulasekera, Malinga, Mendis, Muralitharan.
England: Strauss (captain), Bell, Trott, Prior (wicketkeeper), Morgan, Bopara, Wright, Bresnan, Swann, Tredwell, Anderson. (ANI)
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Tags: bopara, bresnan, champions trophy, dilshan, economy rate, good game, greatest of all time, jayawardene, lethal strike, line ups, malinga, mendis, murali, muthiah muralitharan, sangakkara, swann, tight economy, tredwell, trott, wicketkeeper