England vs Sri Lanka: 5 things to look forward to

England would be locking horns with Sri Lanka for the third time in three World Cups. Sri Lanka hold an edge having beaten the English in the last two World Cups. In the two ODI series played last year, Sri Lanka won both – one at home and one away. It should also be noted that the Lankan side vanquished the English side in the 50-over ICC tournament – the Champions Trophy in 2013. It seems that the island nation has gathered enough impetus and the team has started to look menacing as a whole. The momentum gathered in the last two games would be put to test against a more competitive side in the game tomorrow. On the other hand, England will be hoping that the seamer-friendly condition would aid them trounce the Lankans.Here are five things to look forward to in the clash between the former colonizers and colonized:

#1 Lahiru Thirimanne vs James Anderson

After finishing off as the man of the series in the Asia Cup 2014, Lahiru Thirmanne was pulverised and harried by Jimmy Anderson in the ODI series in England, sending Thirimanne back to the pavilion 4 times out of five. 

The major struggle for Thirimanne against Anderson was his inability to negate the movement Anderson gets with the new ball which sees him prodding at outswingers and tentatively pushing at inswingers. Maybe, it is too tough to be harsh on Thirimanne, given Anderson’s ability to set up batsmen with outswingers and beat their defence with inswingers. This is further elucidated by the type of batsmen in Anderson’s bunny list – both Sachin Tendulkar and Virat Kohli have been beaten on numerous occasions by the English bowler.

This battle will begin fresh in tomorrow’s game as the southpaw has once again regained his opening spot and would be facing the new ball from Jimmy Anderson’s arm. But the good news for Thirmanne is that Anderson has been poor in ICC tournaments, and the bowler is yet to swing the bowl with the same steam as he did in England.