World Cup 2019: New Zealand begin campaign against Sri Lanka

CARDIFF: New Zealand will take on Sri Lanka in their opening game of the World Cup at the Sophia Gardens in Cardiff today. 

The match between New Zealand and Sri Lanka will begin at 2:30pm Pakistan Standard Time.

Last year's runners-up New Zealand are expected to give Sri Lanka a difficult time after suffering a defeat at the hands of West Indies in their last warm-up match where they lost chasing a huge total of 422, losing all their wickets for 330.

Though they struggled and fought potently in order to achieve the target, the Kiwis came short. 

Black Caps skipper Kane Williamson played a responsible innings of 85 alongside Tom Blundell who fetched hundred and six runs to chase 422.

In their first game, the Kiwis defeated India by six wickets after restricting India to a below-decent target of 180.

The Kiwi bowlers did a mirror-cracking job by destroying the batting line-up of the Indian run-machines. Trent Boult picked 4-33 with Andy Neesham chipping in with three wickets for 26 runs.

Not only did the bowlers perform, but the batsman also chipped in to reach the target in 38 overs. Ross Taylor and Kane Williamson, both fetched half-centuries for their team. The duo will be essential for the Kiwis in their upcoming matches as well. 

Overall, the New Zealand players’ performance has shown formidable class.

Bottom of the ladder, Sri Lanka have been struggling not only coming out of a 5-0 whitewash defeat against South Africa but also throughout the warm-up games for the mega event.

They won neither one of the two warm-up matches, losing to both South Africa and Australia. 

Against South Africa, the Lankan lions only managed to score 251 in their chase of 339, while they lost to Australia by five wickets in the second warm-up game. 

For Sri Lanka, skipper Dimuth Karunaratne and Angelo Mathews have to remain strong in order to finish the game during the death overs.

However, bowlers like Malinga and Suranga Lakmal will appear to be lethal weapons against New Zealand’s decent batting line-up in this game, engineering their bowling variations with different techniques and paces.

Kiwi skipper Williamson urges New Zealand to get 'scrappy' in World Cup

New Zealand face Sri Lanka in their opening game of the World Cup

Weather conditions at Cardiff:

Today's weather is forecasted to be partly cloudy. However, it is expected to be more sunny than cloudy with less probability of precipitation. Wind will be generally light. A fine day with plenty of very warm sunshine is expected. The maximum temperature is expected to be 24 °C.

NZ-SL ODI Stats:

Head to head matches: 98

NZ won: 48

SL won: 41

Tied: 1

No Result: 8

Highest total: 371/7 by New Zealand in January 2019

Lowest total: 73/10 by New Zealand in January 2007

Most wickets: M. Muralitharan (SL), 74 wickets in 41 matches

Most runs: Kumar Sangakkara (SL), 1568 runs in 47 matches

New Zealand’s squad for World Cup 2019: Kane Williamson (c), Ross Taylor, Tom Latham (wk), Tom Blundell (wk), Mitchell Santner, Colin de Grandhomme, Lockie Ferguson, Tim Southee, Trent Boult, Colin Munro, Ish Sodhi, Henry Nicholls, Martin Guptill, Matt Henry, Jimmy Neesham

Sri Lanka’s squad for World Cup 2019: Dimuth Karunaratne (c), Avishka Fernando, Suranga Lakmal, Lasith Malinga, Angelo Mathews, Jeevan Mendis, Kusal Mendis (wk), Kusal Perera (wk), Thisara Perera, Nuwan Pradeep, Dhananjaya de Silva, Milinda Siriwardana, Lahiru Thirimanne, Isuru Udana, Jeffrey Vandersay