Australia vs Sri Lanka Preview and Live Score: T20 World Cup 2009

Twenty20 World Cup 2009 has already provided a lot of upsets, surprises, and shocks for all the fans around the world. Yesterday, England lost to Netherlands and today, Australia suffered a humiliating defeat at the hand of West Indies. In the next match, Australia is going to play is against Sri Lanka and if they lose then they’re automatically out of the tournament. On the other hand, if the longer loses then they will be almost close to elimination. Therefore, it is a do or die match for both of the teams. The supporters of both of the countries are now perhaps praying very deeply for this match.

Match: Australia vs Sri Lanka, Group C, ICC Twenty20 World Cup 2009

Date: 8 June 2009

Venue: Trent Bridge, Nottingham

Kick off: 16:30 GMT (17:30 Local Time)

Let me talk about Australia some because they have played a match earlier today against West Indies. On paper, the kangaroos are much stronger than West Indies. In fact in T20 World cup 2007, West Indies could not go to the second round and that is why, this time they are with Australia and Sri Lanka in the same group. Even just a few days ago, West Indies suffered a very humiliating defeat in England against England and if that is why, very few people thought that they would be able to defeat Australia.

CNN reported:

Australia play Sri Lanka on Monday at Trent Bridge needing victory to have any chance of going through to the Super 8 stage while West Indies play the Sri Lankans at the same venue on Wednesday.

Big-hitting David Warner rescued Australia after they lost Shane Watson and Ricky Ponting in consecutive balls of the first over to be 3-2.

He hit 63 off 53 deliveries, including six boundaries and a six while Michael and David Hussey combined for a stand of 30 in 14 balls to hoist the world's top rated Test team to a respectable score.

On the other hand, Australia played Pakistan a month ago and at that time they looked quite solid. So, the defeat of today was a big disappointment for the kangaroos. Well, in the practice match Australia convincingly defeated Bangladesh. Of course, Bangladesh and West Indies are two different teams. What they feel is that Australian batsman and bowlers both are studying at the moment. It should not happen because they regularly come and play in England and should not have problem with the English condition. Their fielding is not bad but I feel that the batsmen need to be more consistent. I also believe that the coach has a very important role to play and If needed they should get some kind of help from experts on psychology. After all, they’re the world champion of cricket but it seems to me that they are a bit too weak when it comes to the matter of t20 version of cricket.

SRI Lanka is always a dark horse in any cricketing event. They have some exceptional players and I really admire their batting lineup. Their fielding is also good and in the practice matches, SRI Lanka at first defeated Bangladesh but then lost to South Africa. Well, some of their players played in Indian premier league and that is why I think that some of them may be some tired. Tired or not, the players have to give their total commitment and effort if they want to defeat Australia. They have to remember that Australia is on the verge of elimination and that is why the Australian players will give their best just to stay alive in the tournament.

I am concerned about the batting line up of Sri Lanka. They performed badly against South Africa in a warm up match the other day.

Sky Sports reported:

Sri Lanka's brave efforts with the ball helped mask a dire batting performance that saw them at one stage slip to 44-7.

Dale Steyn removed openers Tillakaratne Dilshan, who had hit the same bowler for six the previous ball, and Sanath Jayasuriya to finish with 2-14.

I hope that rain does not create any problem in the match. England is famous for its Rain and earlier today, we saw that in the match between New Zealand and Scotland, (became a big problem and in the end, the match was reduced to just seven overs a side.

As for online live score, many websites will give it and the best is Cricinfo.