Pressure on England and Sri Lanka says, Sangakkara

Colombo, March 25 (AFP): Kumar Sangakkara refuses to believe Sri Lanka will be the only side under pressure before a packed home crowd in their quarter-final on Saturday, saying England will also feel the intensity.

The 1996 winners go into the last of four quarter-finals with huge expectations, but Sangakkara was confident his players were capable of handling the situation.

"What you lose is a semi-final berth, so I don't think any side is going to want to lose that. So wherever you play that incentive is going to be there and all sides feel that pressure equally," said Sangakkara.

"I think it will be there (pressure), but that kind of thinking goes out of the window when you cross the boundary rope. I am sure players will feel the crowd, they'll lift themselves and do well."


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How good are India’s opponents in World Cup 2011 Cricket?

No matter how tough or weak a team is on paper, a lot of its fortunes depend on how strong or weak its opponents are. India are now in that kind of a position going into the 2011 World Cup Cricket.

No doubt Gary Kirsten’s men in blue start as favourites on paper to win the popular title but will the opponents stand in India’s way? Not badly enough as this time’s opposition is among the weakest for any defending champion since 1992.

Given the two key parameters of design and quality of opposition, it would be fairly safe to say India's World Cup challenge begins at the quarterfinal stage.

This will effectively means India would need to win three matches in a row to become the World Champions. That is where the big challenge will be for Kirsten's boys.

It is a fairly easy group for India, who should comfortably travel through to the last eight. After all, you only need to finish as the fourth best performer in your group to flow through. 

But, within the group battle, India should look to stop on top of the group as that would put them in a good position to face a weakfish opponent in the battle for semi finals. 

For that to occur, India will have to be on song from the word go. So, let us look at how India's probability could be impacted by their opponents in World cup 2011.

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Shoaib Malik missing out of World Cup probables

Pakistan have left out experienced allrounder and former captain Shoaib Malik from the list of 30 probables for the 2011 World Cup. 

Malik had been under the scanner of the PCB's integrity committee and ultimately appears to have failed to gain clearance for selection.

Wicket-keeper Kamran Akmal, over whom there has been as much speculation, has, however, been selected.

Akmal was the subject of an ACSU notice earlier this year but has since asked for and received a written clearance from the ICC.

Malik has not been linked with any specific incident though he features regularly in the fevered speculation and gossip of Pakistan's cricket structure.
The world body extended the deadline for Pakistan from December 19 to January 5.
Salman Butt, Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Amir, provisionally suspended for their alleged role in the Lord's spot-fixing scandal, were never in the running for the squad.

"We are satisfied that we have selected the best squad from amongst the available players," chief selector Mohsin Khan said.

Squad: Mohammad Hafeez, Ahmed Shehzad, Taufiq Umar, Nasir Jamshed, Mohammad Yousuf, Younis Khan, Misbah-ul-Haq, Umar Akmal, Azhar Ali, Asad Shafiq, Naveed Yasin, Kamran Akmal, Sarfraz Ahmed, Salman Ahmed, Shahid Afridi, Abdul Razzaq, Yasir Arafat, Rana Naved-ul-Hasan, Abdul Rehman, Saeed Ajmal, Yasir Shah, Zulfiqar Babar, Shoaib Akhtar, Umar Gul, Wahab Riaz, Sohail Tanveer, Tanvir Ahmed, Junaid Khan, Aizaz Cheema, Asad Ali

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Ishant to ignore tri-series opener against Kiwis

Dambulla: India suffered a shake ahead of their tri-series opener against New Zealand as paceman Ishant Sharma was on Monday ruled out of the match due to an ankle injury.

The lanky Delhi bowler was to do the accountability with new ball along with state-mate Ashish Nehra.  "Ishant is not obtainable for tomorrow's match because of an ankle problem," India skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni said at the pre-match press conference.

India are previously without experienced pacer Zaheer Khan, senior spinner Harbhajan Singh and opener Gautam Gambhir. Zaheer had missed the just finished Test series against Sri Lanka due to a shoulder problem and flew to South Africa for treatment.

Harbhajan and Gambhir were rested all along with Sachin Tendulkar for the tri-series. Both Harbhajan and Gambhir had missed India's third Test against Sri Lanka due to injuries.