Sri Lanka Opt To Bat Against India In World Cup

Sri Lanka skipper Dimuth Karunaratne won the toss and elected to bat first against India at Headingley on Saturday's final day of the World Cup league phase

Leeds, United Kingdom, July 6 (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 6th Jul, 2019 ) :Sri Lanka skipper Dimuth Karunaratne won the toss and elected to bat first against India at Headingley on Saturday's final day of the World Cup league phase.

The 1996 champions, who are playing for pride after bowing out of the semi-finals race, made one change from their previous win over West Indies, Thisara Perera coming in for Jeffrey Vandersay.

"It was an obvious plan, it's a used wicket and will get slower and slower," Karunaratne said at the toss.

"We didn't capitalise in the first few games, but we then started to correct those mistakes and started to do well." Virat Kohli's India have won six of their eight league matches to make the semi-finals along with defending champions Australia, hosts England and New Zealand.

The two-time winners have a chance to leapfrog table-topping Australia with a win in Leeds but also need help from South Africa, who face Aaron Finch's side later at Old Trafford.

India made two changes to their starting line-up, with Ravindra Jadeja and Kuldeep Yadav coming in for Mohammed Shami and Yuzvendra Chahal.

"We would have batted first as well, used pitch, will get slower as the match progresses," said Kohli.

"The team is doing well, we are striking a good balance at the right time." India: Virat Kohli (capt), KL Rahul, Rohit Sharma, Rishabh Pant, MS Dhoni (wkt), Dinesh Karthik, Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Kuldeep Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah Sri Lanka: Dimuth Karunaratne (capt), Kusal Perera (wkt), Avishka Fernando, Kusal Mendis, Thisara Perera, Lahiru Thirimanne, Angelo Mathews, Dhananjaya de Silva, Isuru Udana, Kasun Rajitha, Lasith Malinga Umpires: Paul Wilson (AUS), Ian Gould (ENG)tv umpire: Chris Gaffaney (NZL)Match referee: Chris Broad (ENG).