Sri Lanka look to delivering the knock out punch

Nothing seems to be going India's way in the Coca-Cola Cup in Sri Lanka and it would require an extraordinary effort from the side to beat Sri Lanka in tomorrow's do or die affair for them at the Premadasa Stadium in Colombo.

The Indian side, already handicapped with the absence of Sachin Tendulkar, received the shocking news of the suspension of their captain Sourav Ganguly by match referee Cammie Smith for showing dissent in the last game against New Zealand when umpire Gamini Silva, ruled him leg before.

After calling the Indian captain for an inquiry, Smith, known as a lenient match referee, found him guilty of breaching the ICC code of conduct clause three and suspended him for tomorrow's crucial game against Sri Lanka.

From here on, to qualify for the final, the Indians have to either win all three remaining games or win two games including the game against New Zealand and then wait till Sri Lanka defeat New Zealand in a last round match. They've got to do all this while maintaining a healthier run rate than the Black Caps.

This morning, Indian vice captain Rahul Dravid needed to go for x-rays to determine whether he had a fractures on his right thumb. Dravid, attempting a catch in the slips in yesterday's game against New Zealand was struck by the ball but fears of him too withdrawing from tomorrow's game were put aside as the x-rays ruled out any fracture.

Ahead of tomorrow's game, only six Indian players along with coach John Wright turned out for practice this evening, which was made optional - not for the first time on the tour. From the cricketers who played in the last game, only Hemang Badani, Reetender Sodhi and Virender Sehwag turned up. Probably the management seems to feel that for an improved performance, relaxing is better than a net session.

A wicket which has not been used so far in this series will be used for tomorrow's game and the curator at the Premadasa Stadium, Susil Ananda feels the pitch is an ideal strip for one-day cricket and expects it to provide a lot of runs provided the batsmen adopt the right approach.

The Sri Lankans meanwhile had a good net session this morning and may make a few changes for tomorrow's game. They are likely to change the left-handed opening combination of Avishka Gunawardene and Sanath Jayasuriya. Gunawardene is likely to be replaced by Kumar Sangakkara. Romesh Kaluwitharana or Marvan Atapattu could be the captain's partner

According to the team management, all the players are fit for tomorrow's game and the Sri Lankans are looking forward to deliver the knock-out punch to the Indians which will make their task of qualifying for the final even slimmer.