Scotland vs Sri Lanka: 5 things to look forward to

Sri Lanka will be playing Scotland in their final World Cup encounter tommorrow. Though, the match is supposed to be a dead rubber, Sri Lanka will have some serious issues to sort out in tommorrow’s game. Dinesh Chandimal, the Sri Lankan middle order bastman has been ruled out due to an injury and the opening batsman Kusal Perera has been called in. It is generally felt that Sri Lanka are playing a batsman too many and the team would want to consolidate their combination before the knockout stages.Scotland, on the other hand, have lost all their matches and lie bottom of the table. However, they did perform admirably against Afghanistan and Bangladesh so they might pose problems to the island nation if the 1996 World Cup winners are too casual in their approach.Here are the five things to look forward to from this match:

#1 Scotland\'s chance to make history

Scotland have been playing in World Cups since 1999, but are yet to win a match at the tournament. Afghanistan, who are playing their first World Cup, have already managed a win. Hence, Scotland are left with two games to create history – against Sri Lanka and Australia.

Despite losing their best chance of breaking the golden duck against Afghanistan and even Bangladesh, against who they scored 318, but failed to defend, they are expected go all guns blazing to do something unprecedented.

#2 Another hole in Sri Lanka\'s batting order

Just when Chandimal was coming back to his destructive best, he injured his hamstring and that has now forced him out of the World Cup. With Jeevan Mendis and Dimuth Karunaratne already out with injuries, another new addition had to be made to the Sri Lankan squad in Upul Tharanga. Tharanga, an opening bastman by trade, was seen batting at No. 8 against Australia and looked like a square peg in a round hole.

With Chandimal out with an injury, Kusal Perera is set to get his first World Cup game if Sri Lanka want to continue with their 8-batsmen tactic. However, with qualification to the semi-final assured, the management might look for a plan B and play an extra bowler, in which case either Tharanga or Perera would miss out on a place in the playing XI.

#3 Seekuge Prasanna vs Sachithra Senanayake

Sri Lanka played two spinners in their game against Australia, but are likely to revert back to playing just one spin bowler against Scotland. If they go ahead with this plan, it will be exciting to see which spinner looses his place. Seekuge Prasanna was easily the better of the two spiners in the last game, but Sachithra Senanayake is more experienced.

It remains to be seen if the selectors/captain will opt for experience or if the performance in the previous matches rewarded with another start.

#4 Kyle Coetzer\'s form

Kyle Coetzer is Scotland’s most dangerous option with the bat currently. The Scot scored a blistering 156 against Bangladesh to lead his team to a total of 318. That inning was not a one-off as the 30-year-old also scored a brilling knock of 96 runs against West Indies in the warm-up.

If the Scots want to register their first win in World Cup history, they would need this man to fire. Sri Lanka’s bowlers will need to come up with a special plan to stop Coetzer as not many teams have been able to do so.

#5 Can Sangakkara create a new record?

No batsman has ever managed to score four centuries on the trot, but the ace Sri Lankan batsman has a very good chance of creating this unprecedented record in tommorrow’s game. Sangakkara has already managed to score tons in three consecutive matches, making him the only player in World Cup history to do so.

His 105* against Bangladesh started the run which he built on by scoring an unbeaten 117 against England. This was followed up with another handy 104 against Australia. Sangakkara, despite being a team player, would definitely want to make history by scoring another ton and a match against Scotland brings the perfect opportunity for the 37-year-old to do so.