England opt to bat against Sri Lanka

England captain Andrew Strauss won the toss and elected to bat in their quarter-final clash against Sri Lanka at Colombo's R Premadasa stadium on Saturday. While England will be going into the match with the same side that pipped the Windies in their final group match, Sri Lanka have brought in left arm spinner Rangana Herath in place of Nuwan Kulasakara. England have made it to the last eight by the skin of their teeth having gone down to Ireland and Bangladesh during the group stages. But they have been impressive against the higher ranked teams, getting the better of South Africa and the West Indies and tying their match against India at Bangalore. On the other hand Sri Lanka have had a relatively smooth passage, the loss against Pakistan in their second fixture being the only hiccup. Having said that England have been on the winning side four out of the last five times against the Lankans three of which have come in Sri Lanka. Teams: England: AJ Strauss (capt), IR Bell, IJL Trott, RS Bopara, EJG Morgan, MJ Prior, LJ Wright, TT Bresnan, GP Swann, JC Tredwell, CT Tremlett. Sri Lanka: WU Tharanga, TM Dilshan, KC Sangakkara (capt), DPMD Jayawardene, TT Samaraweera, LPC Silva, AD Mathews, SL Malinga, HMRKB Herath, BAW Mendis, M Muralitharan.

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