Tag Aus v SL - WCT20 - 8 June 09

Just 15 days after 2009 Indian Premier League (IPL) finished, Australia and Sri Lanka lock horns in this all important T20 World Cup Group C match at Nottingham. Although not official International games, IPL provides ample practice to players featuring in it and the fact is, 8 of current Sri Lankan top cricketers were playing for different franchises in IPL 2009 as compared to only 3 Australians.

Needless to say Sri Lankan engines will be well oiled for this June 8 match while Aussies might be little rusty cause most of their big players were cooling heals back home before their tour of England where, when all teams go home, they'll play 5 Ashes test series 2009 and then 7 ODI series.

A keen contest on cards, following are some frequently asked question related to this upcoming Twenty20 match between Australia and Srilanka :-

Australia World Cup T20 Squad = Ricky Ponting (captain), Michael Clarke, Michael Hussey, Andrew Symonds, David Hussey, Shane Watson, David Warner, James Hopes, Brad Haddin (wicket keeper), Brett Lee, Mitchell Johnson, Nathan Bracken, Ben Hilfenhaus, Peter Siddle and Nathan Hauritz.. player details.

Sri Lanka T20 World cup squad = Kumar Sangakkara (captain, wicket keeper), Mahela Jayawardene, Tillakaratane Dilshan, Sanath Jayasuriya, Chamara Silva, Jehan Mubarak, Fraveez Maharoof, Muthiah Muralitharan, Ajantha Mendis, Nuwan Kulasekara, Isuru Udana, Indika de Saram (reserve keeper), Angelo Mathews, Lasith Malinga and Thilan Thushara.. player details.

Previous T20 meeting : only once, in previous Twenty20 World cup in South Africa on 20 September 2007 where Australia elected to field, bowled out Lankans for just 101 and then chased the target with all 10 wickets and 9.4 overs remaining!

Test & ODI head to head : 20 Sri Lanka vs Australia tests = 13 for Australia, 1 for Lankans and 6 draws. In One day internationals, Australians again lead with 46 wins as compared to 20 wins for Sri Lanka with 2 no result.

Start Time : an evening match at Nottingham, it is scheduled to begin at 5.30 local UK time = 2.30am Sydney/Melbourne, 2am Adelaide, 12am Perth in Australia, 10pm Sri Lanka and India, 12.30pm Canada, 4.30am New Zealand, 9am Los Angeles and 12.30pm New York in United states of America and 8.30pm Middle East.

Match : will be game 8 of T20 World cup 2009, and second in Group C which is regarded as group of death as all three teams are capable of beating one another. It will be last group match for team from downunder as first game of this group = Australia vs West Indies was played couple of days earlier.

Australia T20 report card = 21 played, 11 won, 10 lost = 52.38% success.. excluding that Aus v WI game.

Sri Lanka T20 report card = 13 played, 8 won, 5 lost = 61.53% success.. upto the start to T20 World cup 2009 tournament.

About the ground : Trent Bridge, the oldest cricket ground of the world where first ever test match was played, has kept it's ancient look intact over the year but spectators capacity has been increased to over 15,000.

Watch Aus v SL T20 match live : on foxsports in Australia, Starcricket in Sri Lanka and India, supersport in Africa, skysports in UK and New Zealand and Directv in USA. more telecast info.

Prediction : Sri Lankans have the variety in bowling while Aussies have the will. If this game was played couple of year earlier, Aussies may have started as favorites but currently, its 50-50.