Selection headache for Sri Lanka

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Cricket365
April 2, 2014

Rangana Herath's brilliant bowling effort against New Zealand has given Sri Lanka a bit of a selection quandary – albeit the nicest kind to have.

Left-arm spinner Herath was inspirational upon his return to the fold, taking five wickets for just three runs in his four overs.

His spell set up the comfortable 59-run win over New Zealand, and the Sri Lankan brains trust must now decide to reward that performance by giving Herath a place in the side for Thursday's semi-final against the West Indies, or sticking with regular starter Ajantha Mendis, who made way for Herath following a poor display against England.

Sri Lanka coach Paul Farbrace said: "It's a lovely headache to have. We know we've got some very high-quality spin bowlers in the team.

"There's been plenty of discussion and there will be plenty more before the coin goes up I can assure you."

Sri Lanka will be desperate to turn around their form in the knock-out stages of big tournaments.

They came up short in the finals of the 50-over World Cups in 2007 and 2011 and World Twenty20 in 2009 and 2012.

Farbrace is choosing to see that as a positive rather than a negative, however.

"You could also look at it and say 'they have done really well in most of the competitions and got to finals'. That's where teams want to be in big events," he said.

"We had a big win here in Asia Cup a few weeks ago. We beat India, we beat Pakistan twice. Not just winning but winning comprehensively. That gave our team a lot of confidence.

"We've played a lot of very close games in the last three months. When you win the, the confidence you get (makes) you believe you can win from anywhere."