West Indies face Sri Lanka's mystery spinners in Twenty20 semi-final
West Indies believe their hopes of success in the ICC World Twenty20 tournament will rest on their ability to combat Sri Lanka's mystery spinners in Friday's semi-final.
Thursday, 18 June 2009
Many teams have tried and failed already to halt Muttiah Muralitharan and Ajantha Mendis during Sri Lanka's unbeaten march into the last four.
But if West Indies are to secure a successful end to a miserable tour of England, during which they were heavily beaten in the Test and one-day series, they must find a solution to the problem of scoring against Sri Lanka's unorthodox spin pair.
West Indies vice-captain Denesh Ramdin said: "It's very rare you get two world-class spinners like this in the same side.
"We want to get on top of them early so their captain has to take them off and bring them on later, so our plan is to get on top of them as they come on to bowl."
Mendis already has 10 victims in the tournament while sling-shot fast bowler Lasith Malinga lies joint second in the leading wicket-takers in the tournament with 11 and are expected to provide the main obstacle to West Indies' chances of progress.
West Indies are no strangers to Mendis' mystery after he made his introduction to world cricket in the one-day series in the Caribbean a year ago and has since bamboozled most of the world's top batsmen.
"He's a mystery spinner, but as a batsman you just go out there and try and play each ball on merit," said Ramdin.
"He's not spinning the ball as much as everyone expected so what we're trying to do is play him as medium pacer, hit him down the ground for ones and twos and wait for the bad ball.
"Their bowling line-up is quite tricky with Murali, Mendis and Malinga but we have to try and back ourselves."
Fast bowler Fidel Edwards, who missed Monday's five-wicket victory over England at The Oval after pulling his back in the warm-up, did not train with the rest of the squad at Lord's on Wednesday.
Edwards has already had a scan on his back and West Indies' medical staff are hoping further treatment and 24 hours rest will ensure he is back in contention for Friday's semi-final.
© Press Association