Coach confident Murali makes it to WCup quarters

Sri Lanka coach Trevor Bayliss is confident Muttiah Muralitharan will recover from a hamstring injury and play in Saturday’s World Cup quarterfinals against England. Muralitharan did not bowl to his teammates in the nets on Wednesday but Bayliss said the offspinner bowled for 20 minutes in another practice facility — adjacent to R. Premadasa Stadium.

“We are very confident that he will play and I think he’s pretty confident he will play as well,” Bayliss said. “He’s a guy who has played through a few niggles in the past and I’m sure he will be fine come game day.”

Muralitharan, the world’s most prolific bowler in test and ODI cricket, strained his right hamstring when he dived while batting in the last group match against New Zealand.

The offspinner bowled with pain but managed to take 4-25 in Sri Lanka’s convincing 153-run victory, increasing his wicket tally to 11 in the 2011 World Cup.

Muralitharan could pose a real threat to the English batsmen on a surface which will likely suit the Sri Lankan slow bowlers.

But Bayliss said the Sri Lankan attack was more than just one bowler.

“You have a look at some of the guys like (Ajantha) Mendis, (Angelo) Mathews those type of guys (and) Thisara Perera, they’ve done extremely well and have played a big part in the success of our team.”

Bayliss was wary of England, which had a bumpy run into the quarterfinals after a high scoring tied game against India and beat India, but had two shocking defeats to Ireland and Bangladesh.

“Somewhere along the line they (England) will have a good game, so we are going to approach this match as though they are playing some very good cricket,” Bayliss said. “We are under no illusions.”

Sri Lanka finished second behind Pakistan in Group A after losing to the 1992 champion by 11 runs. The crunch game between Sri Lanka and defending champion Australia — a rematch of the 2007 final — was washed out in the group stage.

The Sri Lankans rallied hard after losing to Pakistan with huge victories over Zimbabwe and New Zealand.

“Apart from maybe a 20-over stint in our batting against Pakistan, we’ve played some very good quality cricket,” Bayliss said. “That’s what we’ve tried to achieve over the last few years to play consistently good cricket.”

England has some happy memories when the likes of Ravi Bopara, Ian Bell, Paul Collingwood and James Anderson were part of the team that defeated Sri Lanka 3-2 in the 2007 limited-overs series in Sri Lanka.

And Bayliss was the coach of that Sri Lankan team.

“Yeah England did beat us .... when I first came almost four years ago,” he said. “They’ve got players who have been successful here in the past. Our guys know that, they know they are in for a hard match.”

The relaid wicket at the 35,000 capacity stadium has given encouragement to the teams chasing targets, which was difficult to do in the past. Sri Lanka nearly chased down Pakistan 277-7 in the group match before falling 11 runs short.

“The wickets are lot easier to bat second than it was 2-3 years ago,” Bayliss said. “Whatever score is made in the first innings, the team batting second is quite capable of knocking those runs off.”

Other matches at the venue, however, have been low scoring with match pitches generally keeping low and slow.

Despite coming close to beating Pakistan, Bayliss hinted batting first could still be a better option.

“Probably the wicket slows up a little bit and makes it more difficult for batting,” he said. “But I think more than anything it’s the mindset.”

A capacity crowd which turned up in numbers in Sri Lanka’s games against Pakistan and Australia is again expected to cheer the home team on Saturday.

“The best players, the top players enjoy the situation,” Bayliss said of the big crowds. “That eggs them onto actually perform better.” AP reports.