Sri Lanka (SL) take on West Indies (WI) in a ICC World Cup 2019 fixture at Chester-le-Street today. 1996 champions Sri Lanka couldn't reach the semi-finals as England's win over India knocked Dimuth Karunaratne’s side out of the competition. Two-time world champions West Indies, on the other hand, crashed out of the tournament after being humbled by India in their previous game. Get live updates and live cricket score of Sri Lanka vs West Indies here. (LIVE SCORECARD | POINTS TABLE | FULL SCHEDULE)
15:04 hrs IST: Perera opens his account with a single towards deep square leg. Solid start from Cottrell. Sri Lanka are 2/0 after the first over. Oshane Thomas comes into the attack.
15:00 hrs IST: Time for live action. Dimuth Karunaratne and Kusal Perera to open. Sheldon Cottrell, West Indies' highest wicket-taker (11) in the tournament, to begin the proceedings.
14:38 hrs IST: Playing XIs
Sri Lanka: Dimuth Karunaratne(c), Kusal Perera(w), Avishka Fernando, Kusal Mendis, Angelo Mathews, Lahiru Thirimanne, Dhananjaya de Silva, Isuru Udana, Jeffrey Vandersay, Kasun Rajitha, Lasith Malinga
West Indies: Chris Gayle, Sunil Ambris, Shai Hope(w), Nicholas Pooran, Shimron Hetmyer, Jason Holder(c), Carlos Brathwaite, Fabian Allen, Shannon Gabriel, Sheldon Cottrell, Oshane Thomas
14:33 hrs IST: West Indies have won the toss and have opted to field
14:10 hrs IST: We'll have the all-important toss in 20 minutes. Meanwhile, India have suffered any injury setback - Vijay Shankar has been ruled out of the tournament.
13:48 hrs IST: Sheldon Cottrell will be the only player featuring in this fixture to have taken 10 or more wickets in the competition, and the paceman will be facing Sri Lanka for the first time.
13:40 hrs IST: BIG NUMBER - West Indies have lost their last five ODIs. The last time they lost more was an eight-game streak in 2017.
13:34 hrs IST: STAT ATTACK - Sri Lanka have won five of their last six ODIs against West Indies, including a nail-biting one-run victory in their last meeting in November 2016.
13:20 hrs IST: Hello and welcome to Outlook's live coverage of the ICC World Cup 2019 encounter between former champions Sri Lanka and West Indies.
Sri Lanka's 20-run win over England had breathed life into their inconsistent campaign but a defeat against South Africa, in the very next game, hurt their semis chances. Sri Lanka could match England’s tally of 10 points by triumphing in their last two games against West Indies and India but would remain below hosts England due to less number of wins, which is the first tie-breaker used to separate teams.
In their nine-wicket loss to South Africa, Sri Lanka’s inconsistent batting came to the fore yet again and skipper Dimuth Karunaratne would look to improve on that aspect against a challenging West Indies bowling attack.
The Jason Holder-led side, on the other hand, will also look to finish on a high.
West Indies were tipped as a potential surprise package, especially after scoring 421 in a warm-up victory over New Zealand. They also started their World Cup campaign with a bang, demolishing Pakistan by seven wickets.
But since then, things have gone from bad to worse for the two-time champions. They have suffered five defeats. Though they have been impressive in parts, the side has failed to hold on to its nerves in tight games and ended up enduring heartbreaking losses.
"We had some frank discussions about the World Cup that we've had and we'll try to finish the tournament as a strong unit now," West Indies head coach Floyd Reifer had said after the loss to India.
"We are still playing for pride, we know that. People back home in the Caribbean are backing us and we are representing them here."