England opt to bat first against Sri Lanka

WELLINGTON: England captain Eoin Morgan won the toss and elected to bat in the World Cup Pool A match against Sri Lanka at Westpac Stadium on Sunday.

Sri Lanka have so far won two of their three pool matches, while England are one from three and yet to defeat a Test-playing nation.

England named an unchanged line-up from the one that slumped to an eight-wicket defeat when they played New Zealand at the same venue earlier in the tournament.

"The last time we played here was a little bit of a disaster but we want want to rectify that and build on our performance against Scotland," Morgan said.

"It looks a really good wicket, the sun´s out. If it does swing again it´ll be no surprise to us and hopefully we´ll play a lot better."

Sri Lanka also fielded the same team as their last outing against Bangladesh, when they won by 92 runs.

Captain Angelo Mathews said his attack would be looking to make the most of any early movement.

"The wicket should suit the fast bowlers a little bit in the first innings, so we´ll look to exploit that early on," he said.

The side have met 12 times in the past 12 months, with Sri Lanka winning eight of them, including a 5-2 home series win late last year.


Teams:
England - Ian Bell, Moeen Ali, Gary Ballance, Joe Root, Eoin Morgan (capt), James Taylor, Jos Buttler, Chris Woakes, Stuart Broad, Steven Finn, James Anderson.


Sri Lanka - Angelo Mathews (capt), Tillakaratne Dilshan, Kumar Sangakkara (wkt), Mahela Jayawardene, Lahiru Thirimanne, Dinesh Chandimal, Dimuth Karunaratne, Thisara Perera, Suranga Lakmal, Lasith Malinga, Rangana Herath.


Toss: England
Umpires: Bruce Oxenford (AUS), Rod Tucker (AUS)
TV umpire: Chris Gaffaney (NZL)
Match referee: David Boon (AUS)
Weather: Mostly sunny. Maximum temperature 21 Celsius