Spending time in the middle is the key to the conditions, says Stephen Fleming © Getty Images Enlarge

Stephen Fleming, who has been one of the few batsmen to succeed in the conditions prevalent at the Champions Trophy in India, said that it was crucial for batsmen to spend time out in the middle. "Occupying the crease is one of the solutions to overcome the conditions here...spending time in the middle," he said. "You need someone at the top to play that sort of an innings. I think in these conditions it gives you a better chance to assess the score that's needed, you have to be little more circumspect in these conditions."

But Fleming also did not lay undue importance on the toss. "We cannot get into the match with a preconceived idea that if you lose the toss, you lose the match. You have to be stronger than that," he said, when speaking to the media in a pre-match briefing. Always a strong leader, Fleming chose to look forward with optimism. "We are one step closer to the semi-finals should we win tomorrow's match," he said. "The biggest worry is that we have been inconsistent in big tournaments, so we want to put together a series of games, not only to get us through to the semifinal, but also to win the competition.

"You cannot pick and choose games to win. We have got a side to win them all. We don't want to be the perennial dark horses of any competition. We want to start performing consistently and the next challenge is against Sri Lanka."

Sri Lanka, for their part, were confident that they could put the setback against Pakistan behind them, and continue their quest for glory. "We have reviewed our performance against Pakistan and we are still confident in this competition and will go into the match against New Zealand with confidence knowing that we have had only one hiccup," Tom Moody, Sri Lanka's coach said. "We need to bounce back. The team is still carrying the momentum of winning many matches on the trot."

Moody also defended Sri Lanka's decision to sport a seam-based attack despite the conditions. "The logic of going in with [four pacemen] is that we won ten games in a row doing that. But that's not to say that we will go into tomorrow's match with the same formula of four speedsters," he said. "We have the luxury of a batsman like Sanath Jayasuriya who can be regarded as a second spinner and also Dilshan, who bowls offspin. It gives us the flexibility to play the extra strike bowler or the extra batsman. It gives the chance to improve the depth in batting or bowling."