Sri Lanka focus on the present as England challenge looms

It's been a longer wait than most for Sri Lanka between their first and second games this World Cup. Since playing the tournament opener on September 30, a wash-out against Australia means their match against England on Saturday comes after a near two-week gap. So unsurprisingly, they are a side that's itching to get back out in the middle.

Against England though they'll be up against a side they've beaten just once in WODIs in 18 attempts. But for coach Rumesh Ratnayake, dwelling on such records makes little sense.

"The last meeting will be tomorrow," said Ratnayake on the eve of the game. "So those are the things which we will encourage them with just before the match. But in our preparation we talk of the present, and we talk of the present team and where they are and what we can do.

"What our strengths will be against them, and where we are going to bowl - if it is bowling - at a particular batter at what stage. So we have broken it into three stages, that's just an example. And even in our batting, I think what we want most is patience and discipline."

"That's what we lacked maybe against India, not deliberate, but it needs more focus so that it could be established."

Coming into this game, Sri Lanka have had a fair bit of time to ponder on that defeat to India. Having had the hosts reeling on 124 for 6, they let the game slip. But even so, a chase of a target a shade under 250 should not have been beyond them.

After that game skipper Chamari Athapaththu had not held back in her assessment of her side's shortcomings, calling on her batters to shoulder more responsibility going forward. And in the build-up to this game, plans surrounding their batting have featured heavily.

"In our batting, the girls are really up to it and wanting to do well," Ratnayake said. "That's a huge plus because they know it's a big stage. Sometimes we need to bring it down and say it's just another match. But they are excited about this big stage. To capitalise on that, to maximise on that, they need to have runs on the scoreboard. They are aware of that. They are also aware that somebody, at least one or two, should bat till the end."

One of the more prevalent themes across this tournament, particularly for matches played in Colombo, has been a tendency for batting to get easier as the innings has gone on. This has left a lopsided run-scoring burden on lower order batters towards the end of an innings. For Sri Lanka, who lack any real batting prowess beyond the top seven, Ratnayake feels they will need at least one batter to take it deep to ensure they effectively exploit conditions at the tail-end of the innings.

"We actually spoke about this in detail, about how those coming lower down the order - even below number seven - need to score more. Our main responsibility, is that top seven needs to score the most runs. We're addressing it differently, because even in the last game no one scored even 50 - not that 50 would have been enough.

"We've spoken about how you need to bat deep - at least one of the top six needs to hang around. It's because none of those batters hung around that we were unable to chase down India's score.

"What we have learned from the spinning wickets is about those who have scored runs. Like [Beth] Mooney. Her batting discipline, her focus, and the ability to do what was needed in those situations. So we need to learn from that."

The extra preparation time leading up to this game has also allowed the Sri Lankans to extensively analyse this England side, weaning through their strengths and weaknesses and how exactly to make use of any advantages they might have over such an experienced outfit.

"England is a very experienced side, even though they don't have left-handers they are quite well equipped, so we understand their strengths, we know what they're strong at and we've seen them do it all so to speak, and we believe that we are ready to sort of counter-attack that and do the best we can in the best way we could.

"With our coaches, we scrutinised every batter of the English team - not just their top seven, we analysed their top nine. But the time for observing is over, now we need to take ownership of the situation, and go out there and perform."