Sri Lanka beat Namibia, now ready to face India

Sri Lanka 263-8 (50 overs, D.Cooray 64); Namibia 126 (38.3 overs). Sri Lanka won by 137 runs.

Sri Lanka coach Sumithra Waranakulasuriya believes his side is ready to take on and beat tournament favourites India after the hosts crushed Namibia by 137 runs on Tuesday.

"We are definitely prepared for India," he said. "And we are quite capable of beating them too.

"At the final of the Afro-Asian U/19 Cup (last November) we missed catches but there has been a big improvement in our fielding since we have had Ruwan Kalpage with the side," he added.

Sri Lanka certainly look in good order for Friday's match which, providing India beat Scotland on Wednesday, will decide who tops Group C ahead of the Super League quarter-finals.

Against Namibia they scored 263-8 and then dismissed the Associate side for 126 with man of the match Sachithra Serasinghe following up his 41 runs with the bat with off-spin that produced 3-22 while super sub Rajeewa Weerasinghe took 4-24.

Those spinners, who were disappointing against Scotland, were one reason for Sri Lanka's convincing win but another factor was their running between the wickets when they batted.

Despite being unable to dominate Namibia by hitting boundaries they still ran aggressively and that ensured they got a substantial total.

"That was something we worked hard on before this game as we were not happy with it against Scotland," said Waranakulasuriya.

"In our team meeting that was the discussion point, that players were not running hard enough, and here I thought we did it well."

Namibia coach Andy Waller was very impressed by what he saw of Sri Lanka.

"I thought they were brilliant," he said. "I could not believe how professional they were in the field and in their running between the wickets. If our players do not learn from that then they never will."

Dilhan Cooray top-scored for the home side with an unbeaten 64 but no other batsman reached 50 and Namibia could be proud of the way they performed in the field, especially as they were playing their second game in two days after facing India on Monday.

The Africans had a clear plan of attack including, at one stage, bowling with all nine fielders on the off-side and in the face of that plan Sri Lanka were content to accumulate and build a total.

Left-arm spinner Louis van der Westhuizen was the pick of the Namibia attack and returned the superb figures of 3-34 in a full ten over spell and opening bowler Florin Marx also took three wickets although they cost him 70 runs and his last four overs cost 40 as Sri Lanka lifted the tempo in the latter stages of their innings.

Keady Strauss (22) and Pieter Grove (28) added 49 for the second wicket for Namibia but after that they collapsed rapidly and only one other player, Henno Prinsloo with 27, made double figures.

Only two sides from the group can progress to the Super League quarter-finals, which take place on Saturday.