Sri Lanka confident ahead of crunch South Africa match

Sri Lanka coach Dav Whatmore believes the confidence gained from his sides's nail-biting win against West Indies will pave the way for a Sri Lanka win against South Africa.

The match is another must-win game for both teams. If Sri Lanka win they will top Group 'B' and qualify for the Super Sixes knocking South Africa out of the competition.

If Sri Lanka lose, they can still qualify provided they have a better net run rate than New Zealand with whom they will be fighting for third place.

Whatmore said that his team can still qualify even if they don't win tomorrow's match. "But that's not our first objective," he said.

"We had a terrific match a couple of days ago at Newlands and it's given a lot of confidence to our guys. It was a tough and a tight match. It's always nice to win the tough ones. If any team has to do well in the World Cup, it needs to play big games like this. We are very confident," said Whatmore.

"It is a very important game for both sides. The only thing that I am concerned with is having our team continuing to play some fairly good cricket. That will be the case tomorrow night," he said.

Sri Lanka captain Sanath Jayasuriya said that his side no longer had to worry about the bouncy pitches.

"We have been playing well and won most our games in South Africa. Tomorrow is just another international game and we have just to go and play it like we did the other day," said Jayasuriya.

He said that although South Africa had a better record against Sri Lanka it was all in the past. "It's a new game tomorrow," said Jayasuriya.

He said that it was important to bat first on this pitch because of the difficulties faced by the side batting second so far in the tournament.

Jayasuriya said that it was rather unusual for the Kingsmead pitch to have so much of grass on it. If that is the case, it will certainly favour the South African seam attack.

Jayasuriya concern is his middle-order batting which he said would make a come back at any moment.