Knockout matches, how to win

Times Media

TELFORD VICE, Sydney

GOING into Wednesday’s match against SA at the Sydney Cricket Ground, Sri Lanka had never lost a World Cup quarter-final. They have also won three of the four semi-finals they have played and one of the three finals they have reached.

As every cricketminded South African knows, SA are aiming to nail their first victory in a World Cup knockout match on Wednesday. Five times, they have tried. Five times, they have failed.

Not to put too fine a point on it, how have the Lankans got lucky six times out of nine when SA have yet to lose their virginity?

“As a team we shouldn’t put a lot of pressure on ourselves,” Sri Lankan captain Angelo Mathews said on Tuesday. “We just have to approach it positively and aggressively.

“When you come to the knockout stages most teams will think that you can’t afford to make mistakes or you’ll be out of the tournament.

“That kind of attitude is hard to get rid of. You have to play good cricket, back yourself and go out there and enjoy yourself.”

Would the South Africans freeze in the headlights again?

“Both teams will be nervous, for sure. We all know that SA are a very hard team to beat, especially in this tournament. They’ve come out really hard and they have a good, balanced team.

“So the history, it’s history. You can’t really take anything from it. You’ve got to move on.

“Statistics I don’t really bother with. It’s about what we have to do on that day. We have to go out there and perform well to beat the South Africans.”

SA don’t have the motivation that comes with trying to extend the one-day careers of Mahela Jayawardene and Kumar Sangakkara. They will have played their last matches in the format if SA win on Wednesday.

“Hopefully we can win and go into the semis and the finals and win there and make it historical for the two legends,” Mathews said.

Jayawardene has had an odd tournament, getting out for a fourth-ball duck against New Zealand, taking a century off Afghanistan, then not getting to the middle against Bangladesh or England because the Lankans soared past 300 with just one wicket down in those games. Then he made 19 against Australia and two against Scotland.

Blame those last two innings on Sangakkara, who has been dismissed twice in his last four innings - all four of them centuries.

Before Wednesday Jayawardene had made 35 runs in three World Cup innings against SA, while Sangakkara had scored 34 in two trips to the crease against them in the tournament.

Wednesday excepted Mathews had yet to face SA on the biggest one-day stage there is. And, although he was part of Sri Lanka’s successes in the quarter-finals and semi-finals in 2011, he did not play in the final against India.

Thus he has never felt the sting of defeat in a game that matters as much as Wednesday’s. That’s the thing about virginity - there’s always a first time.