COLOMBO – Sri Lanka batsman Mahela Jayawardene believes England are a team for the big occasion and should not be written off ahead of Saturday’s quarter-finals. The 1996 champions take on England, who have never won the World Cup, in the last of four quarter-finals at R. Premadasa stadium and Jayawardene on Thursday warned his team against complacency. “They’ve had a very tough World Cup, I think all their games have been very close, but if you analyze it properly, they lost two games to minnows and beat some top teams so that means they do turn up for the big games,” he said.
“So we cannot be complacent, they are a quality side, they’ve got some good players who can turn things around for them, so we need to execute our plans,” said 32-year-old former captain. While Sri Lanka lost just one game to Group A leaders Pakistan, England endured stuttering progress in Group B as they lost to Ireland and Bangladesh but beat South Africa and the West Indies and tied with India. Jayawardene said there would be no extra pressure of playing a quarter-final at home.
“I don’t think there’s extra pressure,” said Jayawardene, who needs 46 to complete 1,000 one-day runs against England. “There’s always pressure on you to win matches, that’s with every team, I think we have the same kind of pressure.” Jayawardene said he respected England all-rounder Michael Yardy’s decision to pull out of the tournament due to depression on Thursday.
