The defending champions Australia will take on Sri Lanka in Match No 20 of the ICC Cricket World Cup at the Oval, London on Saturday. Post a win against Pakistan, the defending champions will look to put up a dominating performance against Sri Lanka in their fifth World Cup encounter at the Oval.

With as many as six points in four matches, the defending champions are sitting at the third place in the points table. On the other hand, Sri Lanka is at the fifth position with four points in four matches – a couple of them being washed out.

One thing common in all of Australia’s wins so far is that they haven’t had a convincing win so far against top quality sides. Leaving aside their first game against Afghanistan, the Aussies have had to fight hard to register their wins. With David Warner returning in prime form, Australia’s top order looks all the more dangerous with a solid middle order to follow.

Their bowling too has been in decent form with Mitchell Starc taking leading their attack. Although they conceded a few too many runs against India, they put up an impressive performance against Pakistan and would look to continue their good form coming into this match.

Two of Sri Lanka’ s four points have come from washouts and in their other two matches, they haven’t looked a threatening team. Their main let down has been their batting department who just haven’t scored enough runs for the bowlers to try and get them back into the contest.

Although Sri Lanka’s chances of making it to the semi-finals seem bleak, they will have to believe in themselves that there is still at least a chance if they play their best brand of cricket and express themselves on the field.

There is no easy way out for Sri Lanka. They have matches against England, South Africa, India and West Indies still to come after they have played Australia and they would need nothing less than “wins” in most of these matches to stand any chance of making it to the semis.

Aussies only need three wins from their remaining five matches and by the way they are going about it, they might very well make it.

The likes of Dimuth Karunaratne and Kusal Perera will have to take the responsibility of Sri Lanka’s revival in World Cricket and what better stage than World Cup to do precisely that.

The teams meet at the Oval, London. Live action from 3 pm (IST) onwards.

Squads

Australia: Aaron Finch (c), David Warner, Usman Khawaja, Steve Smith, Shaun Marsh, Alex Carey (wk), Marcus Stoinis, Glenn Maxwell, Mitchell Starc, Kane Richardson, Pat Cummins, Jason Behrendorff, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Adam Zampa, Nathan Lyon

Sri Lanka: Dimuth Karunaratne (c), Avishka Fernando, Suranga Lakmal, Lasith Malinga, Angelo Mathews, Jeevan Mendis, Kusal Mendis (wk), Kusal Perera (wk), Thisara Perera, Nuwan Pradeep, Dhananjaya de Silva, Milinda Siriwardana, Lahiru Thirimanne, Isuru Udana, Jeffrey Vandersay