Sri Lanka opt to bat against England

Leeds, June 21 (IANS) Sri Lanka skipper Dimuth Karunaratne won the toss and elected to bat against England in their World Cup tie at Headingley on Friday.

Sri Lanka have made two changes to their playing XI from the one against Australia. They have excluded Milinda Siriwardana and Lahiru Thirimanne and have brought in Avishka Fernando and Jeevan Mendis. Meanwhile, England have gone with the same team that played against Afghanistan. 

"We'll bat first, looks a batting surface and want to put runs on the board. We are hoping to put some scoreboard pressure. We have two changes -- Jeevan and Avishka in for Lahiru and Milinda. We have had time to regroup and discuss. Need to do something special against England," said Karunaratne after winning the toss. 

England captain Eoin Morgan said: "We would have batted as well, looks a really good wicket. Best time to bat on. We're playing the same team. The wicket here has assisted turn a bit in recent games, so we have both Adil and Moeen. (On managing fast bowlers' workload) First priority is to get to the semi-finals and when/if we do that, we'll decide whom to rest. (On Moeen's 100th ODI) We had a small presentation upstairs. Steven Gerrard sent him (Moeen) a message, so he's buzzing today which is great. He's been a huge part of English cricket for a while now and thoroughly deserves 100 caps." 

Playing XI: Sri Lanka: Dimuth Karunaratne(c), Kusal Perera(w), Avishka Fernando, Kusal Mendis, Angelo Mathews, Thisara Perera, Jeevan Mendis, Dhananjaya de Silva, Isuru Udana, Lasith Malinga, Nuwan Pradeep

England: James Vince, Jonny Bairstow, Joe Root, Eoin Morgan(c), Jos Buttler(w), Ben Stokes, Moeen Ali, Chris Woakes, Adil Rashid, Jofra Archer, Mark Wood