Match Details
Match – ICC Twenty20 World Cup 2010, 1st Match Group B
Date – April 30 2010
Time – 17:00 GMT, 22:30 IST
Venue – Providence Stadium, Guyana

The prestigious ICC T20 World Cup begins today with last year finalist Sri Lanka taking on New Zealand at Providence Stadium, Guyana. Sri Lanka will be hoping to start from where they left last year and win this year’s edition. On the other hand, The Black Caps had a mix year in International cricket. They would be dependent on batsmen like Ross Tylor, Brendon McCullum and Jayse Ryder and would be hoping that the failure in IPL would not bother these batsmen and they would come back in this edition of T20 World Cup.

ICC T20 World Cup 2010 Team Squads
Sri Lanka Twenty20 World Cup Team
Kumar Sangakara (Captain & WK), Sanath Jayasurya, Angelo Mathews, T.Dilshan, C.Kapugedara, Thissara Perera, Mahela Jayawardne, Dinesh Chandimal, C.Jayasinghe, L.Malinga, N.Kulasekara, M.Muralitharan, Suraj Randiv, C.Welegedara, Ajantha Mendis.

New Zealand Twenty20 World Cup Team
Daniel Vettori (Captain), Brendon McCullum (WK), Ross Taylor, M.Guptil, Nathan McCullum, Jesse Ryder, Scott Styris, Jacob Oram, Aaron Redmond, Rob Nicol, Kyle Mills, Ian Butler, Garath Hopkins, Shane Bond, Tim Southee.

Final eleven will be announced before the match

In a warm up match against Zimbabwe at Beausejour Cricket Ground, Brett Lee got a muscle strain in his right forearm and is doubtful for T20 World Cup.

It’s a muscle strain,” the team spokesman said. “We have gone to the ICC Technical Committee to ask for a replacement player,” he added.

The replacement is not announced yet but Doug Bollinger or Ryan Harris may be called as his replacement.

The swashbuckling opening batsmen from India, Virender Sehwag has been ruled out of T20 World Cup starting 30th April due to a shoulder injury.

Gautam Gambhir will is now vice captain of Indian team. As a replacement,Tamil Nadu batsman Murli Vijay is given the opportunity due to his excellent form in Indian Premier League.

Indian team’s two of the biggest hitters, Yusuf Pathan and Virender Sehwag agreed on one single point, and that is – IPL has helped a lot in preparing for the upcoming Twenty20 World Cup in the West Indies.

Yusuf said “Everybody is playing in IPL. We are getting good practice. It’s a good opportunity for us that we are playing real matches. It’s (IPL) a big tournament and it’s Twenty20 format same that of the T20 World Cup. You have the momentum,”

“There is a problem when you switch from 50 overs to T20 format. There you need some time to adjust. But here we are in the T20 mode. So it is giving us a good practice ahead of the T20 World Cup in the West Indies,” he added.

Sehwag earlier said that IPL was far better way to prepare for the Twenty20 World Cup than practicing in the nets.

“I’m not too worried about us not being all together until just before the tournament starts as we’re all practising together here in India during the IPL and it’s good to be playing T20 matches rather than practicing for four hours,” said Sehwag.

India had won the inaugural edition of Twenty20 World Cup 2007 and does hope to repeat the same this year.

In a dual blow to the preparations for T20 World Cup 2010, Pakistan’s two superstar Umar Gul and all-rounder Yasir Arafat have been ruled out due to fitness problems

“We have recommended the names of fast bowler Mohammad Sami and another young pace bowler Mohammad Irfan to the board Chairman for final approval as replacements for the World Cup,” chief selector Mohsin Khan told reporters on Sunday.