Schutt to Vishmi Gunaratne, no run

Healy comes up to the stumps now

Schutt to Vishmi Gunaratne, no run

Schutt to Vishmi Gunaratne, no run

Schutt to Vishmi Gunaratne, no run

Vishmi Gunaratne and Chamari Athapaththu are at the crease. Vishmi Gunaratne is on strike. Schutt will open the attack

Okay then, Australia make their way to the middle.

The players are walking out for the anthems.

Pitch report | Natalie Germanos and Lisa Sthalekar: It's a fresh pitch for today's double-header. 36 degrees is the high for today. There is a breeze going across the ground. Straight hit is 73 meters. 57 meters and 63 meters square boundary. Out of the 31 wickets that fell, 22 went to the spinners on the first day. The difference with this pitch is that there's not as much grass covering.

Teams:

Sri Lanka Women (Playing XI): Vishmi Gunaratne, Chamari Athapaththu(c), Harshitha Samarawickrama, Hasini Perera, Kavisha Dilhari, Nilakshi de Silva, Anushka Sanjeewani(w), Sachini Nisansala, Sugandika Kumari, Inoshi Priyadharshani, Inoka Ranaweera

Australia Women (Playing XI): Alyssa Healy(w/c), Beth Mooney, Ellyse Perry, Ashleigh Gardner, Phoebe Litchfield, Tahlia McGrath, Annabel Sutherland, Georgia Wareham, Sophie Molineux, Megan Schutt, Darcie Brown

Healy: Doesn't matter (what they were going to do if they won the toss). There's a calmness around the group which is amazing. A lot of the girls are in their first World Cup. It's a fresh wicket today. Have to adapt quickly. The girls are in good nick. Breeze is quite nice. Phoebe is coming into the team and is fit and ready to go. Darcie Brown is in the side as well obviously.

Athapaththu: We're going to bat first. I know the heat is heavy today, hope we can execute the plans. Conditions aren't good for batters but we can't complain. End of the day we have to play positive cricket. One change for us.

Sri Lanka Women have won the toss and have opted to bat

Sri Lanka, the Asia Cup champions, came into this tournament with high hopes but received a big setback on the opening day as they suffered a comprehensive loss against Pakistan.

Australia are aiming to win the title for a record fourth consecutive time, having won in 2018, 2020 and 2023. But it's the first time in a long time that they enter a major tournament without Meg Lanning in charge. Alyssa Healy took over the reins from Lanning late last year after she called time on her international career.

1pm local: Hello and welcome to our coverage of Match 5 of the T20 World Cup. We're into the third day of the tournament, and it's time for defending champs Australia to kick off their campaign as they take on Sri Lanka in this Group A encounter in Sharjah. In the two games played at this venue so far, the outfield was painfully slow, as was the pitch, and batters had a hard time to get going. Will be interesting to see how the world-beaters adapt to these conditions.

Preview

Over the past few months, Sri Lanka have witnessed a renaissance of sorts and rolled past a lot of teams around the world that they hadn't in the past. However, a defeat against Pakistan in their World Cup opener has put Chamari Athapaththu's team in a precarious position quite early in the competition. To make it worse, after only a day's break, they are set to face the defending champions Australia, a team they've never beaten.

The loss against Pakistan again emphasised that despite the other players' improved performances, Sri Lanka are still highly dependent on Athapaththu's all-round showing. The Sri Lankan skipper has enjoyed good times against Australia in the past (Avg 38.14, SR: 118.14 in 7 T20Is), and would hope to reserve her best against the Alyssa Healy-led side on Sunday. A win against Australia would complete Sri Lanka's fairytale run over the last year.

However, it's unlikely to come easy, especially against a side that is so stacked with talent and has all the bases covered. So much so that they can afford the luxury of not finding a place for Jess Jonassen in the squad. While they haven't been able to dominate the way they did under Meg Lanning's captaincy, they are so far ahead of the pack that a defeat against any team would be a surprise, if not an upset. The resurgent Sri Lankan team, and the newly crowned Asian champions, could pose a challenge to them, but they would have to present the strongest version of their cricketing skills to shake up the competition.

When: Saturday, October 5, 2024, 2:00 PM (Local Time)

Where: Australia vs Sri Lanka, Match 5, Sharjah Cricket Stadium

What to expect: None of the four teams that batted in Sharjah on the opening day managed to register a score of 120. Expect another low-scorer. However, the battle between the Australian batters and the Sri Lankan spinners could be interesting.

Team News:

Australia: With all bases covered, including depth in batting and bowling departments, Australia have the option of choosing multiple combinations to go with.

Probable XI: Alyssa Healy, Beth Mooney, Elysse Perry, Ash Gardner, Phoebe Litchfield, Tahlia McGrath, Grace Harris, Georgia Wareham, Annabel Sutherland, Sophie Molineux, Megan Schutt

Sri Lanka: Despite the loss, Sri Lanka are unlikely to make any changes to their XI

Probable XI: Vishmi Gunaratne, Chamari Athapaththu, Harshitha Samarawickrama, Hasini Perera, Kavisha Dilhari, Nilakshi De Silva, Anushka Sanjeewani, Sachini Nisansala, Sugandika Kumari, Inoshi Priyadharshani, Udeshika Prabodhani

What they said:

I feel it (Sharjah) is tricky because the wicket is slow and low, and the outfield is tricky as well. We need to play positive, fearless cricket and have the right approach. We know Australia is a very good team but if we play our best cricket, we can beat anyone. Just need to adjust to these conditions quickly - Chamari Athapaththu, Sri Lanka captain, following the team's defeat against Australia

Squads: