Dravid confident of win against Sri Lanka

Port of Spain, Mar 23 (UNI) Skipper Rahul Dravid exuded confidence of beating Sri Lanka today's World Cup Group 'B' league match that India must win to avoid the humiliation of being ousted from the tournament in the first round.

''We have a critical game against Sri Lanka, we need to win this to qualify for the Super 8s,'' Dravid told reporters yesterday after the team's training session at the Queen's Park Oval, which has been India's favorite Caribbean venue for over three decades.

The specter of early elimination is hanging over India, after it suffered a five-wicket defeat against Bangladesh.

But Dravid said his team has not been thinking of that possibility.

''We're not entertaining any negative thoughts, we're confident of winning this game and even carrying two points into the Super 8s.

''What we talk about is the successes we'd achieved in tight games in the past, using them to motivate the boys to go out and do so again,'' he said.

''There's a lot of resilience in this team,'' he said.

''We have the ability and qualification to perform well. The boys need to keep the focus and deliver tomorrow.'' India goes into the Group B match having beaten subcontinental rival Sri Lanka in eight of the last 10 games that produced a result. It has also outplayed Sri Lanka in the past two World Cups.

''Past history is not relevant, it's about performing on a given day,'' Dravid said. ''We have to rectify the mistakes of the off-day against Bangladesh.

''We always knew Sri Lanka will be strong and this is a match we'll have to win to carry two points to the Supers 8s. We've just added some additional pressure on ourselves by making this a must-win game to advance from the first round,'' he said.

Dravid acknowledged that there was little difference between India and Sri Lanka's teams, ''but we've had the sway over Sri Lanka.'' Sri Lankan team's coach, Tom Moody asserted his team ''deserved to carry the two points in Super 8s.'' Sri Lanka is already assured of a place in the Super 8s after defeating debutant Bermuda and Bangladesh, but needs to defeat India to carry forward two points to the Super 8s.

Points are only carried forward for the match against the other team advancing from the preliminary group.

''We're eager to carry two points into the next round. If that's at India's expense, so be it,'' Moody said and added: ''It's about us, not India.'' UNI HSB DH VP0416