ICC World T20 warm-up - preview

Date released: 29 May 2009

The build-up to the ICC World Twenty20 continues at Lord's on Wednesday 3 June - with two warm-up matches: Sri Lanka v South Africa & hosts England v West Indies.

Live coverage

Lords.org will be covering every ball of every match at Lord's live online - join us for our live over-by-over coverage.

Ticket & gate news

Please note: the East Gate will be closed on Wednesday 3 June. If your ticket states "East Gate" as your entrance point, please proceed to the North Gate in Wellington Place.

Gates open at Lord's at 11:30am - with the first match (Sri Lanka v South Africa) taking place at 1:30pm. England v West Indies starts at 5:30pm.

Tickets are available on the gates from: £30/£20 for adults and just £10 for under-16s - and will give you access to both matches. Two matches; four teams and forty four of the world's best players.

Preview
Sri Lanka v South Africa

The first match of the day sees Sri Lanka take on South Africa.

The Sri Lankans seem ideally suited to adapting their game to the shortened Twenty20 format. They were the last team other than Australia to win the 50-over Cricket World Cup (in 1996).

They also shared the ICC Champions Trophy with India in 2002 after rain washed out the final.

'Murali': The world's best bowler? Captain Kumar Sangakkara boasts a wealth of T20 experience as one of the stars of the Indian Premier League (IPL).

With experienced players like Mahela Jayawardene and
Sanath Jayasuriya to call on, as well as arguably the world's best bowler: Muttiah Muralitharan - Sri Lanka are many people's outside bet to win the tournament.

South Africa arrive as the world's top ranked Test team.

Proteas' skipper Smith has scored centuries aplenty at Lord's Their skipper, Graeme Smith boasts experience of winning T20 tournaments in England - he helped Somerset win the T20 Cup in 2005 with some astonishingly high scoring.

Smith was also part of the Rajasthan Royals team that won the inaugural IPL title in 2008.

He can call on talent like the Morkel brothers: Albie and Morne; the first man to hit six sixes in a over, Herschelle Gibbs and one of the world's best all-rounders Jacques Kallis.

England v West Indies

Fresh from a 2-0 Test series win and a win by the same score in their recent one-day series, England and West Indies meet again on Wednesday.

England will be without talismanic all-rounder Andrew Flintoff who is out injured but are not short of Twenty20 talent.

Pietersen plays the 'slog sweep' Kevin Pietersen became one of the IPL's most expensive players when the Bangalore Royal Challengers signed him in 2009. Famous for bringing the 'reverse slog sweep' to the attention of many and fresh from a short injury lay-off, Pietersen will be keen to impress.

Kent captain Robert Key lead his side to two domestic T20 Cup Finals, winning the title in 2007.

Less experienced but no less talented Graham Napier set the T20 world alight with a world-record 16 sixes in his score of 152 not out for Essex in 2008. Napier was also part of the Essex side who won the Friends Provident Trophy at Lord's in 2008.

Eoin Morgan's strike rate of 135.43 as part of the 2008 T20 Cup winning Middlesex side caught the eye too.

After their poor showing against England, the West Indies will be out to set the record straight.

Captain Chris Gayle will be under even more pressure than usual having said he would "not be that sad" if Test cricket died out, as he prefers the shorter format.

Results against England may have dampened his enjoyment - he'll want to have a bit more fun in the T20 format!

It's sure to be more big-hitting all action cricket at Lord's - make sure you're here to see it... and if you can't make it, follow it live online with Lords.org.