Sri Lanka won the toss at the party at Premadasa and decided to bat first. Both the hosts and Zimbabwe were through to the Super Eight already, but for Sri Lanka it was important to get in their injury replacements.
The big one, of course, was Matheesha Pathirana, whose tournament ended with a calf injusy sustained during the match against Australia. His replacement in the squad, Dilshan Madushanka, came straight into the XI. Also given a look-in was Pramod Madushan, the fast bowler who was already in the squad. In order to organise this virtual bowl-off between Madushan and Madushanka, Sri Lanka rested their lead fast bowler Dushmantha Chameera.
Zimbabwe made no changes to the XI that shocked Australia and this World Cup. They were looking to bowl first anyway because of the forecast for some drizzle later on and hoping to bat in better batting conditions once the lights came on.
Sri Lanka 1 Pathum Nissanka, 2 Kusal Perera, 3 Kusal Mendis (wk), Pavan Rathnayake, 5 Dasun Shanaka (capt.), 6 Kamindu Mendis, 7 Dunith Wellalage, 8 Dushan Hemantha, 9 Maheesh Theekshana, 10 Pramod Madushan, 11 Dilshan Madushanka
Zimbabwe 1 Brian Bennett, 2 Tadiwanashe Marumani (wk), 3 Dion Myers, 4 Sikandar Raza (capt.), 5 Ryan Burl, 6 Tony Munyonga, 7 Tashinga Musekiwa, 8 Brad Evans, 9 Wellington Masakadza, 10 Graeme Cremer, 11 Blessing Muzarabani
