Sydney, Australia: Sri Lanka captain Angelo Mathews won the toss and elected to bat against South Africa in the first World Cup quarter-final at the Sydney Cricket Ground on Wednesday.

South Africa were looking to win their first World Cup knockout match, with Sri Lanka, the 1996 champions and runners-up in 2007 and 2011 bidding for a third straight appearance in the final.

Whichever side wins this match will play either New Zealand or the West Indies, who meet on Saturday, in a March 24 semi-final in Auckland.

Angelo Mathews has confirmed that Sri Lanka will be indulging in their known strategy of unleashing a ‘mystery spinner’, who he termed ‘duplicate Muttiah Muralitharan’ after winning the toss. Hope this does not backfire on Sri Lanka.

Couple of changes for Sri Lanka; Tharindu Kaushal, Nuwan Kulasekara and another young bowler, Dushmantha Chamdeera have been drafted into the side. The big news is that Rangana Herath has been ruled out of the World Cup.

South Africa too have made changes as Vernon Philander is not playing and Kyle Abbott has been drafted in. No Farhaan Behardien, which is good as the in-form Rilee Rossouw is in.

South Africa: Hashim Amla, Quinton de Kock (wk), Faf du Plessis, Rilee Rossouw, AB de Villiers (c), David Miller, Jean-Paul Duminy, Dale Steyn, Kyle Abbott, Morne Morkel, Imran Tahir.

Sri Lanka: Kushal Janith Perera, Tillakaratne Dilshan, Kumar Sangakkara (wk), Mahela Jayawardene, Lahiru Thirimanne, Angelo Mathews (c), Thisara Perera, Nuwan Kulasekara, T Kaushal, Lasith Malinga, Dushmantha Chameera