Sri Lanka suffered a crippling blow when they lost Muthiah Muralitharan from the rest of the ICC World T20 due to a groin injury. Sri Lanka had, earlier, lost the first game they played in the tournament to New Zealand, in a close encounter that went down to the wire.

Muralitharan suffered from the groin injury in Sri Lanka’s first game of the tournament against the Kiwis. He bowled his four overs, for 25 runs and scalped a couple of wickets as well, before walking out of the park due to the injury.

Muraltharan then went for some tests, in which it was revealed that he would require two to three weeks of rest for the injury to heal.

The injury also means that the Sri Lankan will miss him for their today’s game against Zimbabwe, which assumes crucial proportions for the side. Sri Lanka, by losing their first game to New Zealand, have got into an unenviable position; they have to win it to have any chance of going through to the next round.

Despite the loss to New Zealand and Murali, Sri Lanka is still 7/1 (Bet365) to win the tournament. Coral offers a New Zealand win in the tournament, 10/1, while Australia’s convincing win over Pakistan has convinced the bookies that they have a very good chance of winning the tournament, and Blue Square offers 7/2 for them to win it.