Sri Lanka aim to break Kandy bogey in second Test
Charlie Austin - 21 August 2001
For Sri Lanka this is familiar territory - a thumping victory in Galle
followed by an opportunity to seal the series in the hills of Kandy.
Against England and South Africa, though, they blew that chance in
dramatic fashion. With the second Test due to start on Wednesday they
are only too aware of their inglorious record at this ground in the
past twelve months.
"We have been down this path before," said coach Dav Whatmore after
morning practice. "Recent history is not kind, but we have to try and
change that in this game."
Whatmore was unable to pinpoint a specific reason for their failure
against South Africa and England: "There are varying causes, but we
have found that the opposition has comeback at us pretty hard after we
won at Galle. There were periods in both games when we required a
little extra fight, but lost wickets and let the opposition back into
the game.
"We will not be focusing on those two results, however, as that would
distract us from what we have to do to win this game," he revealed.
Sri Lankan captain Sanath Jayasuriya was confident: "The batsmen are
batting well and the bowlers are also in good form. If we play like we
did in Galle then there is no reason why we should not win here too."
Jayasuriya, though, expects India to comeback hard: "They must realise
what they did wrong in the last game. We expect them to come and bowl
a better line and length in this game and we will therefore have to
show more patience."
Sri Lanka though will have no better opportunity to break their Kandy
bogey (Sri Lanka have only won two out of the 11 Tests played in
Kandy) and win their first Test series for 16 months. India have been
ravaged by a spate of injuries and without four key players -
Tendulkar (toe), Laxman (knee), Kumble (shoulder), and Srinath (hand)
- their confidence looks as frail as the rickety corrugated iron roofs
that are being hastily installed at Asgiriya Stadium.
Indian captain Sourav Ganguly remained upbeat: "It's bad luck to lose
five of our players, but we have to do the best with what we have. You
have to look at it positively - we might find a couple of good players
from this.
"Morale is actually good. We have not lost a Test series for a year
now, so there is no reason to be down," he said. "We have been in this
situation before and have bounced back. You never know in this game
and we just have to keep fighting."
Coach John Wright was crystal clear: "The key to this game is that we
have to score runs in the first innings and then put the Sri Lankan
batting under pressure. That is what this game is all about;
withstanding the pressure applied by the opposition and applying
pressure onto the opposition."
India have therefore tinkered with the batting line-up. Rahul Dravid,
who scored an unbeaten 61 in the first Test and looked by far the best
Indian batsmen, has been promoted to number three while Ganguly, who
has not scored a Test fifty in his last 12 innings and candidly admits
that he has been "looking forward to scoring runs for sometime now,"
will bat at number four.
The tourist's bowling was poor in Galle, where they gave Sanath
Jayasuriya too much freedom to play his strokes. Wright pointed out
that: "Seventy per cent of bowling is about putting the ball in the
right areas. We have to carry on from where we left off on the third
day, particularly early in the innings, when we will be put under
pressure by Jayasuriya.
Sri Lanka, determined to exploit India's weaknesses against fast
bowling, have prepared another seamer friendly surface. Jayasuriya
described it as "green and hard" and it is expected to offer the
bowlers plenty of bounce. Nevertheless, the pitch is not expected to
be a minefield and the batsmen should be able to score runs.
Sri Lanka remain keen to play four fast bowlers, but will not finalise
the side until this evening. Whatmore, however, announced that he was
"very happy with the team that played in Galle" and hinted strongly
that Suresh Perera will retain his place despite being reported for a
suspect action: "The rules are very clear and Suresh (Perera) can
still play international cricket during the next six weeks."
There is though also the option of bringing in an extra batsman,
Romesh Kaluwitharana, to bolster the batting. That could well be
justified if one takes into account Sri Lanka's poor record with the
bat in Kandy where they average only 206 per innings. It is though
unlikely. The final option would be for off-spinning allrounder Thilan
Samaraweera to make his debut.
India have named a twelve man squad with the final slot going either
to right-arm fast bowler Harvinder Singh or to left-arm spinner Rahul
Sanghvi after they have a look at the pitch On Wednesday morning.
Likely teams:
Sri Lanka: ST Jayasuriya (Capt), MS Atapattu, K Sangakkara, DPMD
Jayawardene, RP Arnold, H Tillakaratne, ASA Perera, WPUJC Vaas, CRD
Fernando, M Muralitharan, PDRL Perera
India: SC Ganguly (Capt), R Dravid, SS Das, S Ramesh, M Kaif,
HK Bandani, SS Dighe, Harbhajan Singh, BKV Prasad, Z Khan, Harvinder
Singh. (12th man - RL Sanghvi)
© CricInfo
Teams
|
India,
Sri Lanka.
|
Players/Umpires
|
Sanath Jayasuriya,
Marvan Atapattu,
Kumar Sangakkara,
Mahela Jayawardene,
Russel Arnold,
Hashan Tillakaratne,
Suresh Perera,
Chaminda Vaas,
Dilhara Fernando,
Muttiah Muralitharan,
Ruchira Perera,
Sourav Ganguly,
Rahul Dravid,
Shiv Sunder Das,
Sadagoppan Ramesh,
Mohammad Kaif,
Hemang Badani,
Sameer Dighe,
Harbhajan Singh,
Venkatesh Prasad,
Zaheer Khan,
Harvinder Singh,
Rahul Sanghvi.
|
Tours
|
India in Sri Lanka
|
Grounds
|
Asgiriya Stadium, Kandy
|