Wednesday, September 07, 2011

Battle for Sri Lanka moves to Kandy

The quality of the pitch for the first Test in Galle has been questioned by the match referee Chris Broad after a bevy of wickets fell for very few runs and that must be on the mind of the ground staff at the Pallekele Stadium, but we should still expect the pitch to be one of the classic slow, low turners of Sri Lanka. That kind of pitch did not trouble the Aussies too much in Galle, but they did have the advantage of batting first before the pitch deteriorated.

All-rounder Shane Watson, however, feels that his team would have won even if they had bowled first, such was the discipline of the Australian bowlers. His captain, however, suggested that winning the toss and batting first had been crucial to the win.

Be that as it may, the two teams will again lock horns and the Lankans will hope to put up a better fight. Although there were a couple of good knocks from Mahela Jayawardena and Angelo Mathews in the second innings, and excellent bowling from Rangana Herath throughout, they will still need to do a lot more if they want to beat Australia, even a weakened Australia, in the second Test.

The visitors will be missing out on Ricky Ponting, who recently notched up 100 Test wins in his career. He will miss the Test match to be with his wife for the birth of their second child and Australia have already announced that Shaun Marsh will take his place. The left-hander has yet to make his Test debut and he might face a bit of a challenge coming in at number three, after batting most of the time as an opener.

Marsh is also a noted fielder and he will be replacing one of the best in the Australian side. Ponting has been noted on this tour for his excellent fielding in vital positions, despite the worry that he would be hampered by the injury to his finger that he sustained during the Ashes.

Things could have been very different for Sri Lanka had their batsmen exercised a little more control over their batting in the first innings of the first Test, but one of those batsman has apologised not at all. Captain Tillakaratne Dilshan refuses to change his aggressive batting approach, one that has served Lanka well in the past, even after recording two small scores in Galle. When it works, it works really well for him and the team, as he proved against England earlier in the summer.

This ground has only hosted one Test match, when Sri Lanka met the West Indies in December last year. Sadly, there was so much rain at the time that even the first innings was not completed over the course of five days. Herath, however, had a pretty good time, taking 4/54, and he will look to do as well or even better against Australia.

Monday, September 05, 2011

Will England rely on the rain to save them again?

After a pretty dismal tour, India looked good in the first ODI against England until the weather ruined the day’s entertainment and the match had to be called off. The widely criticised Indian batting put on a good show, with two half-centuries from Parthiv Patel and Virat Kohli. There were also solid contributions from Ajinkya Rahane, Suresh Raina and captain MS Dhoni, even as India were missing out on Sachin Tendulkar and had to see Rohit Sharma retire hurt after just one delivery faced.

Praveen Kumar also had England’s batting on the ropes by removing Alastair Cook and Craig Kieswetter early on with his swing bowling and India looked to be an almost completely different side to the one that lost all four Tests and the lone T20I.

The tour moves to Southampton for the second ODI and the hosts will look for a stronger performance at the Rose Bowl. It is expected to be a rainy day, but hopefully there will still be a chance for a full game.

Five of the six England bowlers took at least one wicket, with both Tim Bresnan and Stuart Broad taking two. They were not all that threatening, however, with the Indian batsmen able to take runs off them at a very good rate.

They only batted for 7.2 overs and it did not look all that promising. Still, such a short amount of time is not enough to judge how they would have done, and expect England to put up a better show tomorrow.

Sharma’s injury has meant that Manoj Tiwary has been called up to replace him and there are still doubts surrounding Tendulkar’s fitness because of an injured toe. No real need to say it, but he is still looking for that 100^th century and India are looking for that first win on the current tour. That makes the Southampton match all the more interesting.