SL 216/7 Thilan Samaraweera 104, Angelo Mathews 51 | Shane Bond 10-2-43-3
NZ 119 all out Grant Elliott 41 | Lasith Malinga 6.1-28-4
A pitch for the bowlers. The slower bowlers they said in particular, but unsurprisingly the duels of the day were Bond/Jayasuriya and Malinga/McCullum – both bowlers apart from being among the best around have intelligently-used slower deliveries and other variations, tailormade for a pitch like this.
Samaraweera seems to have plugged at least one hole in the SL middle-order with this well-paced hundred today as he and Angelo Mathews – while no doubt possessing the advantage of observing what was happening to the batsmen above them – put on the perfect partnership in tough conditions.
The remaining hole in the middle order seems a bit too narrow for Kandamby (unsurprisingly) and with Kapugedera, Mubarak, Chamara, Rupasinghe and Udawatte being tried out in recent times, Jayasuriya wouldn’t be too worried about his current form, as Mahela moving up to replace him would mean a further plug required in the middle order. Unless there’s an upcoming young opener somewhere in SL. Besides, the last time Jayasuriya was dropped, most will recall the destructive run he had in 2007-08 on his comeback. Considering India has been a team he’s done particularly well against, he might actually be looking forward to his next game.
No comments:
Post a Comment