da realsbet： For Sri Lanka this is familiar territory – a thumping victory in Gallefollowed by a series winning opportunity in the hills of Kandy
Charlie Austin21-Aug-2001For Sri Lanka this is familiar territory – a thumping victory in Gallefollowed by an opportunity to seal the series in the hills of Kandy.Against England and South Africa, though, they blew that chance indramatic fashion. With the second Test due to start on Wednesday theyare only too aware of their inglorious record at this ground in thepast twelve months.”We have been down this path before,” said coach Dav Whatmore aftermorning practice. “Recent history is not kind, but we have to try andchange that in this game.”Whatmore was unable to pinpoint a specific reason for their failureagainst South Africa and England: “There are varying causes, but wehave found that the opposition has comeback at us pretty hard after wewon at Galle. There were periods in both games when we required alittle extra fight, but lost wickets and let the opposition back intothe game.”We will not be focusing on those two results, however, as that woulddistract us from what we have to do to win this game,” he revealed.Sri Lankan captain Sanath Jayasuriya was confident: “The batsmen arebatting well and the bowlers are also in good form. If we play like wedid in Galle then there is no reason why we should not win here too.”Jayasuriya, though, expects India to comeback hard: “They must realisewhat they did wrong in the last game. We expect them to come and bowla better line and length in this game and we will therefore have toshow more patience.”Sri Lanka though will have no better opportunity to break their Kandybogey (Sri Lanka have only won two out of the 11 Tests played inKandy) and win their first Test series for 16 months. India have beenravaged 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 roofsthat are being hastily installed at Asgiriya Stadium.Indian captain Sourav Ganguly remained upbeat: “It’s bad luck to losefive of our players, but we have to do the best with what we have. Youhave to look at it positively – we might find a couple of good playersfrom this.”Morale is actually good. We have not lost a Test series for a yearnow, so there is no reason to be down,” he said. “We have been in thissituation before and have bounced back. You never know in this gameand we just have to keep fighting.”Coach John Wright was crystal clear: “The key to this game is that wehave to score runs in the first innings and then put the Sri Lankanbatting under pressure. That is what this game is all about;withstanding the pressure applied by the opposition and applyingpressure 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 bestIndian batsmen, has been promoted to number three while Ganguly, whohas not scored a Test fifty in his last 12 innings and candidly admitsthat 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 SanathJayasuriya too much freedom to play his strokes. Wright pointed outthat: “Seventy per cent of bowling is about putting the ball in theright areas. We have to carry on from where we left off on the thirdday, particularly early in the innings, when we will be put underpressure by Jayasuriya.Sri Lanka, determined to exploit India’s weaknesses against fastbowling, have prepared another seamer friendly surface. Jayasuriyadescribed it as “green and hard” and it is expected to offer thebowlers plenty of bounce. Nevertheless, the pitch is not expected tobe a minefield and the batsmen should be able to score runs.Sri Lanka remain keen to play four fast bowlers, but will not finalisethe side until this evening. Whatmore, however, announced that he was”very happy with the team that played in Galle” and hinted stronglythat Suresh Perera will retain his place despite being reported for asuspect action: “The rules are very clear and Suresh (Perera) canstill 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 bejustified if one takes into account Sri Lanka’s poor record with thebat in Kandy where they average only 206 per innings. It is thoughunlikely. The final option would be for off-spinning allrounder ThilanSamaraweera to make his debut.India have named a twelve man squad with the final slot going eitherto right-arm fast bowler Harvinder Singh or to left-arm spinner RahulSanghvi after they have a look at the pitch On Wednesday morning.Likely teams:Sri Lanka: ST Jayasuriya (Capt), MS Atapattu, K Sangakkara, DPMDJayawardene, RP Arnold, H Tillakaratne, ASA Perera, WPUJC Vaas, CRDFernando, M Muralitharan, PDRL PereraIndia: SC Ganguly (Capt), R Dravid, SS Das, S Ramesh, M Kaif,HK Bandani, SS Dighe, Harbhajan Singh, BKV Prasad, Z Khan, HarvinderSingh. (12th man – RL Sanghvi)