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| Tuesday, 16 March 2004 |
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Rain, a factor at Asgiriya Sa'adi Thawfeeq reporting from Asgiriya KANDY, Monday - Asgiriya is identified as being synonymous not only with cricket but with rain as well. The second cricket Test between Sri Lanka and Australia starting here tomorrow is more or less likely to have interruptions to adverse weather conditions if today's weather is any indication for what is in store for the next five days. The steady rain that was coming down from morning was unseasonal. A record book on the weather at Asgiriya maintained by the ground staff since September 1995 indicates that over the last eight years Asgiriya has experienced little or no rain during the month of March. What the rain did was to keep the pitch and a good part of the ground under cover for most of the day. Thankfully occasional showers were experienced only from last week and there was sufficient time for the curator to prepare the pitch. The uncovered areas of the outfield had pools of water. So were the covers that had taken up a lot of water, which meant that there was enough and more work to be done on the super sopper before play actually gets to the point of getting started. The ground has taken a lot of water and was soggy and unless there is a hot sun play is not likely to get started on time. Sri Lanka Cricket's (SLC) director of pitches Anuruddha Polonowita said that unlike the pitch at Galle, the Asgiriya surface would provide more movement and bounce thus encouraging both teams to look at the option of playing two seamers, if not three. Unlike Galle, spin is not likely to play a prominent role here although bowlers in the calibre of Shane Warne, Stuart MacGill and Muttiah Muralitharan will anyway play a part. In a situation like this both sides are going to be undecided what their playing eleven is going to be. It is no surprise if they put it off until the morning of the match because there is no guarantee that the Test might even start tomorrow. Such is the unpredictability of the weather. "We have not decided on the final eleven but it is likely that we will go into the match with two fast bowlers. Kandy does support the fast bowlers more than Galle," said Sri Lanka captain Hashan Tillakaratne. Lanky left-armer Nuwan Zoysa is expected to return for his first Test in 20 months and share the new ball with Chaminda Vaas. The 6ft 5ins tall bowler played the last of his 24 Tests against England at Birmingham in June 2002. The selectors are also contemplating on whether to retain Upul Chandana or to go with either Rangana Herath or Kaushal Lokuarachchi. Fitness test Sri Lanka has fitness worries with Tilan Samaraweera expected to undergo a fitness test tomorrow morning on his groin injury. Avishka Gunawardene is on standby and according to chairman of selectors Lalith Kaluperuma; he will bat in the top three of the order if he is selected to play. Sanath Jayasuriya who had one stitch inserted into his webbing around the right thumb is expected to be play despite the fact that there may be some concerns over his fielding. Sri Lanka facing their first home series defeat since 2001 but Tillakaratne insisted that his team are not under pressure. "The results are not a worry. We just want to play good cricket. We know we are playing the world's best team." Off-spinner Muttiah Muralitharan caused some concern today when he complained of a stomach pain. But Tillakaratne said: "Murali was complaining in the morning but it is not a major thing and we expect him to play." "The bowlers didn't support Murali well during the first Test. We need them to provide more pressure here and bowl more dot balls," said Tillakaratne. With Warne having reached the 500-wicket mark at Galle, it is now the turn of Muralitharan to emulate the feats of Courtney Walsh (519 wickets) and Warne (501 wickets). Muralitharan starts the Test with 496 wickets from 86 Tests and what better place to achieve it than at Kandy, his hometown. He has 72 wickets from 11 Tests at this venue including a career best 9 for 51 against Zimbabwe in 2001-02. Tillakaratne said that his team had analysed where they went wrong at Galle and they needed to tighten up their game a little. "We cannot afford to relax like we did last time as Australia have shown that they can do extraordinary things when you do that. We were disappointed by the last Test but that is history now," he said. Tillakaratne admitted that his team was negative against Warne. "We defended too many deliveries and there were too many dot balls when we could have rotated the strike and scored runs," he said. 'We'll blast them out' The Australian camp are also in very the same situation as Sri Lanka on team selection. "It is hard to say what we will do just yet. We did not know what to make of the wicket when we got down there yesterday. We expect that there might be a bit more grass than they would have liked for the start of the game. If that is the case, we will certainly have to look at the make-up of our side," said Ponting. Australia is certain to add another seamer into their line up making it three quicks. Brad Williams is the likely choice to team up with Jason Gillespie and Michael Kasprowicz. "Brad has been bowling well all summer and he 's been bowling well in the nets and that is a positive for us if we decide to go in with three quickies. He will remain in calculations over the next 24 hours," he said. Ponting said that Australia will adopt the same approach here. "We got it exactly right in our second innings and we were patient with the ball. If the wicket is green and we go into the match with three fast bowlers, we may try to blast them out and unsettle them a little more," he said. Andrew Symonds who made his Test debut at Galle and leg-spinner Stuart MacGill may have to sit out this Test if Australia decided to go ahead with a three-man pace attack. "If you look back at why we made the tough call on Simon in the last game it was because of the balance and because we thought we might need another medium pace option in Galle," said Ponting. "If we decide to go with three quicks then we may not need that medium pace option and (Simon) Katich might get a chance back in the side." "Sometimes you just have to bite the bullet. Making changes after one test is not something you like doing and it makes it harder to do after a team performs as well as it did last week but sometimes conditions warrant that. "What we have seen here suggests that we might have to make another couple of changes. I am not saying that we will but if the weather stays and they are not able to get on the wicket today than there is every chance that we will," said Ponting. "It is important on these types of wickets that you don't over attack, which we sometimes do in Australia. You've got have fieldsmen in areas where catches are going to go off to good balls as well as off bad balls. We were a little bit aggressive on the first and second day," said Ponting. The teams: SRI LANKA (from): Hashan Tillakaratne (captain), Marvan Atapattu, Sanath Jayasuriya, Kumar Sangakkara, Mahela Jayawardene, Tillakaratne Dilshan, Tilan Samaraweera, Chaminda Vaas, Nuwan Zoysa, Muttiah Muralitharan, Upul Chandana, Rangana Herath, Avishka Gunawardene, Saman Jayantha. AUSTRALIA (from): Ricky Ponting (captain), Justin Langer, Mathew Hayden, Damien Martyn, Darren Lehmann, Simon Katich, Andrew Symonds, Adam Gilchrist, Shane Warne, Jason Gillsepie, Michael Kasprowicz, Brad Williams, Stuart MacGill. UMPIRES: Steve Bucknor (West Indies) and Dave Orchard (South Africa), TV Umpire: Tyronne Wijewardene (Sri Lanka), Match Referee: Chris Broad (England). |
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