Lanka encounter problems with Duke ball

Sa'adi Thawfeeq reporting from England

CRICKET: Sri Lanka's wobbly middle-order batting line-up will be put to its harshest test in conditions far from home when they take commence their three-Test series against England at Lord's, here on Thursday.

Sri Lanka should be thankful that they are not coming up against the likes of Harmison, Anderson and Jones, all of whom have been sidelined by injuries.

Any team would be quite happy to go into a Test without this deadly trio, but Sri Lanka's batting confidence has been more so like 'blow hot blow cold' that bowlers with lesser experience like Jonathan Lewis and Liam Plunkett are capable of exposing their batting deficiencies against swing and bounce.

The pair has already dented the Lankans confidence by bagging 13 of the 20 wickets to fall at Worcester. With Matthew Hoggard and Andrew Flintoff and Sajid Mahmood joining the line up, Sri Lankan batsmen will have their hands full in trying to cope with the England attack.

One ray of hope for Sri Lanka was that it is very unlikely they will encounter a pitch at Lord's similar to that they got at Worcester.

Former England spinner Vic Marks writing in the 'London Observer' described the pitch as 'substandard' and 'unreliable'.

"Worcester's wicket is substandard at the moment and while the England set-up will welcome the fact that Sri Lanka have been thrashed in two-and-a-half days, this outcome does not tally with the ECB's long-term determination to raise the profile of the 'A' team. To provide a spectacle, they need to play on better pitches than this," wrote Marks.

Despite the loss, Sri Lanka coach Tom Moody remained doggedly positive. "At least we have a clear indication of what the 2006 Duke ball will do," he said.

In the past Sri Lanka's had faced enough and more problems with the Duke ball which has conventional swing. Not only the batsmen but also the fast bowlers especially Chaminda Vaas had difficulty bowling with it. Only in England is the Duke ball used. In India the balls used are SG. The rest of the Test playing nations including Sri Lanka, use Kookaburra.

For Sri Lanka to have any kind of success against England, Vaas will have to fire early and take wickets with the Duke ball because at this time of the summer in England it is unlikely that reverse swing will play a key role.

On paper the Lankan batting line up is as attractive and strong as any in the world.

The top six in the order Tharanga (avg. 48.88), Vandort (68.20), Sangakkara (47.47), Jayawardene (47.09), Dilshan (38.17) and Samaraweera (45.04) sport Test career batting averages that any team will be proud of.

But compare these figures with their current batting form in England. Tharanga (avg. 27.83), Vandort (16.50), Sangakkara (24.25), Jayawardene (10.50), Dilshan (22.66) and Samaraweera (50.00) and you can see why the Sri Lankan team are likely to have more worries in their hands than England who are struggling with injuries.

Apart from the three fast bowlers England are going to be without captain Michael Vaughan and left-arm spinner Ashley Giles who are also on the injured list.

For England this is their best chance to give exposure to a few youngsters before they sit down to pick a team at the end of the season in September to defend the all-important 'Ashes' in Australia and a few months later for the 2007 World Cup in the Caribbean.

They would be only too glad to have their five injured players fit and back in the team to take the flight to Australia for a series, which will be more important than the ones scheduled for the summer against Sri Lanka and Pakistan.