Sanath heading for another milestone

Chris DHAMBARAGE

CRICKET: Veteran all rounder Sanath Jayasuriya is on the verge of another historic milestone as Sri Lanka look to clinch the three match series with a repeat performance in the second one day international against the touring Bangladesh team at the R. Premadasa International Stadium today.

Sri Lanka are already one up in the series after having won the first one day international by 70 runs at the P. Saravanamuttu Stadium last Friday. They are now just one match away from completing a grand double following their three nil clean sweep in the Test series.

But the game will be of great importance for Sri Lanka’s dynamic all rounder Sanath Jayasuriya who needs only four wickets to reach the three hundred wicket mark.

The 37 year old will be the only player to have scored more than ten thousand runs and to have picked up three hundred wickets in one day internationals.

Jayasuriya who is also the most capped player in the game will be playing in his 397th one day international and has a tally of 296 wickets at an average of 37.32.

The Wisden Cricketer of the year in 1997 has a best effort of six wickets for 29 runs and has a total of 12084 runs under his belt. Jayasuriya is also Sri Lanka’s highest run getter in Test cricket with a total of 6791 runs from 107 games.

The Lankans are confident of putting up another good show but the batting line up will need to strike form after having failed to impress in the first one day international.

The fact was that Bangladesh were quite brilliant on that day and had restricted a powerful Sri Lankan batting line up for under 250 runs.

That was the best positive thing for the visitors who will be once again banking on their seamers to deliver the goods. Bangladesh certainly made a promising start but they just could not consolidate their position with the top order batsmen throwing the game away.

Sri Lanka will be quite aware of this fact and they will be determined to put up a good score on the board.

The track at the R. Premadasa Stadium is likely to help the stroke makers and the Lankans would like to bat first and make use of the conditions. The ground secretary of the Stadium P. Sooriyarachchi said that new clay have been laid on the wicket and there should be equal chances for the batsmen as well as the bowlers.

In addition the R. Premadasa Stadium will have a new look fast outfield and a high scoring contest is most probably on the cards. Sri Lankas are certainly determined to pull off the series and they have retained the same eleven for this game.

This means that all rounder Upul Chandana and middle order batsman Chamara Kapugedera will have to wait for another day.

The teams:

Sri Lanka (from): Mahela Jayawardena (captain), Kumar Sangakkara, Malinga Bandara, Upul Chandana, Tillekeratne Dilshan, Dilhara Fernando, Sanath Jayasuriya, Chamara Kapugedera, Nuwan Kulasekera, Farveez Maharoof, Lasith Malinga, Jehan Mubarak, Chamara Silva and Upul Tharanga.

Bangladesh (from): Mohamed Ashraful, Mashrafe Mortaza, Abdur Razzak, Aftab Ahmed, Farhad Reza, Javed Omar, Mahmudullah, Mehrab Hossain, Shahadat Hossain, Mushfiqur Rahim, Shahriar Nafeez, Shakib Al Hasen, Syed Rasel, Tamim Iqbal, Tushar Imran.

Umpirs: Rudi Koertzen and T. H. Wijewardena.

Third umpire: Ranmore Martinesz.