Failed to pick up early wickets on final day - Mahela

Chris DHAMBARAGE

Sri Lankan captain Mahela Jayawardena believed that his team’s inability to pick up early wickets was the main reason that they could not force a result to the second Test match against the touring England team which ended in a draw at the SSC ground in Maitland Place yesterday.

Jayawardena who hit a magnificent 195 runs in the first innings noted that their game plan was to strike early with the new ball and to help ace spinner Muttiah Muralitharan to run through the England middle order during the last two sessions of play.

The Sri Lankan captain praised the England openers Michael Vaughn and Alistair Cook for some splendid batting where they figured in a century partnership for the second time in the match.

He stressed the fact that the SSC wicket had turned out to be such a flat and slow pitch that even in two days of play they would have struggled to get England out for the second time in the match. He also noted even Muralitharan was not getting enough out of it as the wicket was just too slow to exploit.

In fact Muralitharan took only one wicket from the 27 overs in the second innings and overall he managed a disappointing 6 for173 from 74 overs.

Nevertheless Jayawardena felt that Sri Lanka will have a psychological edge over their opponents while going into the third Test in Galle next week after having piled up a huge 548 for 9 in reply to England’s first innings total of 351 all out.

Jayawardena said that his dismissal early on the fourth day was a crucial one because they were well set and were looking to accelerate the scoring rate at that stage. The Sri Lankan captain said that they were thinking of playing a mind game and to apply the pressure on the England batsmen soon after they had declared with a first innings lead of 197 runs.

The other option was to declare much early with a lead of around 125 runs but then Jayawardena felt that England would have easily knocked off the runs and batted more convincingly in the second innings.

Even then the Sri Lankan captain felt that England did not bat well in their first innings when the conditions were ideal for batting and 351 runs from five sessions did not help their cause.

Jayawardena said that the absence of veteran Sanath Jayasuriya certainly made a huge difference in their bowling attack and was compelled to use leg spinner Chamara Silva as a part time bowler. He said that Silva could develop into a handy bowler with a little bit of extra work and commitment at the nets.

However the Sri Lankan captain believed that in the long run the team should have a permanent bowler who could support the spin of Muralitharan especially when competing under home conditions.

He said that they are unlikely to make any major changes for the third and final Test in Galle but will have a discussion with the selectors on the performance of middle order batsman Jehan Mubarak who is currently struggling for runs.

Meanwhile the England captain Michael Vaughan praised his top order batsmen for securing a draw in the second Test while leaving them still able to tie the series next week. Vaughn admitted that usually they panic under these situations somewhere but not this time as they forced a creditable draw.

The England captain also said that he is pleased in the manner his batsmen handled the spin of Muttiah Muralitharan in the second innings after they had collapsed against the champion off spinner in the first innings.

In fact Vaughan and Alistair Cook produced century partnerships in each innings and this was only the eighth time that had happened in Test cricket. Vaughn said that wicket was very conducive to batting for all five days and gave full credit to both sets of bowlers for toiling hard on this sort of surface.

The third and final Test begins on Tuesday.