Sri Lanka expected to make few changes

Chris DHAMBARAGE

Sri Lanka and the West Indies will be hoping for improved weather condition as both teams look to experiment with the World Cup squad for the second one day international at the SSC ground in Maitland Place today.

The first game in the rescheduled three match one day international series was abandoned due to heavy rain after the West Indies scored a challenging 245 for 5 from their 50 overs having elected to bat first at the same venue.

As a result the visitors will certainly take the field brimming with confidence after having taken a full measure of the Sri Lankan bowling attack where opener Adrian Barath hit a maiden one day international century.

His knock of 113 from 129 deliveries also came in for high praise from the West Indies Head Coach Ottis Gibson who described the innings as something special from the twenty year old right hander.

Gibbs stated that Barath played a brilliant innings and also showed a tremendous amount of maturity beyond his years.

His performance had a great amount of significance as the knock was Barath’s second international century following the 104 runs he made on Test debut in Australia at the age of 19.

Gibbs also commended the effort of Ramnaresh Sarwan who made a splendid 75 from 100 balls on his return to the team while helping Adrian Barath add 165 for the third wicket from 184 balls.

The West Indies will be further boosted with the possible return of dynamic all rounder Dwayne Bravo who missed the opening match as a precaution for a slight niggle to his right knee. However the 27 year old had a full training session at the SSC ground yesterday and is likely to play a major role in the second one day international.

Gibbs stated that they were little cautious before the first game as they wanted to give him more time to recover. Meanwhile Sri Lanka will also be looking to make a couple of changes for the second game following their unimpressive performance on the field on the previous outing.

The bowling lacked penetration except for the pace of Lasith Malinga who made a fine impact by capturing three wickets in the first one day with two of them in one over during power play.

The West Indies were well on course towards reaching a total of nearly three hundred runs when Malinga struck like lightening twice in one over while capturing the key wickets of Adrian Barath and Ramnaresh Sarwan.

The rest of the bowling failed to make any inroads although Nuwan Kulasekera provided the early breakthrough by removing the dangerous Chris Gayle.