Mahela Jayawardene led the team from the front and has managed to put Sri Lanka in a commanding position. With two more days to go, it's up to Muttiah Muralitharan and the other Sri Lankan bowlers to dictate the situation
England's batting was appalling - struggling in the first innings at a run rate of 3. With a line-up having Vaughan, Bell and KP, they ought to have score a lot more in the no. of overs that they batted. This is going to cost them the match. Posted by Siddharth on December 12 2007, 05:15 AM GMT
well personally, i would never play in the subcontinent without 2 spinners, if england has two spinners in the form of panesar and swann. One also has to see that the subcontinent pitches are a fast bowler's nightmare. Once in a long time I am seeing england team have 2 spinners in the squad and they are not using them. Playing one spinner works if you have a champion spinner in the form of warnie, murali, or kumble who run through the side day in and day out.
Coming back to panesar, he will always have a hard time in the subcontinent because, no matter how much the ball turns, if the batsman knows the bowl will turn only one way, he gets more certain and will take the turn for granted. Panesar has been more successful in first class because he has bowled a lot of his balls to english batsman, who are not as equipped to play spin as subcontinent players are. What he needs to do is get some variations in his bowling, get the doosra working for him.
Thanks for reading my comment. Posted by twnety20XI on December 12 2007, 04:00 AM GMT
Yes, I agree with David Lloyd. As now Srilankan got the lead of 26 runs the should go for runs now. Put a big lead in front, try to make the pressure on england batsman. Muttiah Muralitharan will be the key factor for Srilanakan to win this test match.
Dhaval Dave Posted by Dhaval1983 on December 12 2007, 00:03 AM GMT
England needed to bat better in the first innings and get at least 400 on a flat batting wicket. In England's first innings they batted too slow and should have attacked more because of needing to level the series and win the match. England didn't put enough pressure on the bowlers in their first innings which is what they should have done to get on top of Sri Lanka in this second test. Posted by MF100 on December 11 2007, 18:58 PM GMT
