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| Sunday, 05 March 2006 |
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Moody calls for huge improvement Chris Dhambarage reporting from Bangladesh DHAKA - Coach Tom Moody called his team for a huge improvement in the second test as the Sri Lanka team enjoyed an extra rest day after they had crushed Bangladesh by eight wickets in the first test at Chittagong to go one up in the two match series. The former Australian player said that it is nice to get into the winning habits once again after having completed a gruelling tour of Australia where they reached the finals of the VB triangular series. Even then he was not too happy the manner the Lankans batted especially in the first innings where they managed to take a lead of only 19 runs. Sri Lanka were bowled out for 338 runs after Bangladesh had made 319 runs in their first innings having won the toss and batted first in this historic test between the two teams played for the first time at the Divisional Stadium in Chittagong. The bulk of the scoring for Sri Lanka came from Kumar Sangakkara who hit a fluent 69 while Thilan Samaraweera batted in his own style to make a dogged 58 from 143 balls and Farveez Maharoof made a top score of 72 batting at number seven. Moody however praised his bowlers for a magnificent job where they dismissed Bangladesh for just 181 runs in the second innings. Moody said that team's performance in the second innings was quite encouraging although there were still several areas they need to improve before going into the second and final test which begins on Wednesday at Bogra. He commended the outstanding efforts of Muttiah Muralitharan who took a matchbag of nine wickets and in the process completed one thousand wickets in both tests and one day internationals. Moody also said that the performance of Dilhara Fernando was quite excellent considering the fact that he was under pressure to perform well with the absence of Chaminda Vaas Sri Lanka's main strike bowler for quite some time. Dilhara Fernando who had ten stitches in his ear after being hit from a short delivery of Shahadat Hossain came back strongly to pick up two early wickets that opened the gates for Sri Lanka's victory. Meanwhile a dejected Bangladesh coach Dav Whatmore said that his team will soon need to change their habit of making mistakes continuously if they are to be a major force in test cricket. He said that most of the batsmen threw their wickets away to the Sri Lankan bowlers in the second innings which led to their downfall being bundled out for 181 runs. Whatmore said that although they had three days to play the batsmen could
not show their patience and they could not continue with the good
performances like in the first two days of the match. Whatmore was
disappointed that opener Nafees Iqbal got out when he was well set for a big
score and was out while chasing very wide delivery off Dilhara Fernando. In
addition to this Bangladesh having lost half of their side for just 122 runs
Shahriar Nafeez played a skyward shot from a Muralitharan's delivery when
the situation was demanding patience from his. |
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