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To shoot down high riding Australians:
Lankans seek Malinga help
Elmo Rodrigopulle reporting from Australia
The Sri Lankan cricketers stung to the quick by the 137-run defeat in
the First of Three Tests against Australia at the Bellerive Oval, are
straining every nerve and sinew and are hard at practice at the
Melbourne Cricket Ground.
Under the watchful eyes of coach Graham Ford, bowling, batting,
fielding and trainer – Champaka Ramamayake, Marvan Atapattu Ruwan
Kalpage and Mario Villayarayen, the players are putting right their
loose ends right and are determined to prove that their loss in Hobart
should not have been. According to Manager Charith Senanayake, the
Lankan cricketing warriors are exuding confidence. ‘They have put their
First Test defeat behind them as a bad dream and can’t wait to unleash
their fury on the Australians’, said a cheerful sounding manager.
Wicket a minefield
That the Lankans took the Test to the wire batting courageously on
minefield of a pitch and hostile bowling, was great credit. But had they
shown a bit more enterprise and played their shots, may be the result
could have been different.
While the batting and fielding got pass marks, it was in the bowling
sector, especially the pace bowling that the Lankans are sadly lacking
fire-power to knock-out the early Australian batting.
And to get the pace bowlers firing, the Lankans quite rightly turned
to the slinging sensation Lasith Malinga for advice and to show them
how. Malinga’s pace and speed are what the pace bowlers here are
lacking.
Slinger helps
While the Lankan donn’t rule out a return by Malinga for the final
Test in Sydney beginning on February 3, they sought his help at the MCG
nets and Malinga who is keen to see his countrymen do well spoke to the
bowlers and it is hoped the bowlers would have benefited. True Malinga
quit the longer version of the game in 2010 owing to a nasty knee injury
and concentrated on the shorter versions of the game. But it is time he
changed his mind and came back to play in a one off Test and help the
Lankans chalk up their first ever win on Australian soil. Former captain
and opening batsman Tillekeratne Dilshan who unwound and blasted a
glorious hundred in the first innings of the Hobart Test and who will be
playing his first and last Test at the MCG along with other senior team
mates, said that if Malinga comes back it would be good for the side and
everyone would be happy for him to play.
In their numbers
The Sri Lankans here in Melbourne are gearing up to come in their
numbers, bringing with them their papare, papare bands, and other sound
making instruments and cheering and encouraging the cricketers to raise
their game in Boxing Day Test. Not only the cricketers, but the Lankans
here will be over the moon if the cricketers could roll the Australians
over and taste their first ever victory on Australian soil. The Sri
Lankans here haven’t forgotten the torment and the torture the
cricketers suffered here during the 1995 Boxing Day Test and the
Adelaide one-day game in 1999 when Muttiah Muralitharan was called for
‘chucking’, that broke the spirit of the cricketers.
Can be beat
‘The Australians are not larger than life. They can be beat. What the
Lankan cricketers should do is to believe in themselves and not be
overawed by the occasion and then the pieces will fall right’, said Dr.
Quintus de Zilwa, Sri Lanka’s cricket representative in Australia. And
Dr. Quintus should know. Melbourne, Saturday.
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