3rd Test against India starts on Tuesday at Sara Oval:

Malinga back to strengthen Lankan attack

By Ranjan AMANDAPPA

CRICKET: Speedster Lasith Malinga has sufficiently recovered from his knee injury which kept him off from the second Test at the SSC’ and will be back for the third and final cricket Test against India which begins on August 3 (Tuesday) at the P. Sara Oval.

Malinga will no doubt add more vigour to the Sri Lanka attack which looked depleted and could bring uncertainty to the minds of the Indian batsmen with his unorthodox slinging bowling action.

His style of bowling is somewhat difficult for the batsmen to pic up. The probable opening attack for the Lankans according to reliable sources could be; Lasith Malinga and Nuwan Kulasekera. However, the selectors are yet to decide of the final composition of the team with the P.Sara wicket different to the one at the SSC.

The second Test between the two countries at the SSC was buried under a huge pile of runs dominated by the strong batting strengths of both sides.

The National Curator Anuruddha Polonowita who is also in charge of the pitch preparation at the Sara Oval, said that the pitch solely cannot be blamed for the huge amount of runs scored.

“Both teams had a weak bowling attack, at previous Test matches we had bowlers like “Murali”, Vaas and even Sanath Jayasuriya who had taken over 400 wickets.

The present attack is inexperienced and lack the penetrative qualities against top class batsmen. Even India was minus their main strike bowler Zaheer Khan. And to add to their woes they dropped vital catches. Where Sri Lanka is concerned, the catch dropped by wicketkeeper Prasanna Jayawardene off Sachin Tendulkar when he was 29 with the total at 190 for 4, made the Lankans pay dearly for the miss, as India topped the 700 run mark and Tendulkar went on to score a double hundred,” he said.

The pitch for the 3rd Test at the Sara Oval should be a typical one giving equal chances to the bowlers as well as the batsmen. The pitch is likely to be ‘live’ during the early stages of the day, and gradually take turn during the latter stages.