 Sri Lankans looking for batting practice
Chennai, Dec 5: Mahela Jayawardene, one of the batting mainstays of Sri Lanka, today said his team's chief objective in the rain-marred first cricket Test was to dismiss India quickly and get some useful batting practice on the final day tomorrow. "Hopefully there will be sun tomorrow. Our first objective is to try and get the Indians out so that we can get some batting practice," he told reporters after the day's play, which saw India finish on 90 for two in 32.3
overs.
The top order batsman also said the wicket at the M A Chidambaram Stadium kept low but it did not pose much of a problem to his team since they had played on a similar wicket in Bangalore during the three-day warm-up match against Board President's XI. "The wicket was a bit slow. But we were able to adjust to the conditions since we had played a three-day warm match on a similar wicket in Bangalore before coming here.
"From that game, we had a fair idea of how the wicket would behave in these conditions. Our bowlers learnt a lot from that game and they were very disciplined. We were able to set fields accordingly as well." On medium pacer and vice-captain Chaminda Vaas, Jayawardene said, "he is a classy bowler, knows the inside-out of sub-continent wickets and he exploited it well.
"The good thing will be if the other guys can learn from him to bowl in the right areas and be patient. Vaas was rewarded for his patience." (Agencies)
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