Sri Lanka and Pakistan will begin their five-match ODI series from Thursday
and the hosts will look to continue with their winning form. Pakistan,
on the other hand, will look to salvage some pride from the games, after having
lost the test series rather comfortably to the Lankans.
Click for Live Score Card of Sri Lanka vs Pakistan
The squads have obviously undergone a revamp, and if the Pakistan-Sri Lanka
A game track was anything to go by, even the pitches would play distinctly different
from the ones in test matches. They will be flatter, with lesser scope for the
bowlers to be able to exploit any swing or seam, and the only hope would be
to be able to vary the pace or to be able to bowl slower than usual.
The warm-up game exposed the chinks in the Pakistani bowling, and barring Shahid
Afridi - who bowled his nine overs for 49 - there wasn't much going for
the team vis-á-vis their bowling. Abdul Razzaq, rather surprisingly,
opened the bowling and despite his four-wicket haul was mauled for 70 runs in
nine overs, while Iftikhar Anjum and Naved-ul-Hasan had 74 taken off
their ten.
Worse was to follow with the batting, as the tourists collapsed to 55/4 and
then 129/6, before a rearguard action by Umar Akmal saw Pakistan get
to 333 all out. Fawad Alam continued with his good form and scored an 86, where
as Razzaq banished four boundaries and sixes to hit a 29-ball 56.
What Pakistan may feel slightly happier about would be the fact that Malinga
Bandara, who may partner the spin attack with Ajantha Mendis was
smashed around as well, and this makes selection a difficult job for the hosts.
For Sri Lanka, there are couple of good news. Lasith Malinga
is back into the squad after his woes with injuries and will look to lead the
attack, whereas M.Muralitharan has been named too, which means that he may take
part in the side after the recent injuries left him out.
Sanath Jayasuriya has retired from test matches, but it will be interesting
to see how he goes about his business. He has had a mediocre couple of tournaments,
in the IPL and then the ICC World T20, but with the pitches now more familiar
to the ones he has loved batting on, he could be a dangerous weapon in the Lankan
arsenal. Having said that, a failure in this series could send him a step closer
towards the end of his career as well.
To me, it does look like Sri Lanka will go into the series as favourites, but
only just.
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