***Official*** Pakistan v Sri Lanka in UAE 2013/14

[smash84]

Pakistan should make at 20 more runs so that the lead is 200

 

[Maximas]

Herath with three of the cheapest wickets you'll ever see

 

[NUFAN]

Yesssss. Won some money on Younus being top scorer. What an awesome catch by Sangakkara.

 

[salman85]

179 it is.

Time for some Ajmal & Junaid fun.

 

[OverratedSanity]

Haven't followed SL cricket too closely recently but are their seamers as awful as their figures suggest? Matthews averages in the 70s and Lakmal over 65. And they opened the bowling

Jeez, Sri Lanka would almost be a minnow if not for Herath. I shudder to think whatll happen when Sanga and Mahela retire. Mathews is an alright bat and I like chandimal but I can't see any other able replacements

 

[smash84]

actually I wanted to comment on Lakmal but then he ran through our middle order this morning.....
but yes the SL pacers look dire. Even Ishant would be a great catch for them at this point in time

 

[Xuhaib]

there was always a danger of the lower order collapsing. A good contribution by the keeper could be the difference between a 175 and 250 run lead. A door has been left open for SL. Pak dearly needs to do something about the keeping situation if it wishes to win test matches regularly.

 

[Maximas]

Haven't followed SL cricket too closely recently but are their seamers as awful as their figures suggest? Matthews averages in the 70s and Lakmal over 65. And they opened the bowling

Matthews is a batting all-rounder, he sits about halfway between Virat Kohli and Shane Watson in terms of bowling ability, so we probably shouldn't judge too harshly, his bowling is utilised more in one day matches. I honestly think Lakmal is a decent bowler with the potential to become a decent fast bowler, however he just doesn't take enough wickets right now. He has the ability to bowl absolute jaffers every now and then, he generates decent pace and he bowls fairly consistently, but he lacks penetration at this stage. Eranga leads the attack right now and he is good, however he isn't ready to lead an attack just yet, he gets a bit of movement, and bowls at a good pace, but as with Lakmal too, he doesn't really know how to bowl to plans yet, neither of them can really bowl sustained good spells to good batsmen and work them over as well as they need to, some experience will hopefully help. Meanwhile Nuwan Kulasekara is still around, and he is good and taking early poles and can always provide some control, however he lacks pace and penetration once the new ball loses its shine, although he is handy he needs to be in an attack with better strike bowlers. Welegedara is also around, but he is always injured, he lacked control at times in Australia but he is a good reverse swing bowler and seems to have the penetration the rest of the attack lack.

Jeez, Sri Lanka would almost be a minnow if not for Herath. I shudder to think whatll happen when Sanga and Mahela retire. Mathews is an alright bat and I like chandimal but I can't see any other able replacements

Chandimal is good, and Thirrimanne is also a good talent, both appear to be able to handle fast bowling well and have shown promise outside the SC, they will both average above 40 IMO. Matthews is decent, and will also average about 40 hopefully, and I hold out hope for guys like Karunaratne, Silva and Vithanage to step up as well, the batting talent is not looking as dire as the bowling I'd say.

 

[NUFAN]

actually I wanted to comment on Lakmal but then he ran through our middle order this morning.....
but yes the SL pacers look dire. Even Ishant would be a great catch for them at this point in time

Haha, The bloke took one wicket this morning, hardly running through your team.

Normally when I see a quick taking less than 2 wickets per match and averaging 50+ I think they are pathetic - I haven't thought that about Lakmal yet, I think he has a fair bit of improvement in him.

 

[Maximas]

Dimuth Karunaratne needs to tighten up a little technique wise IMO, was loose outside off when I last saw him in Australia and played a pretty rash shot today, he is a beautiful stroke maker but if he wants to be an international standard opener (and he's not far away) he just needs to tighten up

 

[Prince EWS]

Haven't followed SL cricket too closely recently but are their seamers as awful as their figures suggest?

Yes.

 

[OverratedSanity]

Set up perfectly for a Sanga double.

 

[Maximas]

Set up perfectly for a Sanga double.

Was gonna lay into you if that appeal wasn't overturned

 

[Prince EWS]

Jeez, Sri Lanka would almost be a minnow if not for Herath. I shudder to think whatll happen when Sanga and Mahela retire. Mathews is an alright bat and I like chandimal but I can't see any other able replacements

They do have some good batsmen coming through so they should be okay on that front. Recently lost to Afghanistan in an Under 19 match though which raised a few eyebrows.

 

[OverratedSanity]

Welegedara is also around, but he is always injured, he lacked control at times in Australia but he is a good reverse swing bowler and seems to have the penetration the rest of the attack lack.

Is he injured? I seem to remember he won them that match in South Africa with a 5fer. They honestly look trash to me, and coming from an Indian that's as scathing as it can possibly get

 

[OverratedSanity]

Was gonna lay into you if that appeal wasn't overturned

Was almost a glorious jinx. Will try again when he's in the 90s

 

[Maximas]

Is he injured? I seem to remember he won them that match in South Africa with a 5fer. They honestly look trash to me, and coming from an Indian that's as scathing as it can possibly get

Yeah, Welegedera has been injured since the 2012 Boxing Day test, ankle injury now, I'm holding out hope he will play some domestic cricket and recover in time for the England tour. While they certainly aren't the finished product now, I think Eranga and Lakmal at the very least have some big improvement in them, if Sri Lanka played more tests it would help

 

[Prince EWS]

Is he injured?

Yeah he's either injured or at least "not match fit" anyway. And I've seen him rock up to games and bowl straight, inaccurate 125km/h pies when he's not match fit before so he's not someone you'd pick unless he was raring to go. That's why they picked two spinners for this game despite Waqar going on and ond on in the commentary box about how they should've read the pitch better and played three quicks. It was hilarious listening to Russell Arnold try to tell him in the most diplomatic way possible that they didn't have three quicks.

They honestly look trash to me, and coming from an Indian that's as scathing as it can possibly get

Indian fast bowling is miles ahead of Sri Lanka's at the moment. Only Bangladesh have worse fast bowling stocks of current Test sides; Zimbabwe's are a lot better (even with Jarvis, Meth, Querl and Ireland "retired" from international cricket as a result of not getting paid) and even the top associates such as Afghanistan and Ireland would field better opening bowlers. They've got some good batting talent coming through (certainly in the right conditions) and some useful spinners but they're going to struggle, particularly away, until they find some seamers who actually want to play Test cricket.

They've got some good batting talent coming through (certainly in the right conditions) and some useful spinners but they're going to struggle, particularly away, until they find some seamers who actually want to play Test cricket.

Quite worryingly for Sri Lanka, what I just said is equally applicable to Bangladesh...

 

[Maximas]

Chaminda Vaas to come out of retirement

 

[Maximas]

Played Silva, has looked very compact and disciplined today