***Official** Sri Lanka in New Zealand

[_Ed_]

Tony Cozier - "the new man in is Malinga...*swings and misses*...and it doesn't look like he'll be there for very long either."

 

[Nate]

The Kiwi advertising boards make me feel like I`m back in the nineties.

 

[chaminda_00]

Still think this pitch is joke, but this is one of the worst batting displays Sri Lanka has ever put together and we had some bad one.

 

[_Ed_]

I still don't see any reason to think the pitch is a joke. The bounce is fair and there's no major seam movement.

 

[pasag]

Just checked the scores and turned on the TV, what the hell is going on here?

 

[chaminda_00]

Don't worry im just trying to find an excuse for our piss poor batting display. Bond been on fire, but the batsmen have shown no heart what so ever. Really a dark day for Sri Lankan cricket, to get rolled out for under 150 in both innings, against basically a one man attack.

 

[NZTailender]

50 for Sangakkara. Nice. Class player.

 

[_Ed_]

Very good innings, and slightly ominous for the rest of the series, he's played himself into some good form after a poor first innings.

 

[Perm]

Not really a one man attack, Franklin has bowled well and Oram and Martin have had their moments. This game has been a bit of a joke, but it has nothing to do with the pitch. While I like to see great bowling but the batting has been pathetic from both sides really, bar Vettori, Fleming and Cumming for NZ and Sangakarra in the 2nd innings for Sri Lanka. The Sri Lankan's have some serious issues regarding their batting.

 

[pasag]

50 for Sangakkara. Nice. Class player.

Love him, my favorite non-Aussie player.

 

[chaminda_00]

Not really a one man attack, Franklin has bowled well and Oram and Martin have had their moments. This game has been a bit of a joke, but it has nothing to do with the pitch. While I like to see great bowling but the batting has been pathetic from both sides really, bar Vettori, Fleming and Cumming for NZ and Sangakarra in the 2nd innings for Sri Lanka. The Sri Lankan's have some serious issues regarding their batting.

TBF it all to do with preparation, i can understand you guys saying that the pitch is fine. But if you look at it from the prospective that the pitches are still seaming more on the 2nd Day then any pitch would ever in Sri Lanka, its going to take some time to adjust. Really a couple tour games are never enough for a Test Series. Fair enough we have been in NZ quite a bit, but this is Tharanga, Kappa and Silva first time playing Test in NZ. I think we'll we better for the hit out next game, as long as we get the balance right and drop Prassana.

Also with the one man bowling line, i did say basicallly, which Sri Lanka is aswell. If this was a 3 match series i'll still back us to win. Hopefully the batsmen can turn up next game and we can draw this series. But with the way Bond is bowling, even if they turn up, he could be too good.

 

[Perm]

I think they should drop Prasana Jayawardene as well, Kumar is more than competent with the gloves and there is no reason to take them off him. Keep Silva in the side, sure he had a shocker of a game but he'll come right. Dilshan definately needs to be in there though, the experience he brings is valuable. Not to sure about Kapugedara batting at #5 though, his technique has been exposed in this match against some good fast bowling, drop him down to #6 and bring Dilshan in to bat at #5.

 

[JASON]

how many were turned down Jason?

The Truth is both Fleming and Vettori were out several times over to Malinga and Murali respectively and Fleming to Vaas as well. Bloody Taufel and Jerling were beligerent in refusing all the LBWs against the Kiwis.

Its as if the Kiwis were told do what you like there will be no LBWs given.

The lead is in large part to Taufel and Jerling, because otherwise both Teams would've been on par.

This is no excuse for SL's second pathetic batting display of the Test, but Kiwis will pretend otherwise and deny the LBWs because it suits them . If you are honest you will admit Fleming and Vettori were long out and the lead would not be 52 if not for the over whelming Generosity of Jerling and Taufel !!

With regard to the pitch, if this pitch was in the Subcontinent there would have been an ICC inquiry by now a la Graeme Smith/Ricky Ponting etc. So you can get away with these in some parts of the world.

The mistake definitely was Mahela's though when he won the Toss.

 

[JASON]

Losing the Test series is not important at the present time, with the World Cup around the corner.

I hope SL focus on the ODis and win the series . The team selections for the ODIs need to be spot on - none of this Prasanna J rubbish, I hope.

For the second Test I would hope the SL selectors(including Tom Moody)use their brains a little more and play Dilshan and perhaps Dilhara in place of Prasanna and Maharoof . (In Nz condition Maharoof is good for nothing - neither a batsman nor a bowler !!)

 

[_Ed_]

Good thing the pitch isn't on the subcontinent then, otherwise a lot of people would be wasting their time doing an inquiry. There's nothing wrong with it at all, it's a belter by NZ standards.

I don't deny that the umpires made some bad decisions, but I very highly doubt it was deliberate, why would a South African and an Aussie be biased towards Kiwis?

You can say the umpires are the reason the lead is as big as it is, but I can say the poor NZ batting is the reason it's so small. And the poor SL batting is the reason they only got 154 and 120-8. So everyone's been poor really, except the bowlers and the fielders (even Bond made up for his drops with a nice direct hit run out).

I hate seeing batsmen get out the way Jayasuriya did though, I'm in favour of changing the rules so that can't happen anymore.

 

[Perm]

Why does that rule need to be changed? While it's unfortunate it is a clear run out because the batsman is out of his crease, why should he be able to gain the unfair advantage by walking out of his crease before the ball is being bowled? I agree that Sanath Jayasuriya was unlucky in that situation, as are any batsman who get dismissed like that. However if it teaches them to stay in their ground then I don't want to see the rule being changed.

I didn't see a lot of the day's play, only watched a little bit and listened to most of it on the radio but from what I did see the pitch was a very good one. Mahela Jayawardene made the mistake of batting first on what was then a green pitch, with the overhead conditions being quite cloudy it was a recipe for disaste and coupled with some very good bowling from our quartet of seam bowlers a large score was never going to be on the cards for Sri Lanka.

New Zealand got off to a good start after losing Jamie How and I thought that we may only have to bat once in this test match with Craig Cumming, Matthew Sinclair and Stephen Fleming all looking pretty solid. Then came the usual middle order collapse where Nathan Astle, Jacob Oram and Brendan McCullum all played poor shots and deserved to be dismissed. Then Fleming and Daniel Vettori showed how it should be done and with the bowlers not contributing many runs it meant that it could've been a close game.

All hope of that was gone pretty soon because Shane Bond, god bless him, bowled absolutely superbly and the techniques of some of the batsman were left badly exposed, Chamara Kapugedara was the main one I could think of. So now all of Sri Lanka's hopes rest on Kumar Sangakarra being able to shephard Lasith Malinga and Muttiah Muralitharan in the hopes of establishing a reasonable lead so they have something to bowl to.

I think that Sri Lanka are the only ones who they can blame, some poor selections really left them with quite a long tail and they were lacking experience. Kapugedara is not good enough for the #5 position yet, that should be filled by Tillekeratne Dilshan and the youngster should move to #6. Kumar Sangakarra should take the gloves from Prasana Jayawardene and that allows the new comer Chamara Silva to drop down to #7 with Chaminda Vaas, Farveez Maharoof, Lasith Malinga and Muttiah Muralitharan rounding out the lower order and tail.

 

[_Ed_]

I don't believe that just touching a ball and it hitting the stumps should earn you a wicket. I hate seeing people get out that way whether they are NZ batsmen or the opposition, and to be honest I'd rather see them call the batsman back than see the batsman walking off. That's just my opinion though, I'm sure it won't be changed and I'll just have to accept it...you'll never see me cheer when NZ gets a wicket that way though.

 

[Perm]

I don't cheer when that sort of thing happens either but it's part of the game really and it's a legitimate run-out if you follow the letter of the law exactly which is what the umpires do. It's always a bit sad seeing somebody dismissed in the situation like that, but as I said earlier they should learn to stay in their crease.

 

[JASON]

In case anyone wondered what Atapattu and Nuwan Zoysa were upto -this is what they were upto today-

http://content-nz.cricinfo.com/srilanka/engine/current/match/264436.html

 

[Fiery]

I don't believe that just touching a ball and it hitting the stumps should earn you a wicket. I hate seeing people get out that way whether they are NZ batsmen or the opposition, and to be honest I'd rather see them call the batsman back than see the batsman walking off. That's just my opinion though, I'm sure it won't be changed and I'll just have to accept it...you'll never see me cheer when NZ gets a wicket that way though.

I have another proposal to the powers that be (which might raise a few eyebrows): If the batsman strikes the stumps at the non-striker's end with a straight drive, award them 4 runs. If it hits on the full give them 6! I'm a purist but a little tweaking of the rules would just add interest. Another rule that's farked in my opinion is when a fielder hits the stumps with a throw and it ricochets for overthrows. That's just punishing a good piece of cricket.