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SRI LANKA
ARE PLAYING IN VERY FAMILIAR CONDITIONS SAYS SARWAN
MONDAY, MARCH 24 – PROVIDENCE, GUYANA – West Indies
vice captain Ramnaresh Sarwan who top scored with 80 in his
team’s 269 for 9 against Sri Lanka in the First Digicel Test
said he was happy to be back in international cricket after
being out for seven months.
The right hander said though that Sri Lanka, who scored 476
for 8 declared in their first innings were playing in very
familiar conditions despite being the visiting team.
“The surface here (at Providence) is very similar to the
ones they play on in Sri Lanka, when I toured Sri Lanka a
few years ago it was the same sort of surface, Mahela (Jayawardene
the Sri Lankan captain) seems to know the conditions pretty
well with the sort of field placements that he has been
putting forward to us,” Sarwan told journalists shortly
after the end of the third day’s play.
Asked whether the Caribbean groundsmen need to rethink their
apparent inclination of preparing pitches which suit the
visiting team (given pitches in 2004 and 2006 in Jamaica
which England and India respectively won Test matches on
along with the current one at Providence) more than the home
team Sarwan was cautious but hinted that the Providence
pitch could have been prepared with more pace and bounce.
“You have to take into consideration the opposition you are
playing against whether you want a track that is faster and
bouncier, so probably we want the opportunity to play on
something that has more pace and bounce but that didn’t
happen so we have to try and continue working hard as a team
and try to work through that,” a diplomatic Sarwan said.
He said that the Sri Lankan plan of bowling on one side of
the wicket along with the experience of their top bowlers
were added bonuses for them.
“Obviously they have the experience of Chaminda Vaas who has
been doing this year in year out for them, especially on the
flat surfaces they play on in Sri Lanka so basically it
wasn’t a surprise to me because they know the conditions
here pretty well,” the 27 year old Guyanese said.
And he commented that world record holder for the most Test
wickets, Muttiah Muralitharan was also a major threat.
“He’s always been difficult (to play), I feel like if I was
never ‘in’ when batting him, I tried to concentrate as hard
as I can and look at the balls closely and play as straight
as I can and play with the spin if I see it,” Sarwan
explained of his plan during his innings which lasted for
four and a quarter hours and during which he faced 199
deliveries.
Both Vaas and Muralitharan picked up three wickets each in
the West Indies innings. Vaas got the wickets of Sarwan and
captain Chris Gayle while Muralitharan accounted for key
batsman Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Dwayne Bravo and Ryan Hinds.
Asked whether the West Indian batsman were too reckless with
their shot selection Sarwan said that may have been the case
to some extent but that the Sri Lankans must also be
credited for executing their bowling plan.
“You have to give credit to Sri Lanka, their bowlers were
pretty patient and the fact that they were bowling on one
side of the wicket, they were having an attacking and a
defensive field so it was pretty hard to get runs and also
the discipline they showed,” Sarwan reasoned.
Sarwan agreed that the Sri Lankans are in command of the
Digicel Test match but that there was still a chance for the
Windies to launch a rearguard attack.
“First of all we have to save the follow on then analyse it
and put ourselves in a decent or good position, there is
still a lot of time left in the game, we have to make sure
we play well as a team and continue to have a lot of
partnerships going whether we’re bowling or batting,” Sarwan
reasoned.
He also revealed that his left little finger injury which is
not major had pained him throughout the innings but he tried
not to give any indication of this to the opposition and
that physiotherapist CJ Clarke’s treatments have been
working well.
