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Queen’s
Park Oval Looks Like Kandy Says Jayawardene - Sri Lanka
Looking For Clean Sweep Of Digicel Test Series
Date Posted: April 03, 2008.
PORT OF SPAIN, TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO – Sri Lanka captain
Mahela Jayawardene said that the pitch at the Queen’s Park
Oval for the Second Digicel Test match is very reminiscent
of the one in Kandy, Sri Lanka where the West Indies have
lost both of the Test matches they played.
“It is definitely Kandy, we always enjoy playing in Kandy
because the bowlers have a little bit in it but once the
batsman put up the initial hard work it’s going to be a good
batting surface,” Jayawardene said.
Kandy is the home ground of master off spinner and world
record holder for the most Test wicket Muttiah Muralitharan
who has taken 116 wickets at the ground including a career
best 9 for 51 against Zimbabwe and 8 for 46 against the West
Indies.
Jayawardene also feels that the pitch at the Queen’s Park
Oval has not changed much from what it was in 2007 for Sri
Lanka’s group matches.
“It looks similar to what we played on in the three first
round games in the World Cup, it did have a bit for the
quicks initially but once you settle down it becomes a very
good batting wicket, that’s what Test cricket is about, you
do the hard work and you get the rewards,” said Jayawardene
who led his team to win Group B of the Cricket World Cup
before going on to the finals against Australia which they
lost.
“It looks a good wicket, a bit of grass in it, firm, looks a
good Test wicket,” Jayawardene commented while fielding
questions from journalists at the pre-game media conference.
Asked whether he thought the pitch at the QPO would be more
helpful to the West Indians, Jayawardene said he believed so
since the West Indies camp had asked for a wicket with more
pace after the playing on the slow Guyana National Stadium
pitch.
Jayawardene also said that he felt that West Indies captain
Chris Gayle moving down the order in the second innings of
the First Digicel Test was a negative move on the home
team’s part.
“It shows that they are going on a bit of a negative path,
it played into our hands. Once he comes there (at number 6)
he is one of their top players and he won’t have the batting
depth to bat with towards the latter part of their innings,
he’s got to bat with his tailenders and if we keep him quiet
we can go with the other guys,” Jayawardene said.
“I don’t think he will make the same mistake in this Test
match but we will adjust ourselves to whatever they come up
with. That’s the challenge in Test cricket, with our
combinations and the way we want to play we are happy with
the way we are doing things and hopefully we can create that
pressure for them to keep changing things,” said the Sri
Lankan captain who has featured in 94 Test matches.
If Sri Lanka wins the second and final Digicel Test then
they will be the first team to ever achieve a series
whitewash in the Caribbean and Jayawardene said it was the
perfect motivation to go after the win rather than being
satisfied with a 1-0 series lead.
“It’s good motivation for us to sweep the series, when we
arrived in the West Indies our motivation was to win every
game that we play so we will go into this Test match with
that same attitude and the same hunger that we had, it’s
important that when you start winning games you keep doing
that, it’s a good habit to have,” Jayawardene said.
And the Sri Lankans are likely to be forced to make at least
one change to their winning combination due to injury to
their wicketkeeper Prasanna Jayawardene.
“He is struggling, he’s probably 80% fit but he’s a
wicketkeeper, he needs to do a lot of work in a Test match
so we have to make a decision, we’ve got an adequate
replacement, Kumar is a wicketkeeper who can do the job for
us so I don’t think we need to take too many risks in that
department,” Jayawardene said.
“We’ve got the extra batsman, Chamara Silva who has been
scoring runs, it’s a bit unfortunate to leave him out of the
first Test team, he will get his opportunity to play and I’m
sure he is looking forward to that,” said Jayawardene who
scored a masterful century in the First Digicel Test in
Guyana.
The Second Digicel Test starts on Thursday April 3rd.
