Jayawardene plays down pitch impact following win at Galle – Cricket News Update
http://www.senore.com/Cricket/DPMD-Jayawardene-c1397, has refuted claims that the pitch played a pivotal part in his team’s eventual 10-wicket win against New Zealand in the opening Test. Instead, he attributed the win to the sheer quality of his bowlers.
The Lankan http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Lions-c808 struck first blood in the two-match Test series after claiming an impressive win at Galle, as the match ended inside three days.
Again it was spin which accounted for the Kiwi batters, who failed to show any sort of conviction while facing left-armer http://www.senore.com/Cricket/HMRKB-Herath-c1559, who eventually ended the game as the Player of the match for his impressive 11 for 108.
Despite the home side taking a slender first innings lead, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/JS-Patel-c1747.
However, they were soon brought down to earth in their second outing, with their batters again failing to deal with the spin threat of Herath to roll over on a lowly 118. http://www.senore.com/Cricket/M-Muralitharan-c1864.
However, as it stood, the Black Caps were completely outfoxed by Herath, who dismantled the top and middle order to claim six wickets in the second innings. Their capitulation was even more baffling after they had won the toss and opted to bat first.
Jayawardene claimed that the Kiwis struggled mainly due to some quality bowling, and described the Galle pitch as "a very good wicket, not one that will deteriorate much until the fourth and fifth day."
"Their batsmen struggled purely because of some quality bowling," he said. "Usually at Galle, the team that wins the toss and bats first holds the advantage and goes onto win the match. When we lost the toss, what we spoke about was to make sure that we kept the pressure on. The only thing we could do was to make sure we didn't give them a good advantage after the first day."
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