http://www.senore.com/Cricket/DPMD-Jayawardene-c1397 wary of Pakistan’s pace attack – Cricket News Update
The Sri Lankan skipper, Mahela Jayawardene, has said that his team's batsmen need better tactics to counter the Umar Gul-led pace battery of Pakistan in the ongoing home series.
Pakistan’s pace bowling attack, featuring the likes of spearhead pacer http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Sohail-Tanvir-c90665, troubled Sri Lankan batsmen in the ongoing limited overs series so far. The pacers share 17 off the total 25 Lankan
scalps claimed up till now.
"They are wicket-taking bowlers and are creating opportunities," Jayawardene said after the six-wicket loss to Pakistan in the rain curtailed opening One Day International of the five-match series, at Pallekele on Thursday.
"We discussed it is important we don't give too many wickets upfront with the new ball especially to those three guys,” he added further.
Umar Gul and http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Mohammad-Sami-c77289, making a comeback to the national set up after a gap of more than two years, shared six wickets as the hosts were restricted to 135 for 8 in their revised quota of 42 overs. Besides troubling the hosts’
batting line up with their raw pace, the http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Pakistan-c755 speedsters have been quite economical as well. In Thursday’s series opener, Gul conceded runs at an impressive economy rate of 2.66 in 9 overs, while Sami returned with an economy rate of 3.16.
Pakistan’s fast bowling has been very well complemented by the spinners, with http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Saeed-Ajmal-c87859 all containing the opposition batsmen in the middle overs and claiming occasional wickets as well.
Jayawardene, who took over as the Sri Lankan captain from http://www.senore.com/Cricket/TM-Dilshan-c2691 in February this year, also hailed Pakistan spinners and said that they are planning ways to counter Pakistan’s pace as well as spin attack properly in
the ensuing games.
"Once you expose the middle order, then they get some quality spinners and it's going to be tough for the rest of the batsmen. That's something we need to tactically tackle and see how we can combat properly," said the right-handed
Sri Lankan opener, who scored 3 runs from 20 balls.
Jayawardene also blamed his side’s poor batting for the loss, saying a total of around 190-200 could have been competitive.
The second One Day International of the five-match series will be played at the same Pallekele venue on Saturday, June 9.
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