http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Saeed-Ajmal-c87859 takes positives from Pakistan’s performance on day two at Galle – Cricket News Update
Pakistan’s spin bowling spearhead, Saeed Ajmal, has said that they had a lot of positives to take from their performance on the second day of the ongoing first Test of three-match series against http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Sri-Lanka-c758, underway at Galle, since
January 22.
"They batted very well but we didn't bowl badly," said Ajmal while speaking to media reporters at the post-day press conference on day two.
"The bowlers had an off day yesterday but we bowled better today. The wicket was slow but at the end of the day our batting flopped," the off-spinner lamented.
Pakistan’s bowlers struggled in the spin friendly conditions at Galle on the opening day of the Test, claiming only two wickets as Sri Lanka reached 300 by stumps. But the visitors started their fight-back quite early on the second
day, claiming three wickets in the morning session to leave the hosts tottering at 335 for 5, with Ajmal claiming all the three wickets, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/AD-Mathews-c913.
However, Ajmal and co. failed to dislodge the dangerman http://www.senore.com/Cricket/KC-Sangakkara-c1779, who remained stranded on 199, as the Islanders posted 472 runs in their first innings.
Ajmal and Mohammad Hafeez shared six wickets (3 apiece) on the second day, while http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Abdur-Rehman-c41691 accounted for Suraj Randiv, as the hosts were bundled out in the last session of the day.
Pakistan’s batting was once again a sheer disappointment as the tourists lost half of their batting force by stumps, with only 48 on the board.
Ajmal rued Misbah’s absence, saying Pakistan’s situation had been quite different had the regular skipper been playing.
"Misbah is our regular captain and someone who can hold the batting together. If he is playing, we won’t have to rely on inexperienced players,” said the promising off-spinner.
"We need to get some runs on the board and we need to come back through our bowling because our bowling over the last two years has been good," he added further, hoping the pitch would get slower from this point onward.
Misbah is serving a one-Test ban for a slow over rate in the final One Day International against Sri Lanka, at Colombo last week. In his absence, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Mohammad-Hafeez-c76898 is leading the side.
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