We made a tactical mistake by asking Pakistan to bat, admits Graham Ford – Cricket News Update
http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Graham-Xavier-Ford-c60657, the Sri Lankan coach, has admitted that his team made a tactical mistake by asking Pakistan to bat first in the second of the three-match Test series at Colombo.
http://www.senore.com/Cricket/DPMD-Jayawardene-c1397 opted to bat first after winning the toss and his side posted a massive total on the board.
Quite surprisingly, the seasoned cricketer decided to bowl first in the Colombo Test and allowed the visitors to run away with the advantage on a flat batting track. At stumps on day one of the match, the Green Shirts had scored 334 runs for the loss of
just Taufeeq Umar.
Jayawardene’s decision has been immensely criticised in the media as the Lankan bowlers failed to cope with the likes of http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Azhar-Ali-c46890 throughout the day.
Ford expressed that the senior players decided unanimously to bowl first as they felt that there would be some moisture in the pitch, which was not the case as the visiting batsmen dominated the proceedings from the beginning.
"The score tells it very clearly that we got it wrong. The thought behind it was that there are a lot of experienced men in our group and they know this surface pretty well. I don't think any of them thought that pitch would play so well on the first day,”
the coach said.
The South African further added that the Green Shirts were struggling in the batting department prior to the Colombo Test and this is the reason why the home team wanted to put them under pressure by picking up some early wickets in the match.
He added, "There was something in the pitch in the first hour and with http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Pakistan-c755 not having started too well in the two innings in Galle, if we could strike early with the new ball, it would have got us in a pretty positive place.”
The pitch has so far looked extremely flat and the bowlers from both sides will have to work hard to ensure a result in the match.
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