Sri Lanka need to get their tactics right

After being humbled in the first match at Dambulla, hosts Sri Lanka will be hoping they can get their tactics right and all things fall into place so they can stage a come back in the five-match one-day series.

Despite a century from Sanath Jayasuriya, Sri Lanka, once sitting in a position of strength and looking good to post a total in excess of 250, only managed to post a total of 246, which the Indians overhauled comfortably. On a wicket that was slow and made strokeplay tough, Sri Lanka lost two of its key batsmen at the wrong times – Dilshan, Sri Lanka’s man-in-form, ran himself out without contributing to his team’s cause in the very first over, while Kumar Sangakkara threw his wicket away after doing all the hard work and compiling an innings of 44 (from 86 balls).

What is hurting Sri Lanka as well is that their captain and one of their mainstay batsmen Mahela Jayawardene has been struggling with the bat.

Sri Lanka got their tactics wrong as well - they got their timing of the batting power play wrong – or it turned out to be that way after they lost two wickets soon after opting the power play. On what was already a slow wicket, Sri Lanka did not take the power play until the 39th over – the ideal time to take the power play in the circumstances (and given the conditions) would have been when the ball was replaced in the 34th over.

Dhoni remains the biggest thorn in Lanka's flesh © AFP

When it was their turn to field, they let the Indians off the hook by allowing the batsmen to take singles without taking too many risks – 152 off the 247 runs the Indians scored came in ones (98), twos (24) and threes (2) – that’s over 60% of the runs. It is essential that Sri Lanka stop leaking runs in this manner so they can build the pressure on the Indian batsmen.

Jayawardene also needs to get his bowling tactics right. Despite the early success and having a trump card in Ajantha Mendis, Sri Lanka struggled to pick up wickets and keep things tight.

Mendis was utilized in very short bursts - five spells in all in the previous one dayer - with the kind of reputation he has built in his short career, and given the kind of tricks he has up his sleeve, Jayawardene might do well to use him in longer spells – Mendis is the kind of bowler who needs just one opening and he can run through sides.

Even for Muralidaran to succeed, Jayawardene needs to give him the right kind of fields – the off spinner needs to be able to work on batsmen, and even the best in the business will find wicket-taking tough if batsmen continue to rotate the strike constantly.

As for India, with a convincing win in their bag, things appear rosy. The addition of Virender Sehwag to the line-up, after missing the first one-day due to an injury, will only strengthen the team. Rohit Sharma, despite playing an important knock in the first one-dayer, will probably be the man to miss out on a place, while India might also look at bringing Irfan Pathan or Praveen Kumar into the equation in place of Munaf Patel, who looked rusty at Dambulla.

The inclusion of Sehwag in the line-up means there will also be a shuffle in the batting line-up; Sehwag and Sachin Tendulkar could be expected to open the innings, while Gautam Gambhir will displace Suresh Raina at number three, and everyone else slips one place further down in the order.

Sri Lankans would hope to get their act together at Premadasa © AFP

A look back at the matches played at the R Premadasa Stadium in recent times indicates that the surface hasn’t been a typical sub-continental high scoring one; only once in the last ten matches has a team batting first managed to score in excess of 250. So going by history, one could expect yet another low-scoring affair on Saturday.

Further, win toss, bat first and win match – that seems to be the formula to succeed in day and night matches at the Premadasa; off the last ten day and night games played at the Premadasa, seven matches have been won by teams opting to bat first.

Probable Teams:

India: MS Dhoni (c, wk), V Sehwag, S Tendulkar, G Gambhir, Yuvraj Singh, S Raina, Y Pathan, P Kumar, P Ojha, Z Khan, I Sharma.

Sri Lanka: M Jayawardene (c), S Jayasuriya, T Dilshan, K Sangakkara, T Kandamby, C Kapugedera, T Thushara, F Maharoof, N Kulasekara, M Muralidaran, A Mendis.