Mathews fails fitness test; concern over Malinga too
The manual scoreboard at the Shere-e-Bangla National Stadium is not a crystal ball for gazing into the future but surely the men, who supervise it, do have a sense of evolving fortunes.
Ahead of Thursday's key Asia Cup game between Pakistan and Sri Lanka, the organisers placed the names of the respective playing XIs.
Obviously they believed in status quo and merely replicated the earlier teams that the rivals fielded over the last four days!
The Sri Lankan squad had no Angelo Mathews and Lasith Malinga was also absent from the ranks. One part of the scoreboard's team-prediction, if you could call that, came true when Mahela Jayawardene informed the media that Mathews was returning home after failing to recover from a calf-injury.
Malinga, though, is racing against time to get fit and trained here on Wednesday, starting with a slow run-up before increasing his pace towards the end of his 30-minute session. He also participated in fielding drills and batted against throw-downs but the last word on his match-fitness will be heard only when Jayawardene and Misbah-ul-Haq walk out for the toss.
Dampening factors
The absence of Mathews and the uncertainty surrounding Malinga are dampening factors within the Sri Lankan dressing room while the team has to defeat Pakistan to stay alive in the Asia Cup. History's long-arm holds several clues for revival as defying odds is nothing new for Sri Lanka.
Be it grounding Australia in the World Cup final at Lahore in 1996 or the recent narrow victory against Shane Watson's men at Melbourne, which helped it qualify for the Commonwealth Bank Series finals, Sri Lanka has been known to springing surprises.
On Tuesday, Sri Lanka was in the contest against India until Kumar Sangakkara chanced his arm against R. Ashwin in the batting Power Play.
A clutch of wickets fell and the earlier momentum gathered by Jayawardene was frittered away. Dinesh Chandimal and Lahiru Thirimanne, who added layers of respectability to their emerging reputations in Australia, played inexplicable shots and that effectively snuffed out the Sri Lankan challenge.
Need for consistency
The two, expected to shepherd Colombo's dreams, once the twilight beckons Jayawardene, Sangakkara and Tillakaratne Dilshan, need to remain consistent, else the same old story of excessive reliance on the top-order will be Sri Lanka's strength as well as weakness. To make it worse, the bowlers lost their angles against India and while the bouncer was conspicuous by its absence, an embarrassing number of full-tosses were peddled, though one of them snared a tepid Sachin Tendulkar!
Against Pakistan, Sri Lanka cannot afford to repeat the horrors and Jayawardene said as much in the pre-match briefing.
If Sri Lanka found itself in the wringer against defending champion India, Pakistan had it easy against Bangladesh as the host's susceptibility to choke while treading the victory path surfaced again in the inaugural game on Sunday.
Ineptitude
Chasing 262, Bangladesh wilted despite the flailing attempts of Tamim Iqbal and Shakib-Al-Hasan.
The host's batting ineptitude actually helped Pakistan temporarily forget its 36 for six collapse which negated the fine effort of openers Mohammad Hafeez and Nasir Jamshed.
Pakistan's spinners led by Saeed Ajmal and Shahid Afridi can cause a few hassles on this pitch, which tends to reward batsmen, who would need to settle down first before setting their sights on sixes unless you are in the zone like Jayawardene was against India.
After getting whipped by England in the United Arab Emirates, Pakistan's ODI reputation has sagged and the next few days are crucial for Misbah to strengthen his team's fortunes.
The last time, Pakistan and Sri Lanka clashed in the dry confines of UAE, Misbah's men made merry, winning the Tests 1-0 and the ODIs 4-1. The undercurrents from those November days and Sri Lanka's current context of being boxed into a corner, should impart an extra edge to Thursday's contest as the race for the finalist spots heats up in the tournament.
The teams:
Pakistan: Misbah-ul-Haq (captain), Mohammad Hafeez, Nasir Jamshed, Younis Khan, Umar Akmal, Hammad Azam, Asad Shafiq, Shahid Afridi, Azhar Ali, Sarfraz Ahmed, Saeed Ajmal, Abdul Rehman, Umar Gul, Aizaz Cheema and Wahab Riaz.
Sri Lanka: Mahela Jayawardene (captain), Tillakaratne Dilshan, Upul Tharanga, Kumar Sangakkara, Dinesh Chandimal, Lahiru Thirimanne, Thisara Perera, Farveez Maharoof, Sachithra Senanayake, Nuwan Kulasekara, Lasith Malinga, Seekkuge Prasanna and Suranga Lakmal.
Umpires: Steve Davis and Paul Reiffel; Third umpire: Sharfuddoula; Match referee: David Boon.
Match starts at 1.30 p.m. IST.
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