What concerns Sri Lanka most is that Willey is expected to stand in their opening match of the one-day triangular against South Africa at Trent Bridge on August 14. Brought upon slow pitches at home where one can wait for the ball to come before offering a shot, the Sri Lankan batsmen are finding the ball coming much quicker through the air in English conditions than they anticipate. This has led to a spate of leg before decisions in the game against Glamorgan here which Sri Lanka lost inside two days.
The fall of 22 wickets on the opening day of this game, rang the alarm bells for England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) chief inspector of pitches, Harry Brind to make his way to Cardiff and inspect the pitch. He is obliged to do if it 5 or more wickets fall in a day.
Brind took less than 30 minutes to come to a conclusion that it was not the pitch that was at fault, but the lack of technique in the Sri Lankan batsmen. He spoke to the two umpires Willey and Mervyn Kitchen, who may have also remarked on the reluctance of the Sri Lankan batsmen to play everything on the front foot, which is a prerequisite on this ground.
Sri Lanka were bowled out for 52 in 91 minutes of the opening session to record their lowest ever total in a first-class match in England. They put up a better performance in the second innings to make 222, largely due to an innings of 99 by opener Marvan Atapattu, who made those runs because he was prepared to come on to the front foot. ``It was disappointing to lose, but we should not be unduly worried over the result because these matches are meant to gain experience for the more important games,'' said Sri Lanka manager Ranjit Fernando.
``Unlike at home, the batsmen need to hang around for some 15 to 20 minutes to get the feel of the pitch and the conditions here before they can go about playing their shots. This has not been the case with some of them,'' said Fernando. He was quite pleased with the form shown by Test batsmen Atapattu, Hashan Tillekeratne and Aravinda de Silva (82 off 79 balls for Rest of the World in the Princess Diana memorial game at Lord's), and bowlers Pramodya Wickremasinghe and Muthiah Muralitharan.
The worrying factors are the batting form of Sanath Jayasuriya and Mahela Jayawardene. None of them have been able to enter double figures yet. Jayasuriya's scores on the tour so far are 0, 4 and 8, and Jayawardene's 3, 9, 0 and. ``What they are lacking most is the confidence. Once they can get a good score behind them, they should be in the runs,'' said Fernando.
Having finished their match a day earlier than scheduled the Sri Lankan cricketers were stuck here as they are booked to go to their next venue Leicester only on Tuesday. The game against Leicestershire which is a four-day affair begins on Friday.