Daily Cricket News

2nd Test: Mysterious pitch, rain peg SL back

Colombo: A rueful Sri Lanka captain, Kumar Sangakkara, will be wondering what constitutes a new Test pitch at Premadasa Stadium.

At a venue still a hive of building activity and in danger of being woefully short of meeting the World Cup delivery deadline of December 31, the newly laid surface has also provided a series of conundrums when Sangakkara and West Indies skipper Darren Sammy looked at the pitch for the second Test of this series here on Tuesday.

This was after West Indies pace and seam of the often combustible Kemar Roach and skipper Darren Sammy had made the most of the conditions where there was bounce and pace and with disciplined bowling that blew away the top order in just over 70 minutes of play.

Roach was especially quick and troublesome with his opening overs, exploiting the bounce in the pitch.

It was the bounce and the uncertainty of what to expect that undid Tillakaratne Dilshan. Just what he was attempting when trying to flick the ball off his pads and getting his feet in a tangle is the sort of question the batsman needs to answer. If he was subdued in Galle, he was even more so as the noise of the refurbishment of the venue went on and found him wanting yet again.

Dilshan needs to check his technique as he was suckered early in Galle by Andre Russell and in the follow-on innings was comprehensively bowled by Roach. Now he has time to reflect on both first innings dismissals.

Scoring, however, was far from easy as the pitch had scuffed up a little and Sulieman Benn, left out if the first Test after his behaviour of charging into the South African dressing room and showing the lack of discipline that earned him a one Test ban. So far Shane Shillingford was not bowled in this truncated first day’s play. You can be assured that attention will focus on his action when Sammy decides to call on the tall 27-year-old Dominican off-spinner.

It could be suggested that the flexation issue facing Shillingford is one that the International Cricket Council have created for themselves. They allowed Muttiah Muralitharan a fifteen per cent level and in defending this percentage level, Dave Richardson said there were bowlers who had degrees of flexation that went beyond this level.

According to a test biomechanics report, Muralitharan is said to have had when he was thought to have exceeded the 15 per cent extension level, it showed his overall flexation was 12.5 percent and the doosra 13.5 per cent. How accurate are these figures is a matter of where and when the report was made and who carried it out.

Shillingford, it seems has a problem with the doosra. This is the delivery he bowled in the Test at Galle that caught the attention of the officials. Recall if you will, Chris Broad, who the Pakistan terrorists tried to kill in their wild fusillade spree in the Lahore attack in March last year, was unhappy with the flexation that Muralitharan used in 2004 in the Test series against Australia.

Once he was cleared, all seemed well, although Broad was unfairly accused of being a “racist” as he made his views known over what he saw. As an ICC official, he is entitled to his views and also former Test player.

There did appear to be a problem from those of us who were watching and comment was tempered until those on the field, who know what is involved in the mechanics of citing a bowler with a dodgy action. They know too the repercussions of such action. Now comes the trial period and the ICC need to sort out their language as well. You cannot have a system that allows one bowler flexation of certain latitude while penalising another bowler. This is where the ICC need to be transparent.

As for the second Test, Sri Lanka at 84 for three are far from solid as the bowling and fielding was forceful and Sammy’s leadership skills showed he was in tune with the game-plan.