Mahanama to open with Jayasuriya (14 May 1999)

14 May 1999

Mahanama to open with Jayasuriya

Sa'adi Thawfeeq

LONDON, Thursday - The batting form of Roshan Mahanama in the warm-up matches has forced Sri Lanka to abandon their pinch-hitting tactics at least for the opening game of the 1999 World Cup when they begin the defence of their world title against England at Lords here tomorrow.

Mahanama will open the batting with Sanath Jayasuriya, for several reasons.

Jayasuriya's opening pinch-hitting partner Romesh Kaluwitharana is struggling for form, and with the ball moving around in the early overs, Sri Lanka need a more technically equipped batsman to see the shine off. The other plus factor that weighed for Mahanama's promotion to open is that he got a big hundred batting in that position against Nottinghamshire. He made 142 not out off 145 balls. The strategy may slightly change if Sri Lanka are chasing runs under a revised target.

For Mahanama to force his way into the team and go on to open the batting, it seems the wheel has turned a full circle.

Only a matter of months back, his career seemed as good as over after a poor tour of Australia which led to him being left out not only from the triangular series in India, but also out of the provisional World Cup squad of 19.

Mahanama last opened for his country in the Singer-Akai Cup match against Zimbabwe at Sharjah in April 1997, when Jayasuriya was probably rested for that game. He made 42 off 70 balls. Since then he has played in 49 (45 innings) of Sri Lanka's last 60 one-day matches batting in the lower order and accumulated 1115 runs at an average of 28.59.

Mahanama is the third most senior player in the Sri Lankan team with 208 one-day appearances after skipper Arjuna Ranatunga (264) and vice-captain Aravinda de Silva (254).

The conditions here have also forced Sri Lanka to switch their bowling attack to three seamers and one spinner. With Chaminda Vaas rediscovering his ability to swing the ball and with Pramodya Wickremasinghe also equally effective, Sri Lanka will be left with the choice of picking either Erik Upashantha or Chandika Hathurusingha as the third seamer.

It is a similar bowling line-up when Sri Lanka played in the World Cup when it was last held here in 1983. On that occasion they had Ashantha de Mel, Vinothen John and Rumesh Ratnayake with Somachandra de Silva as the leg-spinner. The team management comprises four who played in that World Cup - manager Duleep Mendis (who was then captain), coach Roy Dias (then vice-captain), cricket manager Somachandra de Silva and captain Arjuna Ranatunga.

Mendis however dispelled the fact that they had been swayed towards thinking on the same lines of 16 years ago when they opted for three seamers for tomorrow's game.

Hashan Tillekeratne will occupy the no. 7 spot with Kaluwitharana coming ahead of him at no. 6.

The mood in the Sri Lanka camp is upbeat. Mendis summed up the atmosphere as: "We have done all the home work, now we are ready for the exam".

"We need one big game, one big victory for everything to fall into place. I am quite confident of winning," he said.

The same view was shared by the team's strategist Somachandra de Silva, who has been analysing each and every warm-up game played by the Sri Lankans in their build up towards the World Cup.

"Things are looking really good now. It is just a matter of doing the right thing on the day. Less mistakes and we will win. The boys are very confident," said de Silva.

"We will have to get into the winning trend following our recent lean run in international cricket. A win over England will be just the tonic the team needs. I have been emphasising to the boys that we had to win every warm-up game and win it convincingly so that opposing teams will be put under pressure when they know that we are hitting the peak. That's what they've been doing," said de Silva. In the last two warm-up games, Sri Lanka have shown they can bowl out sides after batting first.

"If we are not confident of beating England we shouldn't be here," said skipper Ranatunga.

"No team is here to lose. There are about eight sides that can win this tournament. Therefore, you cannot take any game lightly. Every game is important to us, but we will take it game by game. If we play the way we have been in the past two or three weeks, we have a very good chance of winning. I think we are on the right track," he said.

Ranatunga said because in recent times his team had not been performing well (they have lost 15 of their last 20 one-day matches), the pressure was off them to win the World Cup, although they were the defending champions.

Ranatunga said that he would not be taking any past grudges on to the field when Sri Lanka play England. He was referring to his verbal duel with England captain Alec Stewart which has been given much publicity in the English newspapers.

Sri Lanka's preparations were hampered on Wednesday, when it rained and they were confined to the indoor nets at Finchley, about 25 minutes drive from Lords, but they had a good work out today under bright sunshine. The Lords indoor nets has been converted into the World Cup media centre.

England captain Alec Stewart played it safe when he said: "Whatever combination Sri Lanka comes up with doesn't bother us. All one-day games are important so this game isn't something special. Surely there are going to be a few butterflies in the stomach before a start of any tournament. We are no exception".

England have left their final selection for the morning of the match.

When the two sides last met at Lords, Sri Lanka beat England by five wickets to win the Emirates trophy final in 1998.

The teams: SRI LANKA (from): Arjuna Ranatunga (captain), Sanath Jayasuriya, Roshan Mahanama, Marvan Atapattu, Aravinda de Silva, Romesh Kaluwitharana, Hashan Tillekeratne, Chaminda Vaas, Pramodya Wickremasinghe, Muthiah Muralitharan, Erik Upashantha, Chandika Hathurusingha.

ENGLAND (from): Alec Stewart (captain), Nick Knight, Graeme Hick, Graham Thorpe, Neil Fairbrother, Andrew Flintoff, Mark Ealham, Robert Croft, Darren Gough, Alan Mullally, Ian Austin, Nasser Hussain, Vince Wells, Adam Hollioake, Angus Fraser.

UMPIRES: Srini Venkatraghavan (India) and Rudi Koertzen (South Africa),

TV umpire: Dave Orchard (South Africa),

Match Referee: Cammie Smith (West Indies).

Source :: The Daily News (https://www.lanka.net/lakehouse/)