da bet vitoria： Whitewashing visiting cricket sides is becoming quite a common feature withSri Lankan national teams and Sri Lanka A are looking for a three-nil cleansweep when they take on Kenya in the final unofficial Test at Dambulla onThursday
da leao： Saadi Thawfeeq13-Feb-2002Whitewashing visiting cricket sides is becoming quite a common feature withSri Lankan national teams and Sri Lanka A are looking for a three-nil cleansweep when they take on Kenya in the final unofficial Test at Dambulla onThursday.Jayasuriya and Co. completed 3-0 whitewashes against West Indies andZimbabwe in recently concluded series. Chandana’s boys have taken astranglehold in the series against Kenya with two convincing wins in thefirst two Tests which has given them an unassailable 2-0 lead.”I think it is very important for us that we win against Kenya here,” saidSri Lanka ‘A’ senior coach and manager Roshan Mahanama.”Kenya are a better one-day side and if we can thrash them like we did inthe first two Tests it will boost our morale and give us a psychologicaladvantage over them for the one-day series,” he said.The disappointing aspect from Kenya’s viewpoint is that there is nocontinuity in their batting line up which has seen only one individualperform in each innnings.In the first Test, it was Ravindu Shah’s knock of 94 that held their firstinnings together, while Steve Tikolo stood out in the second innings makinga bright 65.The story was very much the same at Matara, where Shah once again top scoredin the first innings with 106, and Tikolo followed in the second inningswith 117.None of the other recognised batsmen have been able to build bigpartnerships with Shah and Tikolo.To get down to the cold statistics, Kenya’s highest partnership in theseries so far is 59 for the fourth wicket between Shah and Hitesh Modi inthe first innings of the first ‘Test’.In contrast, Sri Lanka ‘A’s success has largely been on their ability tobuild on big partnerships which has seen them run up totals of 414 and 574-6declared.The other factor, which weighs heavily against Kenya is the inability shownby their batsmen to cope with spin on surfaces, which encourage turn. Elevenwickets fell to spin at the Sara Stadium and 17 at Matara.To add to their woes Kenya are leaving their options of picking their finalsquad until the morning of the match because of injuries to key playersThomas Odoyo, an all-rounder of repute and Mohammad Sheikh, their left-armorthodox slow bowler.Odoyo is still recovering from a right hamstring injury, which prevented himfrom batting in both innings at Matara. Indications are that he may berested for this ‘Test’ in order to have him fully fit for the three-matchone-day series starting on February 20.Sheikh dislocated a finger in his left-hand at fielding practice on Tuesdayand is receiving treatment for it.Kenya’s manager said that because of the injuries the team will not befinalised until the morning and that all 16 players in the squad wereavailable for selection.Sri Lanka ‘A’ on the other hand have less worries with hard-hitting openerAvishka Gunawardana having recovered from the ‘flu that laid him low atMatara and likely to play here.Upekha Fernando who stepped in for Gunawardana and scored an impressive 86off 98 balls is expected to open with Gunawardana relegating Ian Daniel tothe reserves.The selectors have brought in fast bowler Dulip Liyanage to replace PrabathNissanka in the 14 for Dambulla, but the final choice of whether to go withseam or spin will only be decided on the morning because of the pitchgetting damp due to some rain falling over in the past two days.Ruchira Perera and Pulasthi Gunaratne are likely to be the two in therunning for the seamer’s berth and skipper Chandana and left-armer RanganaHerath for the spinners.Liyanage and off-spinner Muthumudalige Pushpakumara will have to await theirfate until the morning of the match.SRI LANKA ‘A’ (from):Upul Chandana (captain), Avishka Gunawardana, Upekha Fernando, MichaelVandort, Tillekeratne Dilshan, Chamara Silva, Prasanna Jayawardene,Muthumudalige Pushpakumara, Ruchira Perera, Rangana Herath, PulasthiGunaratne, Dulip Liyanage, Ian Daniel, Gayan Wijekoon.KENYA (from):Maurice Odumbe (captain), Kennedy Otieno, Ravindu Shah, Steve Tikolo, HiteshModi, Otieno Suji, Collins Obuya, Lamech Onyango, Martin Suji, Brijal Patel,Joseph Angara, Josephat Sorengo, David Obuya, Thomas Odoyo, Mohammad Sheikh.UMPIRES:Gamini Silva and D.A.S. Dissanayake, Match Referee : RanjithMadurasinghe.
