Sri Lanka looked decidedly rusty on Monday when they played out a tepid draw against the Australian Chairman’s XI in Adelaide.
Muralitharan takes 4-121 before Jayawardene’s team end innings at 125 for 3
BRISBANE: Sri Lanka looked decidedly rusty on Monday when they played out a tepid draw against the Australian Chairman’s XI in Adelaide.
When the two captains called off the game one hour early, Sri Lanka were 125-3 in their second innings, with Thilan Samaraweera not out 41 and Jehan Mubarak on one.
Captain Mahela Jayawardene earlier scored a polished 52 to make up for the disappointment of a first innings duck.
The Chairman’s XI were eventually bowled out in the second session on Monday for 409 in reply to the Sri Lankans’ first innings total of 368-6 declared.
Spinner Muttiah Muralitharan was the pick of the bowlers, taking 4-121 in 44 overs, and Dilhara Fernando and Farveez Maharoof took two wickets each. South Australia’s Tom Plant scored a laborious 124 for the Chairman’s XI, backed up by 95 from Victoria’s Lloyd Mash and 58 from West Australian spinner Aaron Heal.
Meanwhile, Sri Lankan vice captain Kumar Sangakkara remains in doubt for the first Test in Brisbane starting on November 8 with an injury to his left hamstring.
Jayawardene said Sangakkara would miss the team’s final warm-up match against Queensland in Brisbane and would wait on a specialist’s report on his hamstring tear before making a decision about the Test match.
Jayawardene said his team struggled to adapt to the cold weather in Adelaide, which accounted for a particularly poor match in the field.
“Yesterday was a bit of a cold day for us, not used to it especially in Australia, but it was just lack of concentration,” he said.
“We were never on the game, we had a long chat about it yesterday and today as well, we need to take our practice games seriously.”
He added: “Guys concentrate a lot when they’re batting or bowling but it’s just in the field we seem to not have that same kind of concentration going into these warm-up games, which is a bad habit.”
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