Live from Asgiriya

[12th Man]

I was there for the first hour and I thought some of my friends on the forum may like to hear what I saw and thought.

The new fast bowler failed to impress me. I thought he was slightly quicker than what Vaas is now but Maharoof seemed quicker than Sujeewa Silva. He also didn’t swing the ball much but that could have been due to the fact that the wicket was very dry and didn’t do anything at all in the morning. The dryness of the wicket was rather disconcerting because there were bits coming off right from the first over and batting last having to chase around 200 could get tricky.

The decision to bowl first could only be “justified” if the reason was to give Murali two cracks at the Banglas’ and thereby get more wickets. If we batted first we would have scored big and probably won by an innings. I say “justified” in inverted commas because I wonder if this is the way to play test cricket ?

Umpire Rudy was doing his thing as usual. After Sujeewa’s first ball he walked across and fiddled around with the playing surface to indicate that Sujeewa was running on the danger area. Are these people sadists or what ?! Can’t you give a debutant a few deliveries at the start of a test match before you try to upset him ? Rudy also interrupted Murali when he was on his way to bowl his first ball with a query from the other umpire if they needed to stop the match because it was drizzling at that stage.

Shariar Nafeez ( the opener, I hope I got the name right) impressed me. He played a lovely on drive on the front foot off Murali to the mid wicket fence. Murali was bowling over the wicket to the right hander with a short leg, a short mid on (for the mistimed on drive) and a deep square leg.

The rain is over now but the covers at Asgiriya seem awfully cumbersome to put on and off. They consist of large waterproof sheets that have to be pulled onto the ground and pulled off manually. The way the showers come and go (short and sharp) during this South West Monsoon season they will have to put the covers back as soon as they manage to get them off !

The grandstand at Asgiriya was fairly full, much better than the crowds we get in Colombo. Almost everyone (including me) had a complimentary ticket though but the noise level was good! However the roof was leaking everywhere, I wonder if SLC is going to wait for the roof to fall off before they do anything?


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