Batsmen Must Give Bowlers a Chance On South Africa Tour: Angelo Mathews
Dec 10, 2016 at 3:48 PM
Sri Lanka captain Angelo Mathews has set his target straight ahead of much important South African tour which begins on Boxing Day at Port Elizabeth. Sri Lanka, who will enter the contest with Tri-series win on their back, will face a tough challenge against the hosts, who appear confident after an impressive show in Australia recently.
Talking about his young and relatively inexperienced side, Mathews brought the attention down to his batsmen, who he believes need to put up enough runs on the board to give his bowler’s a chance to leave some mark. The skipper though remained adamant on the fact his side is capable of producing some spine-tingling cricket.
“With Dushmantha Chameera coming back into the team and young Vikum Sanjaya earning his spot, we have got a fairly decent pace attack which can put them under pressure, but we need to score runs as a batting unit. It’s going to be our main challenge; the boys have worked extremely hard in the past few weeks.”
Revealing about their preparation, the all-rounder said the side has been practicing on granite surface to get used to the bounce they are likely to face in South Africa.
“The pace the boys are used to, it’s just the the bounce and the conditions that we need to get used to.
“We used a lot of granite stuff, especially the batters. When you use a piece of granite, the ball is coming on to you quicker. The granite is laid down on the pitch and you can throw the ball on it so that it comes on quicker,” he added.
Mathews later said his side is well prepared to counter-attack the Proteas in their own backyard and believes they’ve enough time to get used to the conditions over there.
“We’ve done everything possible to try and counterattack the South African fast bowlers and get used to their conditions. We have about 12 days before we play our first Test on Boxing Day. We’ll try and use those days to the maximum so that we get things right.”
Also Read: Angelo Mathews, Dinesh Chandimal Return To Sri Lanka’s Squad For South Africa Series