Mathews hints of spin heavy attack while McCullum cautious on Sachi
Captain Angelo Mathews hinted that Sri Lanka will bank on their spinners today to unsettle the New Zealanders who have traditionally shown a weakness against the slow bowlers.
“On this pitch, the spinners might come into play. It looks like it’s going to be slow as the game goes on. But I think we’ve always had the four seamers and the two all-rounders. But we’ve got our options open” Mathews said on the eve of Sri Lanka’s Champion’s Trophy opener here in Cardiff yesterday.
Mathews rated New Zealand as a very dangerous team and claimed they have made meticulous plans on how to counter the threat.
“They are a very dangerous side and a very hard team to beat because they’ve gotten used to the conditions and played some very good games in the recent past against the English team. I mean, we can’t be complacent. We’ve got to be ready to go from ball one” Mathews said.
“We know what they can do. They can, on any given day any team can beat any team. It’s whoever plays best on that day” he added.
Mathews also made it clear that Sri Lanka will continue with the tradition of big hitting at the top despite many international teams now resorting to play it safe initially to conserve wickets with the introduction of the new ODI rules.
“We’ll try to play the way we are capable of playing cricket, and if we can do our things right we can do well. We’ve got a couple of dashing openers at the top and we are not trying to change too much of their approach” added Mathews.
Mathews defended his lead bowler Lasith Malinga following concerns allegedly raised by former star Wasim Akram over what he saw as the slinger accumulating some weight in recent times.
“Well, to me he hasn’t put on that much weight. He’s very professional the way he goes about things and he knows exactly what to do and how to do it. He’s our premium bowler. He tries to give the maximum each time he walks into the middle” said Mathews.
Mathews said that they were trying out Mahela Jayawardene at number three in the warm-up games but haven’t still decided if the experiment was successful.
“We haven’t decided on our batting order, but we just wanted to try him at number three, but we still haven’t decided on how we are about to go tomorrow” he said.
Kiwi skipper McCullum weary of Sachitra Senanayake
Mathews also said that he didn’t care much about the past achievements of Sri Lanka.
“As I always say, as people keep saying we’ve done pretty well in the recent past, but that’s past. I think as a team we still have to go a long way. The past will be in the back of our minds, but we just want to try to take one game at a time and try to win from the first game” he said.
New Zealand skipper Brendon McCullum rated Sri Lanka highly, mentioning the fact that Sri Lanka beat them in last year’s series in Sri Lanka but assured that his side might be a different proposition under English conditions.
“Yeah, it’s going to be a good challenge. Sri Lanka has obviously dominated us in recent history. The wickets that we played on back in Sri Lanka in that series will be a lot different than what we’re expecting over here during this Champions Trophy” said McCullum.
“So we know they’re a very good team. They’ve got some mystery spinners and some obvious quirks about their bowling line up lingering, especially they’ve also got some experienced batters and a tough proposition. They are going to be a tough team. But every team in this competition is very strong side. So our approach is very much on making sure that we play as well as what we have in the last few games in this form of the game” added McCullum.
The New Zealand skipper also claimed that they are quietly confident about their prospects as they just finished an ODI’s against hosts England with a 2-1 victory.
“We’re quietly confident. We think we are a good One Day unit with experienced players and a feel or idea or understanding of the style of play which suits us. We think we’ve got some match winners amongst our line-up, and we’ve had to battle harder in English conditions over the last week or so in this form of the game, and we are confident that it will give us some sort of assistance” said McCullum.
McCullum was however not complacent and pointed out that Sri Lanka had also shown some excellent form in the warm-up games prior to the tournament.
“But in saying that, the opposition has been playing some warmup games over here as well, so I guess we’ll see the merits of warmup games versus match hardened games unfolding over the next week or so”.
McCullum reiterated that they are not taking the Sri Lankan challenge lightly and assured that they will stick to their own plans to get an edge.
“We’re incredibly respectful of Sri Lanka as a team. I think they’re an excellent cricket team and their statistics over recent history deduces that as well. But we are very focused on making sure we now progress our plans accordingly, and if we do that, we give ourselves a live chance” he said.
McCullum also revealed that New Zealand would be extra cautious against his Kolkata Knight Riders teammate in the IPL Sachitra Senanayake.
“ Sachi, he’s a different proposition to Murali. His bowling is definitely one of the mystery spinners that come around, and he’s got a good variety of different balls which he bowls as well, so he’s going to be an interesting proposition for us. Because if we give him a sniff or if we expose, I guess, some frailties to such spinners such as Sachi, he could quite easily expose us.
But I hope we play him with some freedom, and hopefully we’ve got enough knowledge and preparation so that will last us a while from various sources that we’ll be able to be successful against him, but time will tell” said McCullum.
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