Sri Lanka’s captain, Charith Asalanka, has questioned England’s condemnation of the pitch at the R Premadasa for the second ODI in Colombo by pointing out that 440 runs were scored in the match.

Harry Brook said after Saturday’s game that it was the “worst pitch” he had ever played on, while Joe Root, who scored a match-winning 75 off 90, said that he didn’t think “it was a great wicket for ODI cricket”. That was after England had reached a target of 220 with 22 balls to spare and five wickets in hand to level the series at 1-1.

“That was his opinion - mine might be a bit different,” Asalanka said of Brook’s comments ahead of the third ODI. “If he says this is the worst pitch he’s seen, that’s something he feels. But between the two teams we hit 440 runs.”

Asalanka also referenced a low-scoring match between these teams from the 2023 World Cup to drive his point home. In that game, in Bengaluru, England were all out for 156 inside 34 overs, before Sri Lanka cruised to an eight-wicket victory. Brook did not play in that game but was part of the squad.

“If you looked at the 2023 World Cup - they’d only got 180 [actually 156] in that game, and no one said anything about the pitch,” Asalanka said. “I don’t know why he’s saying this now. I guess we’ll see what is said after the next match.”

Although Asalanka defended the pitch for the second ODI to some extent, he was not exactly glowing about it either. He had wanted a better strip for batting.

“I didn’t expect the pitch for the second match would be like that. We had got 270-280 in the first match and no one likes to get fewer runs than that, because you’ve got to give your bowlers something to defend. Unfortunately the pitch for the second match had changed from the first game. That said, it still wasn’t a 220-run pitch - my goal while batting had been to get to 250 or 260.”

Asalanka said he hoped the pitch for the third ODI would be similar to the track the teams played the first match on.

Sri Lanka are expected to play Wanindu Hasaranga in the third game, after the allrounder was rested for the start of the series. England, meanwhile, are unlikely to bring back Zak Crawley following a knee injury, even though he was involved at net practice on Monday.

Source: Espncricinfo

- Agencies