Angelo Mathews is in a race to be fit for the second Royal London ODI at Edgbaston but will be given until the last moment to prove his hamstring has fully recovered
Melinda Farrell at Edgbaston23-Jun-2016Angelo Mathews is in a race to be fit for the second Royal London ODI at Edgbaston but will be given until the last moment to prove his hamstring has fully recovered from the stiffness that forced him from the field in the first ODI at Trent Bridge.Mathews looked somewhat uncomfortable and was only able to run at around 70 percent during a fitness test on Wednesday afternoon before sitting out the rest of the fielding session, although he did take part in some batting practice later.He will have a further fitness test on Friday before the team is announced but if he is unable to play then Sri Lanka, whose bowling stocks have been depleted throughout the tour, have limited options to replace him.Dinesh Chandimal is tipped to step in as captain and, if the pitch looks likely to turn, Sri Lanka may consider playing two slow bowlers and bring in off-spinner Suraj Randiv to replace Mathews, a move that would undoubtedly weaken the batting line-up and leave Sri Lanka needing a new opening bowler to partner Suranga Lakmal.But while replacing Mathews with bat and ball – not to mention losing his experience as captain – would be a huge challenge, Sri Lanka’s fielding must also be a significant concern.As Mathews lumbered through cones with training staff, his teammates – barely 30 metres away – hardly impressed in their fielding drills, diving over balls and failing to pick them up cleanly on several occasions.Liam Plunkett’s six off Nuwan Pradeep’s final ball may have tied the first ODI but it was Sri Lanka’s sloppiness in the field off the penultimate ball, which gave Chris Woakes three runs instead of two, that put England in a position from which a tie was even possible.It is a point not lost on Sri Lanka opener, Danushka Gunathilaka.”That’s a ball that if we keep to them to two runs we win the game,” Gunithilaka said. “You can’t just blame the one person. It’s a team game.”Of course we are a bit disapppointed by the fielding. We were very good with batting and bowling, the only thing is we have to improve our fielding a bit more. If we fielded well [at Trent Bridge] it would have been a different story but we are improving. We have to improve our fielding. Sometimes we did well, sometimes we gave them runs.”It was a pretty tight game and at the end of the day we were disappointed, but we take some very good positive things and we are looking forward to the next game.”
