Cricket: Sri Lanka face one-dayer without star pair

By RICHARD BOOCK

Sri Lanka may be without their two premier bowlers for Wednesday's opening one-day cricket international against New Zealand at Napier.

The tourists arrived in the country on Saturday amid injury concerns over star off-spinner Mutthiah Muralitharan and left-arm paceman Chaminda Vaas, neither of whom played in yesterday's tour opener against a New Zealand selection in New Plymouth.

Both players were forced to miss the third and final test against South Africa at Centurion with groin strains, and while the Sri Lankans are hopeful Muralitharan will be fit in time to play at McLean Park this week, they seem to be less optimistic about the chances of Vaas.

Captain Sanath Jayasuriya said yesterday that a final decision on the pair would be left until the morning of the game, but suggested Vaas was the worse affected, with Muralitharan a 50-50 proposition.

"We'll have to wait and see," he said in New Plymouth, where the NZ Selection XI romped to a runaway 28-run win over his side in a one-day match at Pukakura Park.

"South Africa was a hard tour and we want to turn things around over here, so we're certainly hopeful of having both Mutthiah and Chaminda available."

And to add to the problems, medium-pacer Kaushalya Weeraratne broke a finger against the Selection X1 and was ruled out of the rest of the tour.

Like New Zealand, Sri Lanka are hell-bent on redemption after a disappointing tour of South Africa - where they lost the tests 0-2 and the ODIs 1-5 - but will be severely weakened if either of their front-line bowlers is sidelined.

Vaas, who turned 27 on Saturday, has snared 183 wickets in 150 ODIs, and Muralitharan has troubled batsmen all over the world while taking 215 wickets in 154 outings.

On the flip side, however, Sri Lanka have not exactly fashioned a record as one of the great touring sides in recent summers, and have won only two of their 12 ODIs in New Zealand since 1982-83.

"That's not worrying us at all, to be honest," Jayasuriya said. "Sri Lanka are always the underdogs, and we're used to being the underdogs - in some ways we prefer it like that."

The man who lit up world cricket with a century off just 48 balls against Pakistan in 1996 - at the time the fastest in history - played an integral part in Sri Lanka's World Cup success in 1996, but was unable find similar form during the recent series in South Africa, striking just one half-century in six ODIs.

But Jayasuriya, who scored 23 off 32 balls in New Plymouth yesterday, believes he needs only one significant stay at the crease to start firing on all cylinders again, and warned New Zealanders not to write him off quite yet.

"Things didn't work out for me in South Africa," he said. "But I enjoy playing in this part of the world. If I can just manage one decent innings, I'm sure I'll start hitting my straps."

After the disastrous tour of South Africa, the Sri Lankan selectors made three changes to the squad for New Zealand, recalling Eric Upashantha, controversial off-spinner Kumar Dharmasena and young left-arm paceman Ruchira Perera at the expense of Pramodya Wickramasinghe, Mudalige Pushpakamara and Tillekaratne Dilshan.

Dharmasena, who was captaining the Sri Lankan A team in Kenya at the time of his recall, was thrust back into international cricket last year after his bowling action was finally cleared by the Sri Lankan authorities, but failed to make a successful comeback.

However, once omitted from the national squad he started to recapture some of his best form with bat and ball in domestic cricket, and managed to persuade the selectors to look at him again.