From Sunil Gavaskar
Sri Lanka have to win the game against Pakistan to stay in the Asia Cup. A team that started as the favourites are now in a situation where if they lose their game against Pakistan, then they could well be out of the tournament.
They have had their share of injuries, and they didn’t have the services of Lasith Malinga and Angelo Mathews, which definitely handicapped them to a great extent against India and they will be hoping that the Malinga will be fit for the game against Pakistan, since Angelo Mathews has been ruled out for the remaining Asia Cup games.
India will be thankful not just to the centurions, Gautam Gambhir and Virat Kohli but their skipper, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, who realized that he needed to go up the order and hit some lusty blows. It was his partnership with Raina that got India past the 300 mark, and gave their bowlers that additional cushion of comfort.
Dhoni then used his part time bowlers cleverly and with India’s fielding also being good, the easy runs were simply not there and that added to the pressure on the Lankans, who despite some good overs were always battling against the asking rate.
The pitch at the Sher-e- Bangla stadium is of the highest quality with the ball coming on to the bat quite nicely and with a fast outfield to boot, teams are aware that they need to get near 300 if they have to put pressure on the opposition. However, with both teams that have chosen to field first, having lost the games, the skippers may well have a different approach for the next games. The dew factor is not as much as was anticipated and so bowling second is not as much as a handicap as was thought earlier. The win percentage is still higher overall at this ground for teams chasing, but the trend at the moment is different. Sri lanka were obviously thinking of their last game against the Indians in Australia when the Indians chased down 320 runs and that too in only 36 overs, and so opted to field first, but am pretty certain that the tactics will be different against Pakistan.
Pakistan is a team that can feel the pressure while chasing a target with their batting, but they have the bowlers to stop a chase and will prefer to bat first.
Their skipper is on notice for the slow over-rate and another transgression and he could be banned for a game, and since their match after the Lanka match is against arch rivals India, there is no doubt he and his team will hurry up between overs against the Lankans, to avoid the ban.
Going by form, the Lankans should begin as favourites, but when Pakistan are on song, there are not many teams that can stop them.