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Moody has high hopes for weird and wonderful Malinga
Wednesday, 24 May 2006 - 4:15 AM SL Time
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Though rain wiped out the final day of Sri Lanka`s match against Sussex, their coach, Tom Moody, pronounced himself more than satisfied with a display that produced three centuries from his batsmen and a five-wicket haul for the weird and wonderful Lasith Malinga.
Malinga, 22, now seems destined to meet England for the first time on Thursday when the teams resume battle at Edgbaston.
His bowling is low-slung, in a quite literal sense, with the ball appearing late from a bizarre round-arm action.
Sussex`s batsmen found his speed through the air less of a problem than picking the ball up from the hand.
`Malinga is unique,` Moody said afterwards. `The closest person to him in world cricket is probably Fidel Edwards. He`s a bowler that you have to face before you can really come to terms with him. He also has the ability to reverse-swing the old ball and swing the new one conventionally. So far, early in his career, he`s got quite a good strike rate.
`We can`t say what balance we will go with until we get to Edgbaston,` Moody added. `But if Malinga plays he`ll add some potential for us to get breakthroughs. Having someone like him obviously helps when you`ve got Nos 9, 10 and Jack in - they don`t tend to fancy it too much.`
Sri Lanka do have a number of options as they go into the second Test. They could make room for Malinga by dropping a batsman, though the obvious candidates - Thilan Samaraweera and Chamara Kapugedera - made hundreds here.
Or they could leave out Nuwan Kulasekara, one of the heroes of their tailend rearguard at Lord`s.
`It was nice that our bowlers stood up with the bat,` Moody said. `But the bottom line is that we need to take 20 wickets. With the confidence the batsmen have gained over the over the past week or so, we should be able to go into the second and third Tests believing that we can get the runs on the board.`
The one area where Moody does look short of options is the second opener`s position.
Upul Tharanga has been prolific on this tour, but his potential partners, Jehan Mubarak and Michael Vandort, have managed just one half-century between them in 12 first-class attempts, while Sanath Jayasuriya has yet to play a game since his controversial late call-up.
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