Sri Lanka v Pakistan, 2nd ODI - Preview

After winning a nail-biting encounter in the first ODI against Sri Lanka at Hambantotta with one ball to spare, Pakistan will look to wrap up the series by winning the second game. It is intriguing to note that the second game was initially scheduled to be held at Colombo (RPS), but because of incessant rain in Colombo, the match now will take place at Hambantota. The match also was forwarded to 26 August.

Sri Lanka

The hosts, Sri Lanka, would be bitterly disappointed by the fact that they lost a humdinger of a match to Pakistan in the first ODI. Despite crunching performances from seasoned campaigners; Mahela Jayawardene and Angelo Mathews, Sri Lanka lost the match.

It was their bowling that was below par. Lasith Malinga, known for his ability to bowl toe-crushing yorkers and bouncers with unremitting accuracy couldn't find his rhythm, and that didn't help Sri Lanka's cause. The usually reliable, Nuwan Kulasekara, who has in the past shown the ability to bowl well at home also struggled to make his mark. The threat from slow left-arm orthodox, Rangana Herath, was negated by Pakistan's batsmen especially, Sohaib Maqsood.

Despite Thisara Perera making a valuable contribution with the bat in hand, Sri Lanka may look to bring in Dhammika Prasad for the next game. Suraj Randiv is another option. In short, Sri Lanka seem to lack another specialist bowler.

Pakistan

The Pakistan think-tank would be buoyed by how well the unit came back after losing the Test series 2-0. When a team goes through the wallow of mediocrity by losing matches, any victory can lift the sagging morale of the set-up.

In the first game, Ahmed Shehzad and Maqsood looked in fine touch and Pakistan need them to continue their good form. One of the strengths of this Pakistan line-up is that in Fawad Alam, Maqsood and Shahid Afridi, they have enough firepower to make a rip-roaring comeback and win games in the end overs. The old hands, Misbah-ul-Haq and Younis Khan are still around as well. Khan though, will miss the final two ODIs of the series due to the death of his nephew.

With Saeed Ajmal unavailable due to him being reported for suspect bowling action, Pakistan's bowling will depend on their pacers, Junaid Khan, Wahab Riaz and Mohammad Irfan. Even though, Junaid had a poor game in the last match, he is the spearhead of the attack.

Junaid can bowl with a tunnel-vision aim to succeed in the end overs, and bowls yorkers at will. Riaz has a tendency to go for runs, but is a genuine wicket-taker in any format of the game. Irfran, the giant of a man can generate disconcerting bounce and hits the bat hard. Interestingly, all three of them are left-arm pacers and that means Sri Lankan batsmen have to counter the left-armer's angle as well

Ground conditions

The track at Hambantota usually offers pace bowlers decent pace and bounce and that is good news for batsmen too. The toss shouldn't play a major role at the ground.

Trivia

• Dinesh Chandimal needs 52 more runs to aggregate 2,000 ODI runs.

• Angelo Mathews needs 80 more runs to reach the milestone of 3,000 ODI runs.