Sri Lanka arrive and get to work

Sri Lanka arrived in India on Sunday with the determination of going that extra mile to win their first ever Test match in Mumbai and the first practice session at the Bandra Kurla Complex on Monday provided glimpses of how focussed the entire team was.

When the traditional last man of a team spends considerable time countering “throw downs” for an extended period after nets, you know that the team means business.

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Having given the top order batsmen enough batting practice, spin legend Muttiah Muralitharan spend some time in the nets himself and then walked up to the side nets along with a member of the support staff for “throw downs” and concentrated on blocking every ball thrown at him.

Sri Lanka arrived in India on Sunday with the determination of going that extra mile to win their first ever Test match here and the first practice session at the Bandra Kurla Complex on Monday provided glimpses of how focussed the entire team was. Skipper Kumar Sangakkara batted over an hour in the nets in two-sessions concentrating on leaving the balls.

The 32-year-old had faced the new ball bowlers for a short period soon after the openers had a knock. He seemed in fine touch middling most of the balls but returned to the nets after a brief break and made the local bowlers bowl outside the off stump to him.

The other Sri Lankan players went through their paces and the small crowd watching the nets would have been impressed with the timing of Thilan Samaraweera's strokes as he sent some of the balls sailing outside the ground during the four-hour net session.

Meanwhile the Board President's XI players began assembling in the city on Monday and six of them including skipper Rohit Sharma spent a couple of hours in the nets under the watchful eye of Sandeep Patil, Director of Cricket operations of the National Cricket Academy.