Ishant upset with lack of help from wicket

Mumbai: India's new strike bowler Ishant Sharma has blamed the unresponsive Sinhalese Sports Club wicket for India's sorry state at the end of the second day of the ongoing first Test match against Sri Lanka on Thursday.

"We needed to take early wickets in the morning but the wicket was not assisting the new ball bowlers in any way. There was hardly any carry in the wicket with the old ball. Even though the new ball had lot of carry, there was hardly any movement in the air," Ishant Sharma was quoted as saying by The Times of India on Friday.

When asked whether the Indians missed a fifth bowler when the Sri Lanka batsmen were toying with the bowlers, Ishant said, "All of us bowled our hearts out in the middle. We were not fortunate enough to get regular break-through when we needed the most. Even the part time bowlers supported us tremendously."

"We need to be patient when the conditions are tough and still hit the right areas and expect some assistance from the wicket. But unfortunately there was not much in the wicket even for even the fifth bowler to exploit and the Sri Lankan batsmen batted very well," he added.

The Indian new ball bowlers were expected to give their team early break through but failed miserably as four catches were missed by their fielders and three of Sri Lanka’s frontline batsmen – Malinda Warnapura, skipper Mahela Jayawardene and Thilan Samaraweera — went on to score centuries.

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