COLOMBO – Pakistan coach Waqar Younis played down the threat from Muttiah Muralitharan ahead of their crucial World Cup clash with Sri Lanka on Saturday, saying their batsmen had coped with him in the past.
A capacity 35,000-crowd is expected to fill the Premadasa stadium in Colombo for the Group A match — the first big test for both teams after Sri Lanka easily rolled over Canada and Pakistan crushed Kenya. “In the past if Muralitharan had plans for us, we have played really well against him in this country.
“I don’t think we should worry about him that much, he is not 28 anymore,” said Waqar of the 38-year-old off-spinner, who has 521 wickets in 342 one-day internationals — a world record. “It is not going to be easy for him any more. We are prepared not only for him but the entire team because we know it’s an important match for us and we need to keep the momentum going.”
Waqar admitted Sri Lanka would be tough to beat in home conditions.
“Sri Lanka on their home ground are very good, very difficult to beat. Here the conditions and weather help them, but the way we have played and trained and with our momentum, I am hopeful we can beat them,” said the coach. Waqar said he was looking to Abdul Razzaq to boost his tally of runs.
“I think Razzaq has done really well with the ball, but he hasn’t delivered the goods with the bat apart from one game in Abu Dhabi.
“No doubt he is our striker in both batting and bowling,” said Waqar of the all-rounder, who hit a quickfire century against South Africa last year. “It’s right he comes in at eight, but then again we have five batsman, our keeper (Kamran Akmal) is more of a batsman and then there is (Shahid) Afridi, so he doesn’t really fit in at the moment.
But if we need to send him up the order, if runs are required, we might push him.” Waqar also admitted wicket-taking off-spinner Saeed Ajmal was unfortunate not to win a place in the eleven. “We are just going to go with the best combination, what we probably had in the last match, just the best team with which we can win and it’s unfortunate that Ajmal is not fitting into it,” said Waqar of the 33-year-old off-spinner. Ajmal, the team’s main one-day spinner until last year, has not played for Pakistan since his father’s death in January.
