The Pakistan cricket team would have to maintain its grip tightly-fastened on all the three departments of the game to strengthen their position in the series. Pakistan coach Dav Whatmore and captain Misbah-ul-Haq must give his charges a proper pep-talk before they enter in to the field that how important is for them to give their best particularly with the bat and in the field if they really want to push the hosts to the wall.
Today’s game may again check the abilities of the batsmen as has been seen in the previous match and before that the T20 series where the batsmen struggled and the bowlers dominated the proceedings.
The wet conditions followed by rain made things easy for the bowlers and it were the batsmen who faced the music but it was Misbah who with his patient batting blocked the one end while the others kept the flow of runs coming. And heaven as predicted by the weather pundits is likely to open up again and in those circumstances the Pakistan batsmen need to be more composed rather than going after every ball.
The Pakistan bowlers did what was required of them but in the field the team have to held their catches. A single dropped catch today would mean a game slipping out of their hands because Sri Lanka would be clawing back like wounded tigers.
It wont be a bad idea for the Pakistan Greens to have an extra batsman in their line up to consolidate their lower middle order. If we look at the stats between the two countries, Pakistan have an edge over Sri Lanka but cricket is a very funny game the reason being that one bad over or a bad innings turn things around quite quickly so Pakistan team should get more cautious with every game they play hit the iron when its hot.