England's batting hero Matt Prior said the team's bowlers would be looking for reverse swing to gain an advantage over Sri Lanka on day three in Colombo.
The second Test was well poised with Sri Lanka on 105-2 in reply to England's 351, in which Prior hit 79.
And the wicket-keeper said: "We've got to get this ball doing something.
"We saw a bit of reverse swing in Kandy and hopefully it might do something here. If we can get a few early wickets tomorrow this could be wide open."
Prior put on 74 with Ryan Sidebottom for the eighth wicket, and the two men later combined for each of the Sri Lanka wickets to fall.
"In pressure situations you've got to try to put the pressure back on the bowler so if you do get a bad ball, you try to put it away," added Prior.
"I thought we applied ourselves very well, and Ryan did brilliantly.
"He really gets up for it and it's fantastic to see a bowler who puts a lot of time into his batting, getting their rewards.
"We've said all along on this trip we've got 11 batters and you've got to trust your mate at the other end.
"It's been good, I've enjoyed batting in pressure situations and facing some of these bowlers.
"The hard work continues, I want to keep hopefully putting in some good performances."
Sidebottom said: "I've been working hard in the nets - and having a batsman like Matt talking to me helped me concentrate.
"It's a bit disappointing we didn't get 400. But it's still a good score, and if we can make a few inroads tomorrow morning it should set up a good game."
Sri Lanka coach Trevor Bayliss was satisfied his team were in a favourable position.
"England were 160-1 at one stage - if you take that into consideration we've done pretty well," said the Australian.
"The wicket is not as slow as the Kandy wicket was [in the first Test, which Sri Lanka won].
"It will take a bit of turn, apparently on days four and five."
No comments:
Post a Comment