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Captains look to batsmen to fire

Dambulla May 17. Rival captains Marvan Atapattu of Sri Lanka and Pakistan's Rashid Latif have challenged their batsmen to produce runs when the second round of the limited-overs Tri-series starts on Sunday.

``My batsmen must start valuing their wickets, they need to quickly fight a way out of the batting slump,'' Atapattu said as his team prepared to defend its five-year winning record of limited-overs series at home.

To protect its unbeaten series record here since July, 1998, Sri Lanka needs to avenge the 79-run series opener defeat to Pakistan when the teams meet again on Sunday.

``One's got to accept that Sri Lanka's batting is going through a terrible lean patch,'' said Atapattu. ``This has gone far too long, but we've worked hard on our batting and hope to reverse the trend, it's time now for the batsmen to deliver.''

Atapattu said his batsmen were capable of dominating at Rangiri Stadium, where the swinging and bouncing ball has given bowlers the ascendancy.

The fresh and lively pitch, with excessive moisture during the morning session, has turned the matches into a virtual lottery as the toss plays a crucial role.

Batsmen have struggled in the conditions, but Latif said that it gave his young line-up the perfect learning environment.

``So what if the conditions are tailor-made for pace bowlers, the batsmen must learn to handle such adversities,'' he said.

Pakistan overhauled its team after the World Cup in South Africa, where the 1992 World Cup champion was ousted in the first round.

The teams (from):

Sri Lanka: Marvan Atapattu (Capt.), Sanath Jayasuriya, Kumar Sangakkara, Mahela Jayawardene, Romesh Kaluwitharana, Tillekeratne Dilshan, Russel Arnold, Upul Chandana, Chaminda Vaas, Muttiah Muralitharan, Prabath Nissanka, Dharshana Gamage, Kaushal Lokuarachchi, Kumar Dharmasena and Kaushalya Weereratne.

Pakistan: Rashid Latif (Capt), Mohammad Hafeez, Taufeeq Umar, Faisal Iqbal, Yousuf Youhana, Younis Khan, Shoaib Malik, Abdul Razzaq, Shoaib Akhtar, Mohammad Sami, Umar Gul, Yasir Hameed, Shabbir Ahmed, Faisal Athar and Danish Kaneria.

Umpires: Daryl Harper (Aus) and Tyronne Wijewardene (SL); TV umpire: Gamini Silva (SL); Match referee: Gundappa Visvanath (India). — AFP

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