October 07, 2007	Sunday	Ramazan 24, 1428

COLOMBO, Oct 6: Sri Lankan coach Trevor Bayliss believes his team may have conceded the advantage of playing in home conditions by agreeing to play all five one-day matches against England under lights.

Sri Lanka traditionally has the toughest conditions in world cricket to play, particularly the intense, energetic modern style employed in one-day international cricket.

But the 44-year-old Australian believes by agreeing to play all five matches under lights - when the temperatures and humidity is far more comfortable - Sri Lanka have helped England’s cause.

That has been underlined by the tourists claiming their first victory over Sri Lanka on their own patch since 1982 on Thursday night to leave the series poised at 1-1 as both sides prepare for tomorrow’s third match in the series.

“We’ve still got to be confident playing at home, but the one thing I’ve found a little bit strange coming from Australia to here was that we’re actually playing five matches at night,” said Bayliss.

”I can see the point of having one or two at night, but I thought that if there is a home-ground advantage, we’ve probably lost that by playing at night. If we’d have played in the middle of the day when it’s a bit warmer for the English guys, it might have been a bit more interesting.

“But that’s the sort of thing you have to put up with and that’s the decision that’s been made and we’ve got to work out a way to play in the conditions that we’re given.” To that end, Sri Lanka made a late change in their training arrangements.

Instead of practising at the ground this morning, they switched to this evening so they could bat under the lights in an attempt to improve on their performance on Thursday, when they were dismissed for a lowly 169 chasing England’s 234 for eight.

With the monsoon season approaching Colombo, where the final two matches of the series are due to be staged next week, there have been the usual rumours about plans to move the remainder of the series to the drier area around Dambulla.

Both Sri Lanka and England have denied all knowledge of such plans but, providing there is no late switch, the outcome of tomorrow’s match could prove crucial to the outcome of the series if rain wipes out the remaining games.

Sri Lanka are once again considering bringing in leg-spinner Kaushal Lokuarachchi into their line-up to provide greater control after England attacked Sanath Jayasuriya’s left-arm spin.—Agencies