November 18, 2007	Sunday	Ziqa’ad 07, 1428

HOBART, Nov 17: The beleaguered Sri Lankan tourists will be without seamer Farveez Maharoof for this month’s home series with England, skipper Mahela Jayawardene said on Saturday.

The former under-19 skipper suffered a left ankle injury while bowling on the opening day of the second Test here against Australia and sat out Saturday’s second day’s play.

Jayawardene confirmed that the 23-year-old paceman will be out for up to five weeks and was definitely out of the series against England, which gets underway in Sri Lanka late this month.

The Sri Lankans are under the pump against the rampant Australians, losing last week’s first Brisbane Test by an innings and 40 runs and on the end of another massive Australian innings of 542 for five declared here on Saturday.

Jayawardene had to make do with a threadbare strike force of just three bowlers and paid dearly. Lasith Malinga finished with 1-156 off 35 overs, Dilhara Fernando 2-131 off 26 overs and Muttiah Muralitharan 1-140 from 46 overs.

“Farveez had a scan yesterday and he’s got crush fracture in his ankle and it looks like he will be out of the England series,” Jayawardene state on Saturday.

“He’ll be out for at least four to five weeks, it could be a bit more than that depending on how he will feel especially because he is a fast bowler and he needs to put his weight on that ankle. He’ll be definitely out of the England Test series.”

Jayawardene said Sri Lanka face a monumental challenge to prevent losing the series 2-0 to Australians over the final three days of the Hobart Test.

“It is a pretty good score on this wicket. It is a flat wicket and we need to do all the hard work tomorrow and make sure we don’t lose early wickets,” he said. “We have to try to bat through the day and see where we are at.”—AFP