Maharoof praises England’s batsmen for Cardiff display

Jonathan Trott led the way for England with a superb 203, the highest Test score by an England player against Sri Lanka, with Alastair Cook (133) and Ian Bell (98 not out) also contributing big runs as the home side reached 491-5 in their first innings, a lead of 91, by stumps.

The tourists have gained little reward from the 153 overs sent down over the past two days at the SWALEC Stadium and, while Maharoof (1-91 from 27 overs) was quick to praise the performance of the England batsmen, he believes he and his team-mates needed to keep things a bit tighter.

The 26-year-old said: “It was a tough day at the office, but credit to the English batsmen, they batted really well. Personally I am coming back into the side after a three and a half year period and it was tough, but that is what Test cricket is all about.

“To be honest Trott batted really well, but we could have bowled much better to him.

“We could have been more consistent with our line and length, but you should not take anything away from his innings, he batted really well.”

Maharoof, recalled to the Test side last week after his impressive recent form for Lancashire, had got rid of Cook, who edged a cut shot behind, not long after play got under way at 2.30pm following more rain in the Welsh capital.

But it was the dismissal of Kevin Pietersen that proved to be one of the main talking points of the day.

The South-African born batsman’s weakness against left-arm spin has been well documented, and he had made just three when he was trapped in front by a Rangana Herath delivery that kept unexpectedly low.

While Maharoof admitted that that particular area of Pietersen’s game had been discussed by Sri Lanka, the seamer believes that it was the tactic of denying Pietersen easy scoring opportunities that ultimately paid dividends.

“It’s normal with any batsman on a pitch where bowlers don’t get much help that you want to keep the run scoring dry,” he said. “That’s what we did with him, we tried to stop him getting easy runs and he got out so it worked very well.

“It (left-arm spin) is something we talked about.

“Herath had bowled a massive spell of about 20 overs or something like that and he bowled very well.

“Most of our bowlers bowled very well and the only thing to work on is to be more consistent in the coming days,” added Maharoof.