Hoggard wants more from England
Matthew Hoggard led the England attack in the absence of Steve Harmison
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Saturday, 01, Dec 2007 09:12
Bowling hero Matthew Hoggard stressed that the England batsmen have to take advantage after Sri Lanka were bowled out for 188.
Hoggard bowled beautifully to claim 4-29 and Monty Panesar chipped in with three wickets to restrict the Sri Lankans. England finished on 49-1 to take control of the first Test in Kandy.
But Hoggard said England had to be wary of the fact that Kandy is a ground where big scores usually come in the second innings.
"I don't know how under-par it [Sri Lanka's first innings score] is at all," said the Yorkshireman.
"If you look at history 210 is an average score [at Kandy] in the first innings, with the higher scores coming in the second innings.
"We are in a strong position now and need to pile on the runs tomorrow so that we can put their batsmen under pressure in the second innings," added Hoggard.
England have been accused in the past, including the last Ashes tour, of being under-prepared going into away Test series', and Hoggard admitted the team had made a conscious effort to put more effort into their preparations for this Test series.
"We have been accused in the past of not hitting the ground running and having to play catch-up," he said.
"The 'bouncebackability' word has been bandied about but we wanted to be right on the button from ball one."
Michael Vaughan and Ian Bell had to dig deep for England after Alastair Cook was out lbw to Chaminda Vaas without a run being scored. England will now hope to take a first innings lead, but will have to play well against Muttiah Muralitharan in order to do so.