SL will rectify poor running between wickets: Ford

Chasing 306 to win the series opener at the MCG on Friday, the tourists were in the contest at 111 for two after 25 overs.

Graham Ford during a practice session. Pic/Getty Images

Tillakaratne Dilshan (51) and Dinesh Chandimal (73) were starting to get on top before the former was run out thanks to Usman Khawaja's direct hit.
The three run outs came in the space of just 26 deliveries as Sri Lanka lost three for 17, and they were eventually bowled out for just 198. "There's been a bit of discussion already," Ford said in the lead-up to Sunday's match.

"We have chatted and there was some good fielding which contributed to some of them but you just can't - when you are chasing a score like that - you just can't have the guts of your batting taken out through run outs.u00a0"The pleasing thing is that quite a number of our batsmen look in good form and played really nicely but to give away three wickets to run outs makes the job almost impossible."

Ford felt his side bowled too many "easy boundary balls" in the 107-run defeat but believes they will bounce back well on Sunday. "The next game is really, really important," he said.u00a0"You want to get on the scoresheet. We want to get out and play some good cricket and show that we are a good team. We know we have to be good and we know we are up against a good team."u00a0"(But) we've got to find ways of making sure we are nicely productive against the other bowlers as well."