Sri Lankans aim for higher goals

  Published : 5:16 pm  February 22, 2012  |  1,281 views  |  One comment  |     

Skipper Mahela Jayawardene is pretty pleased with the effort of his charges so far in the Commnewalth Bank Series Tri Nation tournament but still feels they have to tighten up a few loose ends if they really want to become serious contenders for the title.

Jayawardene led the team Down Under after it went through a complete overhaul including the change of coach. Manager, national selectors and even the captain. Very few here gave them serious thought as the team arrived in Australia after a string of losses in the past ten months since they entered the world cup final in April last year.

Off the field controversies such as the non payment of player salaries were what made headlines in the initial days, but the Sri Lankans have hit back in amazing fashion to grab headlines with their performance on field and have now become serious contenders with some sterling achievements.

Jayawardene made it very clear from the beginning that the team which was undergoing a re-building phase would be just happy being competitive in this tournament, but the gritty Sri Lankans have proved to be more than that.

They lost the first two matches against India and Australia by close margins which many felt could have gone either way and tied their third against India before entering the winning mode.

They smashed Australia by eight wickets in Sydney in domineering fashion before thumping India in Brisbane on Tuesday. These wins have delighted  Sri Lanka skipper Mahela Jayawardene and the momentum has given him courage to aim higher as he revealed on Tuesday after the game

"It was a crucial game for us. We did not have a good start to this tour. We had to come back strongly, which we have done. We have played some consistent cricket even though we lost the first few games, and now we are trying to finish games off; we are executing all our game plans and hopefully, with this momentum, we can win a few more as well and try and get ourselves into the finals" said Jayawardene.

Sri Lankan fielding was brilliant and kept the opposition in check always but a few dropped chances emerged as the only blemish that could stand between them and the title.

"Apart from that, we played a pretty good match," captain Jayawardene said acknowledging what went wrong on Tuesday. "We made a few mistakes – the dropped catches – and probably should have been able to push for that bonus point. The Indian batting line-up is very strong so if you give them opportunities they do bat well. “

Jayawardene was especially pleased with his medium pace bowlers though his star strike bowler Lasith Malinga has proven to be a disappointment so far.

"We were put under pressure in certain situations, but our boys bowled really well, in good areas, and created opportunities. With the new ball we picked up wickets again, which is great. It was pretty much a complete game apart from those couple of dropped catches."

But Jayawardene also insisted that there was no point complaining about the mistakes and felt concentrating on their strong points and move ahead with confidence was their aim.

"Yes we dropped a few catches, but it's still not the end of the world. We scored 290, that's a decent score with two new balls. We are playing with different rules these days as well. The Powerplays are different, the two new balls are different, so everyone has to adjust."

Nuwan Kulasekara produced a Man of the Match winning performance while all rounders Farveez Maharoof, Thisara Perera and Angelo Mathews all bowled superbly to make the Sri Lankan attack look very formidable on fast and bouncy Aussie tracks.

“…two allrounders [Thisara Perera and Farveez Maharoof] with two new balls are giving me a lot of options. It also allows Angelo's workload to be monitored; it is good that he is not bowling too much. He can bowl when it is really necessary" Jayawardene said referring to his reserve weapon Mathews who has not bowled regularly for more than a year due to a recurring injury and played in recent times solely as a batsman rather than an all rounder Sri Lanka travelled to Tasmania yesterday to prepare for their clash against Australia on Friday before taking on India at the same venue on next Tuesday.

-Channaka de Silva reporting from Australia