Archives

CENTURION, South Africa, Sunday (AFP)

Hashan Tillakaratne said he still had "a lot of catching up to do" after he became the first Sri Lankan to score a Test century in South Africa. Tillakaratne's unbeaten 104 was the foundation of a Sri Lankan total of 363 on the second day of the second and final Test at Centurion Park. South Africa were 183 for two in reply at the close.

Tillakaratne, 35, said he regretted losing two years of his cricketing life after he was one of the scapegoats for Sri Lanka's failure at the 1999 World Cup in England.

Although he has always been regarded as primarily a Test player and the World Cup was a limited overs competition, Tillakaratne was dropped from the Test side as well as the one-day team.

"I was shocked," he admitted. "I never thought I'd get dropped from the Test squad."

It took two years of hard work to get back - and since then Tillakaratne has been one of the most reliable players in the Sri Lankan team. He made a career-best 204 not out against the West Indies in Colombo in 2001/02 and he said his century Saturday was a major achievement.

"It's always nice to get a hundred against the mighty South Africans," he said. Although he is getting on in age, he said: "I lost two good years. I have a lot of catching up to do." He said the main aim of the team had been to put their failure in the first Test at the Wanderers behind them. They lost by an innings and 64 runs inside three days.

"We really had a bad run at the Wanderers so we wanted to eliminate the mistakes we made there."

News | Business | Features | Editorial | Security
Politics | World | Letters | Sports | Obituaries |

Produced by Lake House
Copyright 2001 The Associated Newspapers of Ceylon Ltd.
Comments and suggestions to :Web Manager