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| Tuesday, 1 July 2003 |
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We blew it says Tillakaratne Sa'adi Thawfeeq reporting from the Caribbean JAMAICA, Kingston, Sunday - Sri Lanka captain Hashan Tillakaratne was rather critical of his team's performance and blamed poor batting for their seven-wicket defeat by West Indies in the second cricket Test which ended inside three days at Sabina Park here today. Sri Lanka who had a narrow 17 runs first innings lead could total no more than 194 in their second innings which left the West Indies with a winning target of 212. They knocked them off soon after tea to win the Test as well as the two-Test series 1-0. The first Test ended in a draw at St. Lucia. "We let ourselves down by playing irresponsible cricket," said Tillakaratne at a post-match press conference. "We came here to at least win a Test match. We haven't done that. We really let ourselves down by playing irresponsible cricket," he said. "In the second innings the wicket wasn't all that bad. It is just that we played poorly. We should have got at least 250-300 runs, but we got only 194, which was not good enough. The pitch improved a lot from the second session. But that is not an excuse. It is just that we played bad cricket," Tillakaratne said. "West Indies bowled very well but our batsmen didn't play upto their potential. Our batting looks brittle and we need to improve on that. It was a good experience for us. It is just that we didn't take our chances," he said. Sri Lanka's brittle middle-order was further compounded by Tillakaratne's poor form with the bat in the series. He had scores of 13, 13 and 7 which put extra pressure on the rest of the batting. "I went through a lean period with the bat in this series. Everyone is banking on me to get runs and the team may have struggled as a result of it," Tillakaratne admitted. He denied the pressures of captaincy had anything to do with his poor batting form in the series. "Captaincy has in fact helped me in my batting. I had a good series at home against New Zealand. It is just that I am presently going through a bad patch. I think I will be able to come out of it," he said. Tillakaratne said that the pitch flattened out in the afternoon and was not helpful to his fast bowlers and they struggled a bit in that session. It was the session that Ramnaresh Sarwan and Brian Lara built on a match-winning partnership to carry West Indies from a shaky 50-2 to 211-3. "Murali was bowling very well at the time and we wanted to get at least two or three wickets which we couldn't," said Tillakaratne. "When Brian and Sarwan were going after our bowling we were a little tensed up on the field. I think the West Indies played better cricket and deserved to win. But I wish it was a three-Test series because both teams played some good cricket," he said. Tillakaratne said that with the exception of Australia and South Africa, all other countries struggled to win overseas and Sri Lanka were no exception. "We need to improve on our skills and I hope in future we can win Test matches outside Sri Lanka," said Tillakaratne. West Indies captain Brian Lara said that West Indies took a gamble playing five batsmen against two great match-winners in Chaminda Vaas and Muralitharan for this Test and came out of it exceptionally well. "We knew if we played four fast bowlers we would decrease the amount of runs Sri Lanka will make," said Lara. Sri Lanka were dismissed for totals of 208 and 194. Lara praised the Sabina Park pitch and said if West Indies cricket is to progress upwards they need to play on such tracks. "We need such tracks for our bowlers. We need to make sure we get the opposition out and back ourselves to score runs against them," said Lara. "Such tracks will separate the fakes who score runs on flat tracks from those who have good techniques and score runs on any track," he said. Lara said that over the last three months West Indies cricket had been working hard on getting the right combination and right attitude towards forming a team for the future. "We have been working towards a team that is going to do well long term, not spontaneously, here today and gone tomorrow. At the end of the day I wouldn't say we have the right 11 but the right 16-17 players to chose from for the future. I am happy to be captaining such a young side," said Lara who is in his second phase as captain. "When I had the opportunity to captain in 1998-99, I had players like (Curtley) Ambrose and (Courtney) Walsh who were icons and there was not much I could tell them. This present group I can especially express myself and let them know exactly how I feel," he said. |
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