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| Monday, 29 March 2004 |
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Hashan quits as Test captain by Sa'adi Thawfeeq Hashan Tillakaratne resigned from the Sri Lanka Test captaincy yesterday paving the way for a new captain to be named for next month's tour to Zimbabwe. Tillakaratne's announcement came at the end of the third and final Test against Australia at the SSC grounds yesterday where Sri Lanka lost by 121 runs and suffered their first home Test series whitewash. Australia won the three-Test series 3-0. "I am stepping down as captain because it is high time that someone should take over," said Tillakaratne yesterday. "We lost the series and if someone is going to take over this is the time to do it with so many tours coming up. I have spoken to the selectors about how I feel and they have accepted my resignation. I will concentrate on my batting and try to hold a place in the team," he said. "I had my ups and downs. I thought we could have won the series against New Zealand and West Indies. Although we won 1-0 against England it could have been easily 3-0," said the 36-year-old left-hander who took over the Test captaincy from Sanath Jayasuriya after the 2003 World Cup. Tillakaratne's captaincy record was one win and four losses from 10 Tests. Tillakaratne's successor is likely to be his deputy Marvan Atapattu who has been captaining his country in the one-day internationals. Tillakaratane said the team needed to 'show a bit of character when the going gets tough but we were too soft'. "I am sure we could have saved this match. You should be able to play according to the situation but we threw our wickets away at crucial stages," said Tillakaratne. "In the morning we had a chat and said that there was no chance of us winning the match and I told them to play positive cricket and to try and save the game. But we couldn't do it. All in all we played good cricket," he said. Tillakaratne said that he thought Sri Lanka could pull this Test off when Australia was 98 for five on the fourth day. "But that partnership put us out of the match," he said. Justin Langer (166) and Simon Katich (86) added 218 for the sixth wicket to seize the initiative away from Sri Lanka. Both batsmen were let off on more than one occasion during their partnership. "Fielding is a big concern and there were some soft dismissals in the first innings," said Tillakaratne. "I thought we pushed them to the wall but they fought back and they played very good cricket. We learnt a few lessons down the line. At the start of the series I thought we could have won it. But that's how the game goes," he said. Ponting praises Lanka Australian captain Ricky Ponting paid Sri Lanka a compliment when he said: "I think they have played good cricket but we have just got our noses in front of them in each Test match." "They have been three great games and they should be proud of the way they have played. They are the best Test matches that you could have hoped for with every game going into the last day," said Ponting. Questioned where Sri Lanka went wrong, Ponting said: "When they had a chance to really nail us in the first innings of the first Test match they didn't and it was the same in the first innings in Kandy." Describing the third Test as another 'tough win' Ponting said that he thought his team could win the game when they arrived on the ground yesterday. "I thought we would be able to create enough chances to take 10 wickets. But things didn't go our way early in the day and they played well early on and once again we had to dig deep and fight and fight," said Ponting. "All the guys stuck to their guns and stuck to the things that we knew were going to work for us and things fell into place right at the end," he said. Ponting said winning in the subcontinent meant a lot to everybody. "We had set our sights after the first two games on winning this game and clean sweeping the series." "At one stage it looked like we were not going to get there but we did in the end. It is a huge result for this team, showing our improvement in these conditions," he said. |
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