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| Thursday, 22 April 2004 |
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Atapattu promises a better show today Sa'adi Thawfeeq reporting from Zimbabwe BULAWAYO, Wednesday - Sri Lanka captain Marvan Atapattu vowed that his team will put up a better showing in the rest of the five-match one-day international series against Zimbabwe following their rather apprehensive six-wicket win in the first match here on Tuesday. Sri Lanka allowed Zimbabwe to recover from 78-5 to 211-6 and then went through some anxious moments being 9-2 and then 77-4, before finally winning on the Duckworth and Lewis rain rule by scoring 144-4 in 27 overs to go one-up in the series. "Would have liked to have won convincingly. But when you play a team of unknown quantity, something like this is bound to happen," said Atapattu. "There is always one side that should have won and that was us. That thought put us under more pressure than a normal game. To a certain extent we knew we were not playing Zimbabwe's best eleven. At 78-5 we thought they were not going to double that score. But we are only humans. We tried to avoid complacency as much as possible but still it happened," said Atapattu. "At this level of cricket we know what the opposition is going to be about individuals, players and their capabilities, their strong and weak points. Playing a side like this, which we haven't come across we didn't know what to expect from them. They had only to walk into the middle and had everything to play for," he said. Atapattu said that after Tuesday's game, his team had got a better assessment of the opposition. "We have seen the players and we know what their capabilities are to a certain extent. I am sure we will approach tomorrow's (Thursday) game much better than the last one." Atapattu admitted that there were some anxious moments in the dressing room during Sri Lanka's run chase. "We were not worried because we lost some early wickets, but by the fear of losing to an under strength side. We will have to try to forget the 'we can't lose' attitude and start thinking positively. Playing a side like Zimbabwe you think you just can't lose to them which puts added pressure on the team," he said. Atapattu praised Kumar Sangakkara's innings of 73 not out and said that he should be finishing more games for Sri Lanka in the future. "With his talent he should be finishing more games than he has in the past. When I asked him after the match he indicated to me that he had finished about five to six matches in this manner. I made it a point to tell him that the way he is batting he should be finishing games for his country more often," said Atapattu. Of the three chances Sangakkara gave during his 72-ball innings, Atapattu said only the one at 24 mattered, because by the time he was let off twice later on in the innings the game was as good as gone from Zimbabwe. Atapattu said that being given the responsibility of the Test captaincy has given him more authority to talk to his players. "Obviously you have more say and you can say it with confidence." With tomorrow's game being played on the same surface as the first, Atapattu said Sri Lanka are contemplating whether to play three seamers or an extra batsman. Sri Lanka played three seamers on Tuesday, but young Nuwan Kulasekara had a poor game going for 26 runs in three overs and maybe replaced by Dilhara Fernando. However Atapattu said: "You just can't discard a player on his performance in one game. You expect one bowler to go off or three batsmen to go off in a game. It happened in the case of Kulasekara. I am sure he will come back." If Sri Lanka opts for an extra batsman Atapattu said that it will be between uncapped Thilina Kandamby and Saman Jayantha. Lanka must win all The compilation of the ICC one-day international standings is such that Sri Lanka must win all five matches against Zimbabwe to improve their rating in the table. Sri Lanka started the series with 109 points and lies marginally third ahead of New Zealand. If Sri Lanka wins all its matches their rating will improve by only one point to 110 while if they drop one game it will cause their rating to fall below New Zealand's who are fourth also with 109. Change of match referee Meanwhile, South African Mike Procter has replaced England's Chris Broad as match referee for the Zimbabwe tour. Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) complained strongly of Broad's appointment for the Zimbabwe as well as the Australian series. However an ICC media release stated that following Broad's reporting of Muttiah Muralitharan, the ICC had changed the appointment to avoid the same official taking charge of a series involving the same player during the six week Stage One period of the ICC's Bowling Review process. The ICC said that Broad would officiate as match referee in the two Tests between Sri Lanka and Australia in July. |
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