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| Monday, 17 May 2004 |
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Lara's record will have to wait -Sangakkara Sa'adi Thawfeeq reporting from Zimbabwe BULAWAYO, Sunday, One of Sri Lanka's most elegant left-hand batsmen Kumar Sangakkara said that West Indian batting maestro Brian Lara's world record score of 400 would have to wait for another day after he was dismissed for 270 on the third day of the second cricket Test against Zimbabwe at the Queens Sports Club grounds here today. "Lara's 400 kept popping into my mind during the innings. But my immediate target was to get to 270-280 and then to work it out in tens. It would have been great to have gone on to the record, but it will probably be on another day," said Sangakkara after becoming Sri Lanka's second highest scorer in Test cricket. Sanath Jayasuriya's 340 against India at the R. Premadasa Stadium in 1997 is the highest by a Sri Lankan in Test cricket. "A triple hundred is always in your mind when you are on 270. It feels good to be the second highest scorer but I am disappointed I didn't get there," continued Sangakkara. "I batted and concentrated hard. The ball was coming off the pitch very well and it was easy to bat on it. The field was set very defensive it was very hard to penetrate it. It took a long time to score the runs but I am quite happy with the effort," he said. The 26-year-old left-hander said that he enjoyed batting with his captain Marvan Atapattu in the middle. The pair was together for 388 minutes while adding a record 438 runs for the second wicket. Atapattu also made a double hundred (249). "It's great to bat with Marvan. He rotates the strike very easily. Sometimes you are just a spectator watching him play. He's got probably the tightest technique I've seen. He's a very elegant player," said Sangakkara. For Sangakkara a Test hundred was a long time coming. His last was three years ago in the Asian Test championship final against Pakistan at Lahore where he made 230. "It's not that I've been batting badly. I've been batting well it is just that I haven't been able to convert the runs into bigger scores. I have been getting out in the thirties and then fifties," said Sangakkara. "Coming out of the Aussies series, I was looking for a big score and I am very happy to have got it here." Sangakkara said that he was disappointed he did not score runs during the England series last year. "I thought I was batting very well. I had two bad run outs and it put paid to my chances. I didn't come out in the Aussies series but it was good to come out here." When questioned whether giving up the wicket-keeping gloves had made batting easy for him, Sangakkara replied: "It's hard to say on a tour like this because we haven't spent a long time on the field." "Sometimes it's nice to be away from the gloves but then again when I am keeping I am more involved with the game. This is a particular role that I've been asked to play for now. I like to work it out and see how it goes. I do what the side wants me to do whether it's keeping and batting or just batting. I am happy either way," he said. Sangakkara ranked his maiden Test hundred (105 n.o.) against India at Galle in 2001 on top of the five Test centuries he has scored so far in his career. "I had to work really hard for it right throughout and stay not out at the end." "The Zimbabwe bowling wasn't probably the greatest in the world but still it was pretty hard going because of the defensive fields. To get a run it was quite difficult to penetrate the field. It was a case of waiting for the correct ball to put away and maybe get it away from the fielder. It was good to spend a long time out in the middle. But a double hundred is a double hundred. You are always happy with it no matter who you get it against," said Sangakkara. |
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