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| Tuesday, 3 August 2004 |
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It was a wonderful team effort says Atapattu by Sa'adi Thawfeeq Marvan Atapattu rated Sri Lanka's win in the Asia Cup as one of the biggest achievements of his cricket career. "Winning a series on home soil is one of the biggest achievements. But I also enjoyed winning the series against West Indies in the Caribbean last year as much as this," said Sri Lanka's victorious captain Atapattu after his team had beaten India by 25 runs to win the Asia Cup at the R. Premadasa Stadium on Sunday night. "We had two extreme games in the Caribbean where we defended 200 runs and then chased 300 runs to win," he said. Atapattu was quick to point out that it was wonderful team effort that helped them win the trophy for the third time in eight outings. The previous two occasions they won was in 1986 and 1997 when on both occasions it was held in Sri Lanka. "Right throughout the tournament I have been emphasising that we were playing together as a team. It was proved yesterday (Sunday)," he said. Atapattu praised his bowlers for keeping the strong Indian batting, recognized as second only to Australia down to less than Sri Lanka's score of 228. "India is a good side. To restrict them to less than 228 is something most countries are unable to do. I think our bowlers and fielders did a magnificent job in keeping them down," said Atapattu. "I knew it wasn't an easy wicket to bat on. People outside thought this was a 250 plus wicket. But I batted on it and stayed most of the time during the innings and found out that it was slow. That's why we prevented any runs being scored off the fast bowlers. We knew it would be difficult when the spinners came on and the plan worked brilliantly," he said. All what India could muster was 203-9. Atapattu said that Sri Lanka knew they had the final in the bag when top scorer in the match Sachin Tendulkar was dismissed for 74. "We were keen to get Sachin out because he was the last of their recognized batsmen. We were in the same position when Sanath (Jayasuriya) got 130 the other day and we lost by four runs." Atapattu said that by winning the man-of-the-tournament award, Jayasuriya had proved to his critics with both bat and ball what kind of player he is. It was under Atapattu's leadership that Sri Lanka failed to qualify for a home final for the first time last year. After Sunday's victory Atapattu said: "To have not made the final is not good enough by any means. But to be fair on our part we weren't playing on the best of cricketing wickets at Dambulla where 150 plus were a winning score there. Then again that's the past. Here we have shown what we are capable of." "Cricket is the main sport in our country and expectations are very high playing at home. Every team will go through good times and the better teams stretch their good run a bit longer than the others. It doesn't mean that this team is not going to be defeated. It will be. But the winning streak can be extended if we do our basics right. We should have our unity right within the side for a longer period of time. No team goes undefeated in cricket today," said Atapattu. Looking ahead Atapattu said that with the help of the national selectors if they can find a pool of 20 players to represent the country for the future, it would be the best thing that could happen to Sri Lanka cricket. |
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