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| Monday, 9 August 2004 |
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Atapattu disappointed with draw Sa'adi Thawfeeq reporting from Galle GALLE, Sunday Sri Lanka captain Marvan Atapattu expressed disappointment that South Africa did not make any attempt to go after the winning target of 325 and played for a tame draw in the first cricket Test at the Galle International Stadium here today. "They would have decided when they started the innings yesterday that they would have wanted this result," said Atapattu after South Africa finished the final day on 203-3. "I thought they worked to a plan and at no stage did they diverge from that. They had in mind where they wanted to be at the end of today and they achieved that," he said. Atapattu said that the Galle pitch surprised him. "The main areas of the pitch were still good but the two sides are dusty. But we did not see anything jumping and bouncing off the footmarks, which is unusual in Galle. Although it was dusty, it did not do as much as we expected," said Atapattu. The Sri Lankan captain expressed he was unhappy with the form of his key spinner Muttiah Muralitharan who took only one wicket for 37 runs in the second innings. "It is a bit unusual from a captain's point of view to see him not taking the number of wickets that he normally does. Their batters handled him pretty well and he is playing a Test match after a long time. He is though a man of great experience and hopefully he will bounce back in Colombo," said Atapattu. When questioned whether the banning of his doosra delivery had any effect on his bowling, Atapattu replied: "As a captain, I would like to see that particular delivery too, which troubles most batsmen. But it is not something that Murali or I can talk about. The authorities have asked him to stop bowling one of his key weapons for the moment and he therefore has to readjust his bowling pattern and thinking." "We will have to deal with the deliveries that he is allowed to bowl. He will be working on the line and length more when we get back to Colombo. I am sure he will do well for us," he said. Atapattu said that people thought that his team would go one-nil up here but it didn't happen. "We know we have to go to Colombo and do our best there. If we play to our potential we can win there," he said. 'We gained confidence with a draw' South African captain Graeme Smith said his side took a lot of confidence by playing out a draw. "The draw is a huge positive step for us. A couple of years ago we came here and lost by and innings and 15 runs. We go to Colombo now with a lot of confidence on a wicket that we can hopefully play well on and put them under pressure," said Smith "At the end of the day, two months or even a week ago people must have been questioning whether the match was going to last five days or whether we would be able to bat out the final day. At the moment, they (Sri Lanka) are asking more questions than we are. We have a got a few things we can improve on but the guys have taken a lot of confidence out of today. I am really proud with the way the guys have performed," he said. "We had the target in mind but we always thought it was going to be a long haul as it was not easy scoring on this wicket. You can go through patches when you score but it was very easy to dry it up if you bowled in certain areas," Smith said. "The rough out there was looking like sand and that does not make it easy to score quickly or take chances. In a two-match series, getting yourself seven wickets down at tea is not the right option." Smith said that his team put themselves under pressure with one bad session. "If we had not had that we could easily have walked away with a win here." "Our standards on the field from the first to the second innings improved a hell of a lot. The intensity and body language was back. We played some serious cricket and we go to Colombo with more confidence than Sri Lanka," he said. Smith who suffered from ill-health throughout the Test said that he was kept going by the a few injections from the doctor. "I have just been pushing through. I suffered a bit today. I lost five kilos in the first session, but I am getting stronger and hopefully by the next Test match I will be all right, said Smith who batted for 253 minutes for 74 runs. |
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