Sanga gets it right this time

Sa'adi Thawfeeq reporting from Kandy

KANDY, Sunday - Kumar Sangakkara, one of Lanka's most established batsmen finally got it right in front of his home crowd to notch up a brilliant unbeaten century to put his team in sight of victory against West Indies in the second cricket Test at the Asgiriya International Stadium here today.

"Cricket is all about keeping things simple and paying a lot of attention to the basics. In the last three innings it is something that I have forgotten to do," said Sangakkara at the end of the third day. "Strange how it is to forget the primary things that you need to score runs. One of the things that I realized was that I was not focussed enough to watch the ball. It was one of the changes I thought I do in this innings."

In fact Sangakkara made 34, 0 and 6 before today's century. It was always a dream of mine to get a hundred in Kandy because I am from here. It was also in a situation where the side needed runs. I think it was a great team effort today to watch all the guys really knuckle down and bat really hard for the side," said Sangakkara.

The elation he showed in the middle soon after reaching his century Sangakkara said wasn't for the crowd.

"The last three innings I played were personal disappointments to me. Once I got a start here my ambition was to stay out there for as long as possible. This is one of the hardest working hundreds that I have scored and it was in a situation where we needed to get over 300 to win a game," said Sangakkara.

"I would put this hundred right up there among my eight Test hundreds. If I score a hundred that's the greatest thing I can do. Every one of them is at the top of the list.

I thought it was quite a difficult wicket but I think it was slightly easy for left handers because the soft spots were outside the off stump for right-handers. They got quite a few balls that went through the top. Fortunately for me it was outside my leg stump. Not many balls pitched there but it was a challenge and I enjoyed it very much," he said.

Sangakkara said that being a wicket-keeper and having to bat at no. 3 was 'a lot of fun' and added: "It keeps you in the game all the time. It saps your energy mentally and physically but that's what you work on off-season, on a lot of fitness. There are times when you are tired but it is just the case of getting over that, getting a start and getting on with it."

Sangakkara was nursing a damaged tendon near his right wrist - a result of being hit by a ball from Lawson in the first Test. But he said that it was not going to prevent him from batting or keeping wickets.

Sangakkara said that 250 was the total the team was looking at but getting a lead beyond 300 was something of a bonus. "We were always going to work towards that and I think looking at the scoreboard we'll just try and bat them out of the game," he said.