Mahela blames bowlers for their poor performance

Chris Dambarage in Vishakapatnam

CRICKET: Sri Lankan captain Mahela Jayawardena blamed his bowlers for his teams five wicket defeat and called for an improved performance when the fourth and deciding one day international gets underway at the Indira Priyadarshani Stadium in Vishakapatnam on Saturday.

India after been reduced to 94 for 4 at one stage recovered well to reach their target of 230 runs with three overs to spare and also leveled the series one all in front of a capacity crowd of 27,000 at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in Fatorda, Margao on Wednesday.

Skipper Jayawardena admitted that Rahul Dravid’s innings was certainly the turning point of the match. Dravid hit a matchwinning knock of 66 and also became only the sixth player to complete ten thousand runs in one day internationals.

The Sri Lankan captain believed that his team had a great chance of pulling off another victory following the early wickets of Virender Sehwag, Sourav Ganguly, Sachin Tendulkar and Yuvraj Singh.

“Rahul Dravid and Dhoni batted well and they took singles pretty well to keep up with the run rate. Dravid’s innings was a calming influence and his innings really made a difference. If we had taken a wicket at that time we would have had a good chance to win the game.”

Even then skipper Jayawardena said that the efforts of pacemen Nuwan Kulasekera and Dilhara Fernando were really encouraging as they brought the Lankans back into the game through some inspired bowling. Kulasekera captured the prize scalp of Sachin Tendulkar while Fernando got rid off the out of form opener Virender Sehwag and Yuvraj Singh.

Skipper Jayawardena also defended his decision to bat first after the match was delayed by half an hour due to the overcast conditions. He added that it was a good wicket to bat but unfortunately they lost too many early wickets.

The Lankans lost their top three batsmen Sanath Jayasuriya, Upul Tharanga and Kumar Sangakkara within the first three overs and were reeling at six for three wickets at one stage.

The Sri Lankan captain said that his middle order batsmen however did a fantastic job to help them get a decent score of 230 runs at the end. “This was a good score to defend but we did not bowl that well during the later stages of the innings”.

He was also pleased with performance of left hander Russel Arnold who returned to form with a battling half century having collected just 85 runs from his previous seven one day internationals.

Skipper Jayawardena also defended the decision to include Dilhara Fernando ahead of Lasith Malinga saying that it was their policy of giving every player the opportunity to make an impact during this tour. Fernando bowled a hostile opening spell to push the Indians on the back foot before returning figures of two wickets for 43.

The Sri Lankan captain said that the team would now make an all out effort to pull off the next match and win the series which will give them a psychological advantage going into the World Cup next month in the West Indies.

Sri Lanka and India are drawn in the same group along with Bangladesh and debutants Bermuda for the ICC World Cup in the Caribbean on March 13.

Meanwhile Wednesday’s one day international between Sri Lanka and India turned out to be a huge success to the organizers the Goa Cricket Association following their infamous ticket scandal which took place during the last one day match between India and England in April 2001 where 128 genuine ticket holders were stranded outside the Nehru Stadium.

But this time no one got canned, nobody was left stranded outside the stadium and there seemed to be no sign of the duplicate tickets that were reported to have printed during that match.

Even then the Goa Cricket Association was not prepared to take any risks as the Government had deployed a huge amount of policemen for this game in and around the Nehru Stadium.

As a result the trial of many a sensitive criminal cases in Margao had to be adjourned in the Sessions Court for want of police personnel to escort the under suspects trials from the jail premises to court.

Many a senior government officials in the District were unavailable throughout Wednesday as they were deployed for magisterial duties at the Nehru Stadium.

Vishakapatnam , Thursday.