Moody urges Sri Lanka to learn from mistakes

CRICKET: Sri Lanka coach Tom Moody on Thursday stressed his team needs to learn quickly from the mistakes made against South Africa during their one-wicket defeat in the Super Eights match.

“It will be important how we come back in our match against the West Indies (on Sunday) who will also be looking for points,” said Moody.

Sri Lanka, on the verge of defeat with South Africa needing four runs with five wickets intact on Wednesday, hit back through paceman Lasith Malinga’s history-making four wickets off four balls before last man Robin Peterson hit the winning runs.

Malinga became the first bowler in one-day international cricket to grab four wickets off successive deliveries and fifth to achieve a hat-trick in World Cup history.

Earlier, Sri Lanka struggled to 209 all out with South African paceman Charl Langeveldt taking a career-best five for 39.

Moody said his team failed to keep the momentum of the first round where they won all their Group B matches — including a crucial win over former champions India.

“It was not a bad defeat, but it’s a defeat. I am disappointed the way we played. We did play well in the first 30 overs but against teams like South Africa you need to play lot more than 30 overs,” Moody told the International Cricket Council website.

“There are a lot more positives which we can take from the South Africa game but we need to learn very quickly from our mistakes and give a better account of ourselves on Sunday.”

The 41-year-old Moody, who played eight Tests and 76 one-day internationals for Australia, said his team fell short by 20-30 runs which in the end were decisive factor.

“The wicket was impressive and so was the outfield, and we were 20 to 30 runs light and considering it was a big match for both teams, South Africa were in a desperate situation and from our point of view we played good cricket up to Wednesday.”

Moody praised Malinga for his late burst.

“It turned out to be a heart stopping match and to be fair I didn’t think we should have been near the contest but cricket is a funny game and the way Malinga bowled at the end it turned the game on its head and we had a good chance to win,” said the coach.

“Malinga has been doing this for the last six to eight months, he has been devastating with the old ball and it’s no surprise to us that he is going to bowl the guys with ones in the blockhole, he has honed this skill,” said Moody of Malinga who finished with 5-54.

GEORGETOWN, Friday, AFP