Prasanna relieved in scoring maiden ton

Chris Dhambarage

CRICKET: Sri Lanka's wicket keeper batsman Prasanna Jayawardena said that he is much relieved and has brought him satisfaction after completing a maiden test century on the second day of the first test match against the touring Bangladesh team at the SSC ground in Maitland Place yesterday.

The twenty seven year old right hander hit an unbeaten 120 and became only the sixth wicket keeper batsman to score a hundred for his country.

Jayawardena attributed his success with the bat to some real hard work at the nets where he had been practising with the Sri Lanka 'A' team in the past.

Jayawardena said that he had been in good form in the domestic scene and for the Sri Lanka 'A' team in the past and was determined to make a mark from this opportunity. His first goal of course was to reach the half century mark because his earlier highest score has been 42 runs from the previous nine test matches.

In fact Prasanna Jayawardena had collected only 161 runs from his previous outings although he has been a prolific run getter in the domestic scene and for the Sri Lanka 'A' team.

The right hander said that he knew that he could really capitalise from this opportunity and concentrated more during the latter stages of the innings.

Jayawardena who made his test debut against Pakistan in 2000 at the Asgiriya Stadium said that he had been waiting for this opportunity and received a great amount of support from his senior partner Chaminda Vaas.

He had the embarrassment of seating in the dressing room throughout after Sri Lanka batted over the first three days before rain washed out play in the last two days in his very first test match.

Jayawardena's career took a back seat following the arrival of Romesh Kaluwitharana and Kumar Sangakkara who dominated the proceedings for most of the time. But Jayawardena kept on trying and also improved on his batting which has helped him a lot to overcome several difficult situations.

Jayawardena was recalled to the Sri Lankan team in April 2004 for the tour of Zimbabwe and since then he has been in and out of the side while struggling to find a permanent place in the team.

The national selectors however felt that they were overburdening Kumar Sangakkara and the entry of Prasanna Jayawardena seem to be an encouraging sign for Sri Lanka cricket.