Patience was the key to success - Mahela

Chris Dhambarage

CRICKET: Sri Lanka skipper Mahela Jayawardena believed that patience was the key word for his teams success over England in the first day night one day international played at the Rangiri Dambulla Sadium on Monday.

Jayawardena who hit a top score of 66 in their formidable total of 269 for 7 said that his team’s patient batting approach helped them to register their biggest victory in terms of runs against their old rivals.

Sri Lanka’s previous biggest victory in terms of runs was when they defeated England by 66 runs at the R. Premadasa Stadium in March 2001. England were bowled out for just 150 runs in reply with fifteen overs to spare with man of the match Farveez Maharoof claiming a superb four wicket haul.

However skipper Jayawardena said that it was their patient batting that really set the pace for their seventh successive victory against England. “When we saw the wicket we realised that we had to be patient and make sure we kept wickets in hand.

“We knew anything above 250-260 would be very competitive but if we had played to get a total of over 300 runs we would have lost too many wickets and struggled to get to 250” said Jayawardena.

Jayawardena said that overall the way they handled the situation was very good and it was an all-round batting effort that took them towards a competitive total at the end. He also noted that the bowlers did a brilliant job while capturing early wickets and the fielding was pretty sharp but pointed out that they could still improve in this area.

Sri Lanka’s victory was even more significant because they achieved their goal without their ace spinner Muttiah Muralitharan who has been ruled out for the first three one day internationals with a bicep injury. However the Lankans decided not to include Kaushal Lokuarachchi and instead they proceeded with a four pronged pace attack.

“When you have four fast bowling options you can give other guys a go. Vaas has been a brilliant campaigner for us and he went for few runs this time but Maharoof put his hand up and showed what he’s capable of doing. “We always had attacking options so it’s easy for a captain to throw the ball to them and ask if they can deliver something on the day added Jayawardena”.

In fact man of the match Farveez Maharoof said that he was delighted to have picked up four wickets in this match after having been overlooked for the opening matches of the Twenty20 World Cup tournament in South Africa.

The right arm fast bowler said that he stuck to his basics and hit the right areas and allowed the ball to do all the damage. The England top order completely misread the slow pace of Maharoof who went on to return excellent figures of four wickets for 31 runs.

Meanwhile England captain Paul Collingwood said that indiscipline batting from their top order was the main cause for their 119 run defeat in the first one day international. England’s hopes of reaching their victory target of 270 runs completely disappeared when they slumped from a promising 58 for 1 to 102 for 6.

“Losing the middle order the way we did, obviously that was the crucial part of the game”. It’s not many times you lose Bell, Pietersen and myself for not many runs - and Owais Shah. Hopefully we can improve on that area next time” Collingwood said.

The England captain also urged his young players to learn the lesson given to them by Sri Lanka and called for an improved performance in the second one day international which will be played at the same venue on Thursday.

Skipper Collingwood stressed the importance of getting accustomed to these conditions and to improving their skill in facing with the slow deliveries because the next World Cup will be staged in the sub continent.

“It’s not just the slower balls, it’s the deception and surprise of slower balls and they showed us that it’s a massive thing in a bowler’s armoury.

“We’re going to go around the world and have to learn quickly to adapt to every single type of condition and this is where experience comes into it.”

Collingwood said that in the home series against India they hit them hard with the ball and were quite aggressive but they cannot do that all the time overseas and they have to come up with different skills.

The England captain said that Maharoof had Glenn McGrath-like accuracy and mixed it up pretty well with at least two slower balls per over.