Jayawardene eyes India challenge after Pakistan rout

Sri Lankan captain Mahela Jayawardene said his team were progressing well and he was looking forward to facing India after thumping Pakistan Saturday to win the one-day series 2-1.

Jayawardene’s team beat the home side by a whopping 234 runs in the third and final day-night international — the heaviest one-day defeat suffered by Pakistan.

Sri Lanka piled up a mammoth 309-5 in their 50 overs thanks to a career-best 137 from opener Tillakaratne Dilshan and Kumar Sangakkara’s 50.

Pacemen Nuwan Kulasekara (3-17) and Thilan Thushara (3-33) then dismissed Pakistan for a mere 75 in 22.5 overs — the lowest total at home by Shoaib Malik’s team in all one-day cricket. Jayawardene was delighted that his side had staged a comeback after losing the first match by eight wickets in Karachi on Tuesday. Sri Lanka won the second game by 129 runs — also played in Karachi.

“This is our sixth win in seven one-day series and the only one which hurt badly was our defeat against India at home (last year) and hopefully we turn things around this time,” Jayawardene said. Sri Lanka take on India in the first of five one-day matches in Colombo on January 28. They will also play a one-off Twenty20 international in the Sri Lankan capital on February 10. Jayawardene warned that India would pose a tough challenge.

“India is shaping well in both forms of the game. We beat them in Tests but lost the one-day matches, so it would be a good series and we would try to keep the continuity,” said Jayawardene. Sri Lanka hammered Zimbabwe 5-0 late last year before winning a tri-series in Bangladesh on their way to Pakistan. Jayawardene praised batsman Dilshan, who deservedly won the man-of-the-match award on Saturday and was also named man of the series.

“He (Dilshan) is a versatile cricketer who bats well, fields well, can turn his arm over and can also keep wickets. I call such players dirty players who are ready to do all the dirty type of work for the team and are not recognised.” And the skipper praised his pace attack.

“I don’t mind the focus being on (Muttiah) Muralitharan and Ajantha (Mendis). They have quite a few good fast bowlers around them and the pacemen are good at exploiting conditions well, which is good for the team,” said Jayawardene.

LAHORE, Pakistan, Sunday, AFP