Setback will not affect us - Sangakkara

Chris Dhambarage

Sri Lankan captain Kumar Sangakkara believe that his team would have learned some valuable lessons following their eleven run defeat at the hands of Pakistan in their ICC 2011 Cricket World Cup match played at the R. Premadasa stadium on Saturday. Sangakkara however noted that this setback will not affect the team’s chances of progressing towards the quarterfinal stage of the tournament with four more games to be worked off in group ‘A’.

Sri Lanka take on Kenya on Tuesday at the same venue followed by the high profile game against the reigning champions Australia on March 5. Their last home match will be against Zimbabwe on March 10 at the Pallekele stadium before they leave for India for the last group match against New Zealand on March 18 in Mumbai.

Sangakkara described the Pakistan team as a tough opposition as they failed to break the World Cup jinx and also suffered their first defeat at home in a World Cup tournament fixture.

“They are a tough side. They proved that they have pride in themselves and I thought they played fantastic cricket today. “We tried to change the jinx today. I am not too sure why that has happened over the years, but there were some critical moments in this game and we couldn`t turn those critical moments in our favour,” Sangakkara added.

In fact Sangakkara became Shahid Afridi’s 300th victim in One Day Internationals with the Pakistan captain becoming the third player from his country to achieve that milestone after former captains Wasim Akram and Waqar Younus.

Sangakkara stated that the dismissal of inform batsman Mahela Jayawardena and opener Tillekeratne Dilshan were the situations that changed the complexion of the game.

“Shoaib Akhtar getting Mahela and Shahid Afridi getting Dilshan were critical moments of the game. Then Chamara Silva was a bit slow off the blocks, but he gained momentum towards the end and his finish was excellent,” Sangakkara added.

Meanwhile Pakistan captain Shahid Afridi said that he is delighted with the team’s performance but urged his team to improve in their fielding which was disappointing throughout their game against Sri Lanka.

“I am thrilled with the performance today. I told 280 would be a good total. We knew the ball will swing and it will be tough to bat under lights. Initially our target was 300, but we were happy to get 277. Everyone in the side wants to improve and we try to win every game we play,” the Pakistani captain said.

Afridi stated that he was really worried and concerned about the mistakes that they committed on the field especially in the fielding department. “I think when we go ahead in this tournament our destination will get tougher and tougher and if we commit the same mistakes, and then we will return to Pakistan very soon”.

“Our fielding has been improving since the New Zealand tour, but I don`t know why in this match we dropped catches and failed to take run-out chances,” said the skipper, who was named man of the match for picking up four wickets for 34 runs from his ten overs.

Pakistan will take on minnows Canada in their next outing on March 3 in another day night encounter at the same venue.