Dilanka Mannakkara

Dilanka MANNAKKARA

“I didn’t edge the ball and I am 100 percent sure about it,but I have to respect the umpire’s decision” said Tilakaratne Dilshan at the press conference held after an absorbing and incident filled fourth day’s of play of the second test match between Sri Lanka and England. Dilshan was controversially given out of a bat pad catch which lacked evidence as to a nick was concerned and Dilshan immediately opted for a review but he was given out after several replays.

Dilshan also commented that hotspot is essential for the UDRS system as its very difficult to determine nicks otherwise.

Sri Lanka lost two crucial wickets at the dying stages of the game and Dilshan was of the view that Sri Lanka has to bat very well in the morning session and to increase their lead up to about 150 and also said that it would be a very interesting chase for England since they collapsed for a mere 72 chasing 145 runs against Pakistan in the second test match held at UAE in January 2012.

The bowlers for Sri Lanka with the exception of Rangana Herath and Dilshan were disappointing and Dilshan said that he bowled well and should have had Kevin Pietersen’s wicket caught at short leg.”That catch cost us plenty and Pietersen capitalized on that and played beautifully”.

When the question was posed by me about star batsman Kumar Sangakkara’s poor form,Dilshan in reply said that Sangakkara is working very hard in the nets and he will come back strongly from his bad patch.