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Sri Lanka completed their third successive ODI series defeat at home, but avoided a first ever 5-0 whitewash when they won the final match of the series at R. Premadasa Stadium yesterday. Captain Mahela Jayawardene speaking to the media admitted that there were many opportunities for his side throughout the series, but they let them slip away.
Here are the excerpts of the media briefing.
On what has been an extremely disappointing series.
After every game we lost we had chats about how we could improve and get back into the series. Hats off to everybody. They tried their best. Unfortunately we couldn’t get into the series and we made mistakes in some of the matches and were outplayed in some of the games. Credit should go to the Indians, the way they handled the third and fourth ODIs whereas we had our opportunities in the first two games. In the last game we always knew we had the quality to get together and show what we’ve got.
On winning the final ODI
Pretty happy for the guys for the way we came back today. We didn’t play to our potential this series. Fielding wasn’t up to the standards as we made mistakes. Today we showed that we are a team that is doing well but had a bad series.
On the final ODI where things went to plan for hosts
We played to our plan. Batting first we always wanted to get a good start. Sanath and Dilshan gave us a good start and then from there onwards we created a platform where we could accelerate. It was much easier for the guys to score on that wicket today. It wasn’t’ turning that much and we managed to get 300 runs which is always going to be tough. With a long Indian batting line up we had to take wickets upfront and when they were going for their shots we managed to create opportunities and hold onto the catches and played a really good game. Pleased with the guys. Obviously disappointed with the series loss and we had to get it right in the last game and we managed to do that.
Positives from the series
The last time when we played India, our batting wasn’t that great and we were scoring below 220, 210 and even below 200. Sanath and Dilshan are batting really well up in the order giving us good solid starts. If the middle order can consolidate on that, that will be ideal. We have been scoring 250 on a regular basis and with our bowling attack I think with 250 on any condition we can create opportunities. We made a lot of mistakes with our fielding, bowling and in batting as well in particular games. If you are playing top teams we know we have to get it right all the time. That’s what good teams do. We have to take whatever the positives that we have from this series and the negatives where we need to learn not to make the same mistakes again and move forward. We have got some really good cricket coming up, so we need to keep pushing ourselves to be better cricketers.
On the wicket at R. Premadasa Stadium
These wickets look like the typical R. Premadasa wicket which we used to play. Batting first you can get a decent score and probably it will get slower a bit later whereas the last time we played India the wickets were doing quite a bit and the batsmen struggled. Today was a very good one day wicket I think and we are getting back to those old R. Premadasa wickets.
On missed opportunities
When you are going into a five-match series, the first game is always crucial. We lost that and we had opportunities in the second game chasing down 250. It was a decent enough score and we made a couple of mistakes. Batting in the middle period, we lost quite a few wickets and we didn’t have anyone to finish the game with Kandamby. When we went down 2-0, they took the upper hand and played us out in the next two games. Those were the opportunities we had to get into the series and after losing it we had to come back strongly.
