Dav Whatmore National Coach Two wins out of two and Sri Lanka are well placed to reach the finals eventhough our performance with the bat has not been up to our normal highstandards
Dav Whatmore24-Jul-2001Dav Whatmore
National CoachTwo wins out of two and Sri Lanka are well placed to reach the finals eventhough our performance with the bat has not been up to our normal highstandards. It is pleasing to note, however, that we have made up for that inother areas and that the strong desire to win is self-evident.The first game we played against New Zealand was the competition opener andwe were clear favourites – the Kiwis had just arrived from much colderclimes and there was no way that they could be properly acclimatised.Moreover, they were playing were playing in unfamiliar conditions.They started well though and restricted us to 220, which was someway belowour expectations. The skipper held the innings together with a fine 80, butwe lost too many wickets and struggled after the loss of Sanath in the 38thover. We were 183 for five after 40 overs and cobbled together just 37 inthose last ten overs.It was not a great score, but we knew it would be competitive if we couldget early wickets. Luckily we made the perfect start, capturing two in thefirst seven balls. Stephen Fleming and Craig McMillan then counter attackedbefore Dilhara Fernando dismissed them both during an excellent spell offast bowling.The key moment though was the introduction of spin from both ends, in the19th over of the innings. The Kiwi’s scored just 25 runs off the next tenovers. All the time the run rate was increasing and eventually we had chokedthe life out of their innings.India, of course, appeared a different proposition, even if they hadsuffered a surprise defeat by New Zealand just two days before. They werebetter suited to the conditions and we expected tough competition and feltwe needed to score a far healthier total.We started well and didn’t lose our first wicket until the 12th over, but wehad scored only 48, which indicates the healthy respect shown to the Indianopening bowlers. The game then changed though in the 12th over, whenHarbhajan Singh was introduced into the attack.Jayasuriya lost his balance and was stumped, Marvan Atapattu was caught atshort leg – which showed just how positive Ganguly and Singh were – andMahela Jayawardene was caught behind off a faint edge. We had lost threewickets in four overs and were suddenly under pressure on 61 for three.It was our first proper sighting of Harbhajan Singh. He is clearly anaggressive young bowler, who is always looking to take wickets and isdesperate to succeed. He varies his pace nicely, has an excellent bodyrotation which puts a lot of pace on his quicker ball, and he can give it agood rip when he wants.We were forced to regroup. Avishka Gunawardene stuck at it well and wasgiven good support by Romesh Kaluwitharana. The pair added 73, but we thenhad our second collapse of the innings, losing four quick wickets to leaveus on 154 for seven.Thankfully, we still had batting to come. We didn’t set any targets and justasked Suresh Perera and Kumar Dharmasena to bat out the remaining 12 overs.To the huge credit of the two players they responded to the pressuremagnificently and added 49 priceless runs. It’s a good team that has someoneas talented as Perera batting down at number nine and the pair clearlyhighlighted the advantage of the all rounder policy.Having been looking down the barrel at 154 for seven we were content with221. We knew it was a competitive total and the boys were really pumped outwhen they went on the field.Perera carried on where he had left off with the bat. In the first game hehad been a little nervous so we encouraged him to just go out there andenjoy himself. In this day an age, with all the pressure of professionalism,players often forget that they are playing a game. He seemed more relaxedand moved the ball around, both in the air and off the pitch, and at alively medium pace.When he took those two early wickets we were surprised to see HarbhajanSingh walk out to bat, but it’s one of those strategies that could work orbackfire spectacularly. Thankfully it did the later.Sourav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid steadied the innings well. We were reallykeen to get Ganguly early as he had only just started to emerge from a leanpatch and we wanted to put him under extra pressure. Dilhara Fernando gavehim a good working over, but he went on to play a controlling innings.We knew we had to break that partnership and his dismissal by Russel Arnoldwas clearly a key moment in the game. The wicket put tremendous pressure onthe inexperienced middle order and with Dravid unable to find the boundary,we started to gain the ascendancy.Muralitharan was used wisely and his final over swung the game our way. WithDharmasena and Jayasuriya holding their nerve in the last three overs theIndians just ran out of steam at the death.The manner of the victory was very pleasing. The margin may have been small,but the players had responded well to the pressure and this will have reallyboosted their confidence for the coming games.