“The way to do is to compete with them at all times,” says Mahela Jayawardene

Sri Lankan skipper Mahela Jayawardene has said that his team’s comprehensive victory over Australia was a result of ‘competing well at all times’.

Jayawardene’s comments came after his side routed Australia by eight wickets in the second of the best-of-three finals.

After electing to bat first, the Kangaroos posted a handy total of 271 on the board, thanks to brilliant centuries by David Warner and Michael Clarke.

In reply, the islanders got off to a great start, as Jayawardene and Tillakaratne Dilshan piled up 179 runs for the first-wicket-stand.

The skipper played a fine innings of 80 runs whereas Dilshan added quick 106 runs to the total. After their fantastic contribution, Kumar Sangakkara stepped up and finished the proceedings in style.

The wicket-keeper batsman scored 51 runs to help Sri Lanka overwhelm the target in 44.2 overs. Delighted over his side’s emphatic win, Jayawardene said, "The way to do is to compete with them at all times. You must be able to handle a few situations better
than them."

The classy right-hander added, "We have batted with controlled aggression today, though we took the extra risk. We look to break down the target and play according to the situation. We were dropping everything. With just four bowlers (in the ranks), we had
to pick wickets. It’s our one of the worst performances of the tour. We can laugh about it now but it would have cost us (the finals)."

Jayawardene was very active in the field. However, his activeness turned into an issue when he became hyper on umpire’s decision to declare Ferveez Maharoof’s delivery no-ball after a delay. As a result, the match referee imposed a fine of 10 percent of
his match fee.

On the other hand, Shane Watson, who abused umpire Asad Rauf after getting a decision against him, was not given any punishment for his offence. The incident once again showed the double standards of International Cricket Council.

On his issue with the umpire, Jayawardene shared, "I am the culprit for carrying it on a bit long and have been fined (10 per cent) for it. It’s good though once in a while to do so but I was hyper. My issue was not the no-ball but how late the call was
made. Umpire (Oxenford) said there was a lack of communication with the square leg umpire (Asad Rauf)."

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Posted by Rana Nasir Ghafoor on Mar 7 2012. Filed under Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry