Sangakkara insists on top class fielding

Ranjan Anandappa in South Africa

Sri Lanka captain Kumar Sangakkara emphasised on the importance of top class fielding and complimented the young set of players who had performed exceptionally well in the recent past and rated the upcoming ICC Champions Trophy as a prestigious one because the top eight teams in the world will be meeting other in a compelling battle of supremacy.

Sri Lanka will meet host South Africa, who are perched on top of both versions of the game in the ICC ranking's in the curtain raiser at Centurion Park in a day\night match today. The South Africans have been out of international cricket for the last five months since their ODI series against Australia five months ago while the Sri Lankans won a home Test and ODI series against Pakistan and a test series against New Zealand, but lost a T20 series also to Pakistan and was beaten in a triangular ODI series involving Sri Lanka, India and New Zealand. South Africa will come out fresh in this tournament which could be an advantage.

Sangakkara said that his team possessed with a good batting line up and an excellent bowling attack and if the fielding is not up to the required standard they will not be able to make much headway.

Our fielding should be at the highest level if we are to be on par with the other teams.

He further said that youngster Angelo Mathews, Thilina Kandamby, Chamara Kapugedera and Tilan Samaraweera have done a great job performing well in the last two ODI against India and the latter two had scored heavily in South Africa while on an 'A' team tour. He expected them to continue the good work and improve on it. If the team plays as one unit he was certain that they could do well.

Talking of the conditions Sangakkara said that a good team should be able to adopt themselves quickly to difficult conditions. Unless we do that we cannot class ourselves a good side. Besides batting and bowling, the mental toughness plays an important role in the game to succeed. We cannot change the nature of the pitch or the climate so we have to prepare mentally if we are to win.

The tournament is a prestigious one as it is played between the top eight cricketing nations in the world and every game is going to be tough ones irrespective whom you play . They are all going to be tough games .But with ability in our side I am very confident that we will do well as long as we keep our fielding standards up, the batting and the bowling will take care of itself.

"Our main weakness has been our fielding, but that is something that has been in our control. So that is the point to start with. But at the same time we got to work hard and have good positive attitude when we get on to the field no matter what situation we are in where we can turn it around with just with our fielding.

Of course Sri Lanka will need to get its act together in all three departments of the game . The bowling will have to get a few paces better than what it is, going on the recent home performances where more discipline will be a demanding factor to produce the goods.

The batting has under pressure invariably failed to click, particularly when chasing and Sangakkara and his top order will need to face the reality of coming good when it matters.