PALLEKELE, Friday – Sadeera Samarawickrama one of Sri Lanka’s talented young batsmen expressed the views of his team that they were keen to put a stop to their current losing trend and turn the corner in one-day international cricket where they have lost the formula to win consistently.
Wins in the last two ODIs of the five-match series against South Africa followed by a win in the one-off T20I against the same opposition raised hopes that Sri Lanka had finally broken away from the shackles only to be dealt a stunning blow in the Asia Cup with heavy defeats at the hands of Bangladesh and Afghanistan.
The ongoing five-match series sees Sri Lanka fighting to stay alive knowing well that another defeat in the fourth ODI at the Pallekele International Stadium today would see England take a winning 3-0 lead.
“What’s needed at the moment is to get a win for the team. Everyone knows we’ve had some setbacks. We have to think about how to get that win, and I’m trying to use my talents for the team’s good. More than playing for my place in the team, I’m trying to get a win,” said Samarawickrama at the pre-match press conference yesterday.
“I know the spectators must be very disappointed about the way we have played. But we also want to turn it around. We want to see the fans happy.
“If we think too much about the World Cup right now, we’ll be under even more pressure when we get to the next match. We have to take it series by series and match by match as a team. We’ve got three series before the World Cup. What we want to do is get used to those conditions, and go from a losing mental state to a winning one,” he said.
Samarawickrama who replaced Upul Tharanga in the third ODI which was curtailed to 21 overs a side, gave his team a great start with a stand of 57 off 33 balls with Niroshan Dickwella only to see all their efforts erode away as the middle order failed to keep up the good work and Sri Lanka eventually ended up with a moderate total of 150-9 which England knocked off quite comfortably to win by seven wickets with 15 balls to spare.
“We know we can’t win the series from here, we have to come back strongly and level it. Mostly we have to execute our basic plans. Our batsmen have to take up the responsibility and get a big score. If we’re chasing we have to chase the score. Mostly we have to come back with the batting side,” said Samarawickrama.
ENGLAND BOWLERS HAVE CLEVER VARIATIONS
“Their fast bowlers are really clever. They have good slower balls and variation balls. We got a good start, and we didn’t think something like that would happen in the middle. We thought we’d be able to get a good score if we batted well through the middle. Hopefully we’ll be able to capitalise on good starts through our middle order in the coming games. We’ve talked about that and formulated a plan now.”
“England are the no.1 team and there is a big challenge when we play against them. But we can beat any team if we -play to our potential. We need to do our basics right. If we do that not only England, we could also beat India. England is very strong, but we need to play better,” he said.
Samarawickrama returned to the Lankan ODI side after a lapse of ten months and expressing his thoughts said that he would prefer opening the innings because it is in that position that he had scored a lot of runs.
“When they told me I’d be opening, I got a lot of confidence. It’s not that I don’t like batting in the middle order, but that I like to play at the top.
I was able to handle the pressure because in the recent past it’s while I’ve been opening that I’ve scored a lot of runs. I took that confidence forward. I didn’t put it in my head that I was playing England, or think too seriously about it. I just did the basics,” said Samarawickrama who scored 35 off 34 balls in the third ODI.
“I just came from playing provincial and mercantile tournaments, and when you compare it there’s a big difference.
The way you have to think about the game is very different at this level. Bowlers are often smarter than us, so we have to plan for that and think a step ahead of them. We’ve got to be clever and make good decisions as a team,” he said.
CHANDIMAL FIT TO PLAY
Skipper Dinesh Chandimal was cleared to play in today’s game after suffering from dizziness in the third ODI where he left the field during the England innings and did not take any further part.
“Chandimal had some dizziness after the last match, but we did all the tests, and he’s 100 percent fit,” said team manager Charith Senanayake.
Strangely the past two days have been dry with no rain around and it is hoped it will remain that way today so that we get a full game of cricket which the series has not had so far.
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