Winning the ODI series against Australia gives more strength to the team. It was my maiden ODI and very important to get success, said match hero of the Sri Lanka team Charith Asalanka. This was a very good team effort while all team members had good team spirit to get success with a thrilling finish, said 24 year old left hander Asalanka.
“Dhananjaya de Silva’s run a ball knock (60 in 61 balls) gave me lot of relief. We had a good plan at this deciding game. When Dhananjaya came to the middle after losing three wickets for 34 runs we had a chat and played according to the plan. Dhananjaya scored freely and that’s why I played a long innings to build up the innings. Dhanajaya started with big shots while I gave a good supporting role and collected singles to give more chance to my senior partner. However after Dhananjaya was out at 27th over I was trying to go for the big shots to increase the run rate,” added Asalanka
“When Dhananjaya de Silva came to the middle he said don’t hurry to get runs and first settle down to increase the runs. The plan was well executed at that time,” Said Asalanka the former Richmond and National under 19 team captain. Asalanka (110) Dhananjaya(60) Waninidu (21n.o) the three successful batters of this game from Richmond and Charith said about his college mates, “We all are good friends from the school level but coming to the National side each of us had good relationship than the school level to get success. Now we all wanted to get win for the country and my task is to play for the team and get honour to the country,” said Aslanka.
“Actually we used to play with more spinners at this game with Wanidu Hasaranga, Maheesh Theekshana, young Dunith Wellalage, Jeffrey Vandersay and Dhananjaya de Silva. 42 overs shared with them and I also bowled one over and this always increased the pressure on opponents.”
“I think opponent Australians couldn’t read our conditions and that was their failure. They had few injured players and also not read the wicket very well and some decisions taken by them was wrong. Especially this is good time to beat Australia at the last game on Friday and get the series win 4-1. My personal view is gaining winning momentum is very important for the forthcoming Test series at Gelle (Aslanka is most probably out of the Test squad to focus on more white ball format for the next T-20 World Cup). If we will plan well, we can win at any format. It is important to maintain good mentality until the next T-20 World cup which will commence from October 16.”
“I must thank all spectators. Without spectator support we couldn’t play the matches and even we loose the matches our spectators were always with us. At this moment our team is in good progress and our strength is stronger. During the last IPL five Sri Lankan players were involved for this franchise tournament that showed our talent in cricket. I have to mention our previous coach Mickey Arthur and present coach Chirs Silverwood. Arthur did a decent job while Silverwood is new to us but he is always very close to us and give his support to build up our career.”
Asalanka also said Sri Lanka team is on winning track now. “We beat South Africa, Zimbabwe and Australia at the ODI format. We are getting much better to focus on next T- 20 World Cup and it is important to maintain a winning mentality to go forward.”
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