da winzada777： Sri Lanka won the first game of the Coca-Cola Cup against New Zealand by 16runs, but captain Sanath Jayasuriya admitted afterwards that he was notentirely happy with his team’s performance, warning them that they hadto play better if they are to
Charlie Austin18-Jul-2001Sri Lanka won the first game of the Coca-Cola Cup against New Zealand by 16runs, but captain Sanath Jayasuriya admitted afterwards that he was notentirely happy with his team’s performance, warning them that they hadto play better if they are to beat India on Sunday.”It was a good performance and we had to fight hard to win this game in theend, but I personally feel that we did not put enough runs on the board andwas disappointed by the middle-order collapse,” he said”We wanted 240-245, but in the end we were lucky to get 220,” he said.Jayasuriya won the man-of-the-match award for his 80 runs, but it was anunusually cautious innings by the captain. He revealed in his CricInfocolumn today that the captaincy had changed his attitude to batting andtoday he reined himself in.”When we lost a few wickets after a good start I knew that being the seniorpartner I had to stay at the wicket and play a long innings for the team,”he said.He attributed the shaky middle-order performance to some rustiness: “We havenot played for two months and are just getting used to international cricketagain – I hope the batsmen can come back in the next few games and playbetter.”Sri Lanka played an extra seamer in conditions tailor-made for the spinners,but Jayasuriya defended the team’s policy: “We are trying the fast-bowlingall-rounder policy out. Sometimes it may not work out, but we need somebowlers who can bat.”India represents an entirely different challenge on Sunday and Jayasuriyabelieves the team have to raise their game: “We haven’t decided the team yetfor the Indian game, but we know that it is going to be very tough and wehave to play better than this.”Stephen Fleming, the New Zealand captain, didn’t hide his disappointmentafterwards.”We missed an opportunity to win today after a very good effort in thefield,” he said”I was pleased to have restricted them to 220. It was a very good example ofhow you can slow the scoring rate by taking wickets. Considering the healthyposition they got themselves into, I was very happy.”The 25 extras though, in a low-scoring game, proved to be very important.”He was unsure as to why the team had been docked one over because of a slowover rate by match referee Cammie Smith.”That was pretty frustrating,” he admitted. “We pored over the rules andthere are clearly different interpretations of them.”The Black Caps started positively, despite the loss of both openers withinthe first seven balls. Fleming explained why: “We saw their seamers as anopportunity to get a good strike rate. We knew the spinners would be toughlater on and figured that a good start would allow us to sit on thespinners.”Unfortunately we lost one or two wickets too many in those early overs andhad a lot of work to do on playing the spinners.”The Black Caps have had very little match preparation for this tournament,but Fleming refused to make excuses: “Today’s performance is a line in thesand, but it’s not acceptable. We will be back in the nets tomorrow and willbe working hard.”