The Hindu : Sport : Chance for us to get back into the series

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Monday, Feb 11, 2008
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Chance for us to get back into the series

We were guilty of some dismal batting at Sydney, writes Kumar Sangakkara

Our game against India on Tuesday gives us a huge opportunity to get back into this CB tri-series.

One thing is for sure — the guys are hungry after our big loss to Australia at Sydney and they know that the time has come to walk the talk.

As India’s captain M.S. Dhoni said at the post-match presentation after Sunday’s match against Australia, no amount of planning is enough unless you implement what you plan, and our guys know that unless we implement the gameplans, we will keep losing crucial games.

Let’s face it — we were guilty of some dismal batting at Sydney and failed to capitalise on the fact that our bowlers had kept Australia down to under 260 on a pitch that may have been slow but was certainly not unplayable.

In the process, Chaminda Vaas became the first Sri Lankan bowler to take 50 ODI wickets in Australia, which is a fantastic achievement surely. That the batsmen did not press home the advantage led to the massive defeat.

Hence, it is not enough for a part of the team to perform well but it is vital for the entire squad to believe in itself and its abilities.

Inevitably, there has been some talk about over-dependence on certain batsmen such as Sanath Jayasuriya and me, but that is what it seems like from the outside.

Just a matter of time

Each and every player knows that he is here because he is good enough for international cricket and it is only a matter of time before every man stands up to be counted.

For our game against India, therefore, the idea is to keep things simple, stick to the basics, and concentrate on producing a team effort.

At its core, cricket is a simple game — the side that scores more runs wins. And despite individual heroics, it is the team that plays as a unit that wins consistently. We have to look at all-round improvement too — the fielding and bowling must be consistently tight and the batting focused.

India will justifiably be on a high after defeating the world champion at Melbourne, but the funny thing about cricket is that it is a great leveller and massive highs can very easily give way to tremendous lows.

So, though the Indians will feel confident about their chances at Canberra on Tuesday, the game itself could follow a different script.

Gameplan

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