The Hindu : Sport / Cricket : Result of hard work, says Mendis

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Result of hard work, says Mendis

Special Correspondent

Colombo: Ajantha Mendis is better known for his bowling skills, the carrom ball in particular. On the fourth day of the third Micromax Test here on Friday, he showed another facet of his cricket.

Mendis applied himself with the bat when his side needed runs from him. His innings of 78 is the highest score by a No. 10 against India in Tests. It is also the highest score at the slot by a Sri Lankan in Tests.

Enjoying himself

Crucially, Mendis came up with the innings when his side was in deep trouble. “When I got into the national side, I did not really concentrate much on batting. Later on, I thought I must also improve my batting.”

He added, “When I went in, the side was in a difficult situation. I was determined to support Samaraweera. The pitch also did not help the bowlers too much during that period. It helped me. I first wanted the total to reach 150. But I was batting well and as I continued, my confidence grew.”

He said a maiden century was not on his mind. “My only intention was to accumulate as many runs as possible. Even a single was valuable because that was going to pose problems for the side batting last on the wicket.” Mendis was optimistic about Sri Lanka progressing to a win. “We have seen that wickets tend to fall in the morning. If that happens again, we should wrap up the game by mid-afternoon.”

Mishra confident

Indian leg-spinner Amit Mishra said, “Everybody knows after the new ball loses its shine, the wicket becomes very slow and is good for batting. Samaraweera and Mendis produced a big partnership. When a batsman is starting his innings here, there is always a chance of getting his wicket.”

Asked about the inability of the Indian bowlers to wrap up the innings, he said, “These things happen. I feel we still have a lot of batting to come. We have the confidence that we will win the match.”

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