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| Saturday, 24 July 2004 |
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'It was a big innings for me' - Sanath By Sa'adi Thawfeeq For Sanath Jayasuriya the century he scored against Bangladesh yesterday in the Asia Cup tournament was 'a big innings' for him, more so because he was under pressure to score runs having gone through a lean period without a century for almost 17 months. "It was a very good feeling to get that hundred. I went through a hard time in the last few weeks. I knew I could come back and do something for my team," said Jayasuriya after winning the man-of-the-match award with his unbeaten knock of 107 off 101 balls. Sri Lanka won the match by a thumping margin of ten wickets. "It was a big innings for me. Getting a hundred is always good for my confidence. I didn't treat today's opposition as Bangladesh but as some other team and made the runs. I went through bad patch and I knew I could come back at any time. When I got to 30 I knew I must occupy the crease and get as much runs as possible," he said. Jayasuriya said the period he underwent before scoring a century was 'the worst in my cricket career'. "I always go and play my natural game. I may get runs or I may not. That's how I have been playing my cricket over a period of years. Because I am always attacking I might liable to go through these kinds of bad patches," said Jayasuriya. "I don't believe in getting out after getting to 20s or 30s. You should go on and get a big score. Otherwise, it doesn't work for the team. When you look back it was not really a bad patch that I went through because I was getting a start and getting out. That was the problem. You need to concentrate much harder when you get to the 20s and 30s. That's what I did today," he said. Sri Lanka captain Marvan Atapattu said that a hundred from Jayasuriya was on the cards. "The team knew his talent. It was just a matter of time. We all know that everybody goes through patches like this. This is the time we need to support the guy knowing that person has talent," said Atapattu. With his team virtually in the final Atapattu said there was not going to any kind of let off. "Our main aim when we started the tournament was to get to phase 2 which we did. Basically it became easy after winning the match against UAE. Our next aim is to get into the final. It is a big thing to get into a final playing in our home conditions. We have virtually got there," said Atapattu. "We can't let things just flow. There is a difference in the team's approach to this tournament. The attitudes of the players when we are on the field or in the dressing room have changed. I want to continue with it if we can," he said. "At home expectations are very high for the team to do well. I don't see anything wrong in that. Everybody has lifted himself up and geared himself to do well in this tournament. There are players waiting outside for places and it has really helped us," said Atapattu. |
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