Mahela pays tribute to bowlers for piloting Lanka to victory

Chris Dhambarage in Rajkot

CRICKET: Sri Lankan captain Mahela Jayawardena paid tribute to his bowlers for staging a magnificent comeback to pull off a thrilling five run victory over India in the second one day international in Rajkot on Sunday.

Jayawardena said that Sachin Tendulkar's wicket was probably the turning point in the game and from thereonwards they fought back while capturing wickets at regular intervals. "We were very patient with him and we knew that he was playing very well.

We just wanted to drag the game bit more and see whether we could get that wicket." Tendulkar continued his excellent form following the series against the West Indies by stroking a sparkling 54 from 51 balls and also put on exactly one hundred runs for the third wicket along with the veteran Sourav Ganguly who hit a top score of 62.

"Once we got that wicket we knew that we could add more pressure on the Indian middle order and once we started doing that we got a couple of more wickets to get back into the game." Even then skipper Jayawardena said that the game was still open until the final over with the aggressive Mahendra Singh Dhoni keeping one end occupied.

"Had Dhoni connected two sixes the game would have been India's and if not, it was ours. We managed to bring the game to that stage and that was the most important thing".

Dhoni was dismissed in the penultimate ball of the innings for a solid 48 after having added a crucial 66 runs for the sixth wicket along with Dinesh Karthik. Jayawardene also highlighted Farveez Maharoof's stunning catch to dismiss Mahendra Singh Dhoni in the last over, saying: "It was a brilliant effort and came under pressure situation. We needed to hold on to such catches to win close matches".

The Sri Lankan captain credited Sangakkara's 110 that rescued them from a disastrous 58 for 4 - and some brilliant fielding towards the end helped them to turn the match in their favour.

Skipper Jayawardena said that both Lasith Malinga and Nuwan Kulasekera came back strongly after the power play overs having got a stick from the Indian batting. "The manner in which both Lasith Malinga and Nuwan Kulasekera bowled their final overs to finish off their spells were really encouraging. They showed a lot of character and put a great amount of pressure on the Indian batsmen".

"This was not his best day in office but still he made amends for the early mistakes and claimed a couple of crucial wickets to turn the game in our favour". Malinga after having conceded fifty runs from his first five overs came back strongly to claim the key wickets of Sourav Ganguly and Dinesh Karthik and was also unfortunate not have captured the wicket of Dhoni who was comprehensively beaten and bowled off a no ball.

The Sri Lankan captain however was somewhat disappointed with his own batting form where he made just four runs following another failure in the first one dayer in Kolkata. But he admitted that he got a very good ball and the early conditions too was helping the bowlers.

Meanwhile man-of-the match Kumar Sangakkara said that his plan was to occupy the crease as long as possible after a shaky start where they lost four early wickets. "We wanted to stay there and knew that we need to have a batsman till the end. Dilshan played well and kept the scoreboard moving and made things easy".

In contrast the Indian captain Rahul Dravid said that there was no real turning point in the game and blamed his top order batsmen for throwing the game away. "I don't think there was one turning point in the game. From 129 for 2, we lost a couple of wickets there, and to lose Dinesh Karthik at the end was very critical for us," he said.

"We just didn't really chase well, in the sense that we kept losing wickets at regular intervals. We needed one of our set batsmen to go on and get a big score and finish the game off but we just couldn't achieve that today and it is a good lesson for us."

The Indian captain also said that Sri Lanka's fielding played a crucial part in their victory. "They fielded really well. I don't think we fielded that badly. Our out fielding was pretty good today.

Some of their throwing from the deep was pretty exceptional and some of the catches towards the end were really good. Those catches probably turned it for them at the end."

Skipper Dravid also defended his decision to put Sri Lanka into bat first after winning the toss, pointing to the early moisture in the pitch. "There was something in the wicket. There was a bit of moisture early on, and that happens with nine a.m. starts in India," he said.

"That the decision to field was fine, the ball seamed around a bit both for Munaf and Sreesanth. To restrict them to 257 was a very good effort. At one stage, it looked like we were playing well. We just kept losing wickets and the pressure kept piling on us."

Rajkot, Monday