da winzada777： Captain Sanath Jayasuriya admitted that the lack of match exposure for SriLanka’s middle order was a concern after they strolled to their thirdconsecutive World Cup win against Canada
Charlie Austin19-Feb-2003Captain Sanath Jayasuriya admitted that the lack of match exposure for SriLanka’s middle order was a concern after they strolled to their thirdconsecutive World Cup win against Canada.However, he argued that it was imperative for Sri Lanka to boost their NetRun Rate (NRR), which has now spiraled to a healthy 3.17, to increase theirchances of qualifying for the second round of the competition.”We are aware that by finishing off matches so quickly we are depriving themiddle-order of batting but the situation is such that we need to keep theNRR up and have to use all options open to us,” said Jayasuriya afterwards.”It was a very good pitch to bat on and I never expected Canada to get outfor 36. What we wanted to do was to put them in and get them out quickly andscore runs as quickly as possible,” he added.He praised the efforts of his fast bowlers, especially rookie quick bowlerPrabath Nissanka, who played in place of the injured Pulasthi Gunaratne.”There was nothing wrong with the wicket, both (Chaminda) Vaas and (Prabath)Nissanka bowled really well. They pitched the ball in the right areas andbowled straight. We had so many lbw decisions in our favour because theybowled straight,” he said.”Prabath bowled very well and I am very happy for him. He has been a fastbowler whom we had faith on although he has been struggling in the last fewgames. He bowled wicket to wicket and was rewarded. He has a lot ofpotential and you will see him more of him in the future.”This performance was what we wanted from him because after Pulasthi(Gunaratne) got injured we were lacking an experienced bowler. If Prabathcan do the job, it is the best thing that can happen,” he said.Nissanka, who hails from Matara, the same southern fishing town thatproduced Jayasuriya, was delighted with his Man of the Match award.”I love bowling on this type of wickets. The captain and coach helped me alot to get my rhythm back at practices. I did a lot of hard work at the netsand it has paid off today,” said Nissanka.Canada captain Joe Harris said that he was disappointed the way his sideplayed and that they were capable of better performances.”We prepared for this tournament from six months ago and we knew it wasgoing to be tough against established nations. But we set our minds onplaying as competitive as possible against these countries. Today was a bigdisappointment,” said Harris.