HAMBANTOTA - “Doing the right things at practice and then reciprocating it in the middle has made it easy for us in matches,” said Sri Lanka opener Avishka Fernando whose knock of 127 saw him win the Player of the Match award in the second ODI played at the Mahinda Rajapaksa International Stadium at Sooriyawewa on Wednesday.
“We have a good coaching staff and experienced players. We can take advice from them and gain a lot of experience”.
Fernando’s innings came at a crucial period of play when Sri Lanka had lost their first two wickets for nine runs. Joined by Kusal Mendis, Fernando went onto put together a record double century stand of 239 that saw them to an imposing total of 345-8 and go on and beat the West Indies by 161 runs.
“At that time I couldn’t play my normal game because we had lost two wickets for 9 runs. I had a chat with Kusal and during that time we had to play down a lot of dot balls but it didn’t become an issue because we had the big hitters coming at the bottom. Kusal and I decided to score 3-4 runs an over and bat for about 10-15 overs until the wicket settled down,” said Fernando.
“This is the biggest ground in Sri Lanka and has boundaries of 85 metres and more. We don’t have the strength to clear those boundaries. We thought of doing a lot of running in the middle overs. Today we were able to do that very well,” he said.
Fernando said that as a batsman in the top four of the batting his job was to contribute ‘big’ to the team.
ELEMENTARY MISTAKES COST US BIG TIME - POLLARD
West Indies captain Kieron Pollard said that his team’s heavy defeat at the hands of Sri Lanka was due to elementary mistakes made by them.
“We made elementary mistakes yesterday and it cost us big time.
They were able to get away from us and were able to get 345. It proved more than enough in the end,” said Pollard reflecting back on his side’s disappointing performance.
“I don’t think it was a 345 wicket, 300 would have been on par. We weren’t disciplined long enough to execute in the back end and that sort of fielding performance on the international stage was very disappointing. It also started with myself as well that’s something we need to address but having said that I thought we were totally outplayed when we went to bat. Sri Lanka had their plans and they stopped it and they were able to execute and be on top,” he said.
Pollard rued the dropped catch of Kusal Mendis when he put down a sitter when the batsman was on two. Mendis went onto score 119. “Mendis must be thanking me very dearly for the lapse. I dropped him when he was on 2.
Hopefully in Kandy I get some dinners or something like that but having said that Avishka again proved his mettle.
This time he was not aggressive as he was in the first game,” said Pollard.
“Playing at home Kusal and Avishka used the advantage of exactly how to play on this pitch, how to maneuver the field and they showed exactly how we should have batted. We got a perfect opportunity to see how they batted for 42 overs or so but we didn’t take it. Well played to them but disappointing for us,” he said.
The third and final ODI will take place at Pallekele on March 1.
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