Jayasuriya: I didn't expect it to be that easy
Rex Clementine - 6 August 2001
Sri Lankan captain and player of the series Sanath Jayasuriya said he
didn't expect India to go down so tamely in the final of the Coca-Cola
Cup which his side won by 121 runs, "Honestly, I didn't think we could
win the game that easily" said Jayasuriya.
Sri Lanka after an inconsistent performance with the bat in the league
matches came up with their best performance of the series to clinch
the trophy. The coach of the side, Dav Whatmore feels it's like
reserving the best for the last, "It was like we saving the best for
the last. Probably we played the best cricket of the tournament today"
remarked Whatmore.
Captain Jayasuriya revealed that things worked for them right from the
start. "The first important thing was that we won the toss. We needed
to keep wickets intact in the first few overs that too was achieved.
And then we had the feeling that we need lot of runs on the board and
the middle order clicked at the right moment."
However, the Sri Lankan captain missed out on a well deserved century
when he spooned a catch to his counterpart Sourav Ganguly at short
midwicket when he was on 99. Replying to a question on whether he was
disappointed in missing out on another hundred the Sri Lankan captain
said, "No not at all. It's a part of the game. It's normal. I was
worried that I couldn't stay till the 40th over. But I tell you I am
really happy." Sri Lanka having made 295 made early inroads into the
Indian innings and the introduction of Muttiah Murilitharan the strike
bowler of the Sri Lankan team was delayed until the 23rd over of the
match,
"We discussed a few things and one of them was the Murali issue - when
we should bring him into the attack. He is a classy player, but if we
brought him on in the middle overs he could have put up lot of
pressure on the opposition" said the Sri Lanka coach Dav Whatmore on
their tactic of holding back Muralitharan till the middle overs.
Russel Arnold deserved the Man of the Match award for his all round
performance in the match. He made 52 in 45 balls and got the wicket of
Yuvraj Singh, effected the run out of Virender Shewag and in the very
next ball took a superb catch at backward of point to send back Indian
captain Sourav Ganguly.
Arnold, speaking of his batting performance admitted that the hard
work done early in the innings was crucial, "The earlier batsmen had
done a good job in the middle after we decided to bat first. That made
my task easy. If we hadn't got off to a good start we would have
struggled in the middle overs. In fact Kalu and I struggled initially.
But we had nothing to panic about since we were going along at a good
run rate" revealed Arnold who collected his second man of the match
award of the Coca-Cola Cup.
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