Atapattu: There is still plenty of cricket left in this match
Rex Clementine - 30 August 2001
Marvan Atapattu's seventh Test 100 put Sri Lanka firmly in charge at
the end of the second day of the decisive final Test in Colombo and
the Sri Lanka vice-captain was delighted to finally get a big score
after eight innings without a fifty.
"It was matter of spending some time in the middle," he said. "I have
been getting starts and getting out, but I didn't worry about it too
much since I have been hitting the middle of the bat during that
time. I knew that a big score was due and I just kept going."
This was his seventh Test century, four of which he has converted into
double tons: "After passing the hundred I was not thinking of a double
hundred or anything. I just kept on batting. My main target was to
stay in the middle till the end of the day and I was a bit
unfortunate to get out."
He was indeed unfortunate to be given out by umpire David Orchard:
"It's part of the game. I always take it that way. There are
instances where you are out but the umpire doesn't rule you out."
Speaking of the batting track on which the runs came freely for Sri
Lanka,Atapattu said, "Superb batting track. Hopefully things will
get a bit difficult by tomorrow and we can put pressure on the
Indians. But so far this has been a good batting wicket."
Harbhajan Singh whom everyone thought would create much trouble for
the Sri Lankans has not been a real threat so far. "He's a superb
bowler. He has his good days and his off-days, so probably this was
one of those off-days. But to be fair to him he didn't have the ideal
conditions. Also full credit to our batsmen. We played him well."
Atapattu also felt the Indian bowlers didn't put much pressure on the
Sri Lankan batsmen, "There wasn't the discipline in their bowling
which we saw in Kandy. They gave away too many runs and didn't keep
things tight and as a result we have scored about 310 runs today."
Though Sri Lanka are in the driver's seat at the end of the second
day, Atapattu believes that: "There is still alot of cricket to be
played in this game. If we can get 100 - 150 runs more, we'll be able
to put the opposition under pressure."
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