da betway： A disappointed Sri Lankan captain Sanath Jayasuriya blamed his batsmenfor not firing once again in their last round robin match of the CocaCola Cup which the home team lost to India today
Rex Clementine01-Aug-2001A disappointed Sri Lankan captain Sanath Jayasuriya blamed his batsmenfor not firing once again in their last round robin match of the CocaCola Cup which the home team lost to India today."It’s disappointing. The first 15 overs are very crucial and we lostthree wickets in the first ten overs and that’s where the game wentout of our hands."Sri Lanka’s strong batting line up has failed to provide the goods inthis tournament but the bowlers have been able to do the job for theSri Lankan captain. "In the previous games we had one batsmen whokept going. Either Russell, Marvan or me but today it didn’t happen,"he said.Right through this tournament, Sri Lanka has been sticking to the sixbatsmen policy. When asked as to whether they would deviate from thatpolicy in the final, the Sri Lankan captain said, "We want to persistwith the same combination. If we play seven batsmen, then we’ll beshort of an all rounder. I think we’ll stick to the six batsmenpolicy."Indian captain Sourav Ganguly meanwhile remained positive of a victoryin tomorrow’s game against New Zealand. "After today’s victory, we’vegot the same points as New Zealand. I am confident we can turn itaround in tomorrow’s match and book a berth in the final. We haven’tdone well against them in this tournament, but I am sure we can put upa much better performance."India started off poorly with the cream of their batting back in thepavilion with just 38 on the board. But at the end, they managed to gopast 225. "We lost a few very early wickets. But Yuvraj, Rahul andSodhi batted superbly to take us past 225," said Ganguly."When we had the wicket of Sanath Jayasuriya I knew we had the gamein our hands. Sri Lanka’s batting depends a lot on Sanath. If we gethim early that’s it," said the Indian skipper."If you look at Sri Lanka’s success rate, they’ve won most of theirmatches because of Sanath or Aravinda. One of them is not there,"remarked Ganguly.Man of the match Yuvraj Singh returned to form with a fine unbeaten98. The left-handed batsman has been shuffled between the opening slotand the middle order, but today when the team needed his services themost, he came good. However he seems to be content with whateverposition he bats. "I wouldn’t mind batting in the middle order oropening the innings. I play according to the team’s needs," he said.Yuvraj missed out on his maiden century by just two runs. At the endof the day reflecting on the innings, he said, "Yes, a hundred wouldhave been nice. I have not got one. I was unfortunate to slip on acouple of occasions while I was running. But once again that’s how itgoes. I don’t mind as long as we keep winning."