We will be in the final at our own muscles – Mahela Jayawardene

Mahela Jayawardene was confident that his team will reach the finals of the Commonwealth Bank Series by their own force rather than praying to be in the best of three.

Mahela Jayawardene
Mahela Jayawardene

The skipper was confident that his team will accomplish their target with their sheer team work and he was positive that his team has the ability to deliver the required results. Jayawardene advocated that his side has been victorious more than at the losing ends in the ongoing fixture. He described as, “Whatever happens tomorrow we will definitely get a lot of positives out of this. Our challenge will be to try and keep this consistency going, because if we play the way we’re playing now … we’ll win more matches than we lose. We’re quite happy with that.”

Sri Lanka entered the tournament as underdogs and lost their first match on February 8, 2012 at Perth by four wickets as India snubbed them while protecting their score of 234 runs.

The Lankan Lions lost their second encounter from the hosts by a narrow margin of 5 runs on February 10, at the same venue again.

They showed their existence in the tournament as their match against India was tied on February 14, at Adelaide Oval.
The first glory for the Islanders was registered on February 17, at Sydney when they crushed the Kangaroos by 8 wickets.

They faced the Blue Shirts on February 21, at Brisbane and emerged victorious by 51 runs and started their march towards the finals.

The winning spree was continued when they overcame against the Aussies by three wickets at Hobart on February 24.
India crushed them in a thrilling encounter where Virat Kohli smashed unbeaten ton, clinched the important encounter by seven wickets in 36.4 overs and earned the bonus points as well.

Jayawardene hailed the performance of his team in the tournament which kept on boosting as the tournament progressed. He said, “From where we started on this tour, I think we’ve improved as a team and maintained a consistency. That’s very important for us going forward.”

Australia is ruling the series with 19 points from seven matches, they have won four, lost three and has secured a net run rate of +0.553.

The Lankan Lions follows the table with 15 points after playing seven matches, winning thee, losing even as one was tied while having a run rate of +0.162.

India has consumed all their eight matches, gathered 15 points, won three and lost four at a run rate of -0.593.
The islanders and Australia will have the final clash before the finals on March 2, 2012, at Melbourne which will be followed eagerly by all cricket lovers around the globe and especially in India and Sri Lanka.

The triumph by the Lankan Lions will push them in the finals while India can take their place if they lose the match. Jayawardene was convinced that his team will fight hard for the favourable results and they will not depend on any other side to put them in the best of three. The Captain stressed, “Going in to the last game it’s in our control, what we need to do. It’s a good position for us to be, rather than depending on someone else to do some favours for us.”


Comments

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.