Although we lost in NZ, a lot of positives came out of series – Jayasuriya

Wednesday, 15 January 2025 00:30 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Sri Lanka played the perfect game at Auckland to return home with win

Janith Liyanage batted with more

pressure than anybody else says Jayasuriya

2 ODIs v Australia opportunity to continue winning form

By Sa’adi Thawfeeq

Sri Lanka may have lost the three-match ODI series 1-2 in New Zealand, but on the long run Head Coach Sanath Jayasuriya is happy that there were a lot of positives that came out of it.

Sri Lanka suffered losses in the first two matches due to top order batting collapses where they lost 4 wickets inside the first power play, but made a remarkable recovery in the third at Auckland to rectify the mistakes and turn tables on the home side and return home with a win under their belts.

“We discussed it at length and told the players that it cannot happen for a third time, we must try to rectify the mistakes as much as possible,” said Jayasuriya. “We worked on it but still we have to play our natural game. Even though we lost four wickets, we didn’t go back into a shell, but played a little bit smarter.”

“Those mistakes we made were mainly due to shot selection, but in the last game they managed to fix it. I don’t take conditions as an excuse because when they come to us they have to play under our conditions and, when we go there we have to adapt to theirs. We can’t control the conditions.”

Talking of the positives Jayasuriya said there were many.

“We got Eshan Malinga into the team and although in the first match he was a bit wayward in the second and third games he bowled well. Kamindu (Mendis) came back into the runs from the second game, Pathum (Nissanka) went through a lean patch in the first two matches but came good in the third and we got a good start. Avishka (Fernando) needs to convert his 20s and 30s into a big one. He got a 50 in the first game whereas he should have got a 100. When the opportunity is there they need to grab it. That’s what we have been talking about most of the time. We told Kusal Perera that and he grabbed it in the third T20I by scoring a century. Not everyone will get runs. All we need is for 2 or 3 batsmen to get runs on the board and everyone else to play around them.

“A player like Janith Liyanage batted really well in all the matches. We have to give credit to him because he is batting with more pressure than anybody else. He is absorbing the pressure and batting with the tail enders. He is another player who has improved a lot,” said Jayasuriya. “Like him there are other players also improving. Some of the top players will go through a bad patch. Charith Asalanka is a good player but unfortunately he couldn’t get going in the series. He will come back. We had a setback because he was not amongst the runs and we couldn’t recover fast. But that’s cricket.”

“Our ODI side is okay, but like with any other team, there are little things to fine tune. We also have to give them confidence. We have 2 ODIs against Australia at the R Premadasa Stadium. It’s another opportunity for our players to continue the form they showed in the third ODI against New Zealand.”