Charith Asalanka celebrates his maiden ODI 100 in the fourth match against Australia

• Says Australia won all the tosses and some of the decisions they took went Sri Lanka's way

By Sa’adi Thawfeeq

Sri Lanka’s match winner in their thrilling four-run series clinching victory over Australia in the fourth ODI played at the R. Premadasa Stadium on Tuesday, Charith Asalanka said that maintaining the winning momentum is crucial for the team ahead of the two-Test series starting in Galle next week.

The five-match ODI series seems to be done and dusted with Sri Lanka taking an unassailable 3-1 lead, but Asalanka is of the view that the momentum the team has built during the series should not end there but continued in the fifth and final ODI at the R. Premadasa Stadium tomorrow as well.

“It is very important because if we lose the momentum to regain it, it is sometimes difficult. I know it through experience. If we can keep the momentum going, we can win the Test series as well,” said Asalanka at the post-match press conference.

The two-Test series which are part of the ICC World Test Championship commences at Galle and carries points which are important to both teams to qualify for the final.

Asalanka attributed the team’s recent success to the change brought about in the dressing room atmosphere since the T20 World Cup last year.

“The present coach (Chris Silverwood) plans everything with the Captain so there is no pressure on the rest of the players. There is a big change in the dressing room and for that the Captain, Coach and supporting staff should take the credit. They don’t pass on any pressure to the players, but they absorb it themselves,” said Asalanka. “Dasun has been handling the side well and it has now started to produce the results. The environment in the dressing room is great and that is reflected in our performance on the field.”

Sri Lanka seemed to be in some sort of trouble when they lost their two key batters who shaped their win in the third ODI Pathum Nissanka and Kusal Mendis cheaply to be 34-3 in the tenth over, but Asalanka in the company of Dhananjaya de Silva fought back with a century stand with Asalanka going onto score his maiden ODI century. To say that luck was with Asalanka is just putting it down mildly because with his score on one a delivery from Pat Cummins hit his stumps, but the bails however did not fall off. After that Asalanka played really well to score 110 off 106 balls until Cummins finally had him caught at deep midwicket.

“I am very happy with my performance scoring my maiden ODI century especially against a team like Australia. They are a very strong side. They are the current T20 World champions and they have also been one-day World Cup winners in the past. I am glad that I could contribute to the win with a century. My task was made easy with Dhananjaya (de Silva) scoring freely at the other end,” said Asalanka.

“The wicket was a bit slow. Normally the wickets at Khettarama are slow in the afternoon and in the night with the dew the pitch settles down. Fortunately for us it didn’t happen today (Tuesday) and as a result there was a lot of turn in it.”

Asked to comment on Australia’s losses Asalanka said: “They had a lot of injuries with about 2-3 key players not able to play. Other than that, I think they didn’t read the pitch properly at times because they won all the tosses, and it was their decision to bat or field first. Some of the decisions they took went our way.”

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