Jayasuriya confident Sri Lanka can bounce back

Interim Head Coach Sanath Jayasuriya with Captain Dhananjaya de Silva

MANCHESTER: Sri Lanka’s interim Head Coach Sanath Jayasuriya said that he was confident the way his team adapted to the cold Manchester weather and against England in the first Test here at Old Trafford, they would give a much better account of themselves in the next two Test matches at Lord’s and at the Oval in London.

“We got confidence going into the next Test. We played very good cricket, and I am very happy with the players the way they played as a team. It is just the start, we have a long way to go,” said Jayasuriya reflecting back on the first Test which Sri Lanka lost by five wickets.

“The confidence level is very high, but we have to start from scratch again. We are taking the positives from this game. It’s totally different conditions and different wickets at Lord’s. We can’t take things for granted. If somebody gets in, I want a good hundred from one of the top order batsmen.”

“After the 4-day warm-up game I saw some areas which we had to improve, and we tried to overcome them during practice. I told them in this team, only two or three players will make runs and also to believe in themselves that they can do it. I will give them the full confidence and trust to go and play their natural game. The first innings 236 was not enough but the lower middle-order showed that we can do it on this wicket. After that we gained a lot of confidence. The support staff fully backed the players and gave them confidence.”

To beat England, Jayasuriya said that Sri Lanka had to play good cricket.

“We need to win at least two sessions every day for five days then we have a good chance. For us to do that we have to consistently bowl and bat well. We fielded well in these conditions and hats off to Chandi (Chandimal) also for keeping wickets really well. We are confident that we can do it.”

“England came to this game with six batsmen, and they have a long tail. If we bowl well and if we get a few early wickets, they will be on the back foot, that’s what happened in the first innings. Even in the second innings they lost five wickets. They play a different ball game but today (Saturday) they didn’t want to take a risk. Overall, they know that we have an experienced batting line up and they wouldn’t have expected this much of opposition. But in these conditions, we played well. If we can do well in the small areas and win little sessions, we have a good chance.”

“I want the top order to bat well, one of them at least to get runs. Dimuth (Karunaratne) is batting well but unfortunately, he is getting out in the 20s, that’s not enough,” said Jayasuriya. “I am not putting any pressure on them. I have given them the maximum confidence. They are doing a lot of hard work at practices that’s why they played so well. In the second innings we did really well. Kamindu Mendis scored an unbelievable hundred, Angelo (Mathews) batted well and Chandimal played a great knock.”

“After he got hit on his hand to come back after three pain killing injections and to go and bat, that’s the attitude I like as a player. The other cricketers will also learn from him. Those are the little things that are positives. We need to improve in little areas like consistent bowling spells. Top order batting we need to fine tune, but overall, I am very happy with the performance. They played good cricket and put England under pressure. We learnt from the first innings, and we came back and did well in the second. We have never gone through weather like this in England before.”

In conditions that were tough for bowlers Asitha Fernando shone brightly for Sri Lanka.

“Whenever he bowls, he looks like he will get a wicket, but you need to support him from one end,” said Jayasuriya. “It was (Milan) Rathnayake’s first game and Vishwa (Fernando) seemed a little out. You can’t expect every bowler to bowl well, sometimes bowlers also have an off day. Vishwa went through that. Asitha was outstanding in both innings. What we discussed, the lines and lengths he is hitting them consistently. To come to England and bowl straight away the right length is not easy, you have to adjust yourself. He is a fast-learning cricketer, and he is improving, that’s the good thing about him, he knows what he is doing.”