South Africa’s captain Graeme Smith said yesterday that his team dominated 95 percent of the Super Eight match against Sri Lanka at the Providence Stadium.
Smith made the disclosure during the post-match press conference where he also expressed his dissatisfaction at the performance of the team’s tail-end batsmen.
He called the effort of his tail-enders ‘stressful’ and said it was an area for concentration at future net practice sessions.
“I think it was a pretty stressful period during the last five overs; we always knew that it was going to be a difficult chase on a wicket that was going to get drier and drier but I think we dominated 95 percent of that game,” Smith said.
South Africa made an otherwise stroll in the park run chase of 210 runs into a steeple chase of an effort as four bottom order batsmen were swept up in four balls owing to the reverse swing of fast bowling Lasith Malinga.
Malinga removed Shaun Pullock for 13, Andrew Hall for a duck, Jacques Kallis for 86 and Makhaya Ntini for duck to see the International Cricket Council number one ranked team crumble from 206-5 to 207-9.
“At the end with the reverse swing and someone like Malinga knocking over people we should be and can be a bit more clinical than how we were and it was nice to get through that – it’s two points on the board,” an obviously relieved Smith told the media.
Smith said that it was heartening however, to see the last pair hang in there bearing in mind their previous World Cup close finishes and collapses. He said that the team was happy with the win knowing that the bottom order was of some concern heading into the match.
“It’s one of those games that if you get through, it can spur you on to better things. In World Cups gone by we have lost those tight games and probably this is the turnaround we need,” the South African skipper said.
Smith applauded the team effort during the game stating that the team’s lower order had been struggling in the last seven one day matches.
“Everyone chipped in nicely, we had a bit of variety which was nice and yeah I think to restrict them to 209 was a superb effort. It’s a problem we have with our lower middle order, probably from six down have hardly done any batting in the last seven one day internationals,” he recognised.
Sri Lankan captain, Mahela Jayawardene admitted that his team was out-played by the South Africans yesterday. Jayawardene credited his bowlers, especially right-arm off-spinner Muttiah Muralitharan and Malinga for the opposition they put up in the end.
“We don’t give up, that’s one thing we do, from any situation we believe that we can win matches so we show that.
“Malinga bowled brilliantly and showed what we are all about, it was really good to see the fight in us,” Jayawardene noted.
“We totally do not deserve to win this game; the way we batted today. That’s where we probably lost this game,” he added, “a lot of things went wrong and the way we batted wasn’t very pleasing.”
Asked by Stabroek Sport if there was a specific run target that the Sri Lankan side was aiming for on the relatively new Providence pitch, Jayawarde said that the team thought between 220 and 240 runs would have been competitive.
“We thought that when we won the toss, the wicket would have been a 220 – 230 kind of wicket, it was slow, it was doing a bit, we knew that it was going to get slower and slower so we were targeting around 220 and anything above that would have been a bonus for us,” he said.
Jayawardene attributed the low score of the Sri Lankan side to the lack of concentration and poor shot selection. He said that posting a huge total was a difficult task when you are 90-5.
“There is not much that can be done then,” he said.
“Losing early wickets, then a couple of loose shots and then at the end the way we finished the innings I don’t think we are really happy with that but we can take a lot of positives out of this game,” a disappointed Jayawardene reiterated.
“We did not concentrate here today that would have helped us get to that 230 – 240, this is a very professional team, we know exactly where we went wrong and the guys will ensure that we come back very strong come Sunday,” he promised.
Sri Lanka take on hosts West Indies on Sunday at the Providence Stadium in what should be a sold-out event. Both West Indies and Sri Lanka, top group finishers go into that game having both lost their first Super Eight matches.
