We are disappointed the way we finished at this world cup and personally I thought we could have finished this world cup in sixth or seventh position among the ten teams said Mahela Jayawardena who is in charge of the coaching department of the National cricket team.He nade these comments at the press conference yesterday at SLC. Cricket team members, Manager and head coach Chris Silverwood were present on this occasion.
We lost due to our players poor performance. Not only New Zealand match there were few other matches we were short by 30-40 runs. Even the Australia match we were in a good position but we couldn’t finish our innings well like the Afghanistan match . Our skills and standard have to improve. Players knew their part but they did mistakes . This was our best team to play World Cup. When the first round of the world cup everyone can gauge players standard. But before the world cup we couldn’t tell that. But we always assess our players standard and what type of wicket we receive and study opponent team and their players to make plans. When we make plans we saw some low performance from our players But we did best but we had some faults and I accept that. Now we have to think how to come to a higher level and what type of areas have to be developed said former Skipper Jayawardena.
When first two matches played on Wankhede Stadium there was no dew factor at night .But we had to play fourth match at Wankhede Stadium.When we went to play dew increased in Delhi as well as Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai. We thought we had to bat first earlier. But when we got to Stadium in the morning they watered the wicket with heat and there was dampness.
We realized we played that same type of wicket at Premadasa Stadium and we were all out for 50 runs at that final within 3:hours match was over. India played with 5 batters and all rounder and five bowlers and we thought If we bowled first we can get 3 or 4 wickets early and restrict them to a low score and than chase it well. But we knew first ten overs under lights we have to bat well and then dew will come and we can bat more easily. We got first wicket of Skipper Rohit Sharma early and then dropped two catches. If we took the catches we could have done better. our two winning matches we chased well to win against Netherlands and England. In Bangalore we also wanted to chase but England won the toss and batted first and we chased that target successfully, said Mahela.
We planned from last two years and played more then 35 matches and won Asia Cup T-20 and entered the Asia Cup ODI final and then selected this team which was the best team.
I am disappointed about comments about coaches salary .We have International coaches and they have international standard salary scale and as professionals I think we have to pay that salary to all Sri Lanka coaches. We get that payments according to our knowledge. We had foreign coaches for last 20 years and even our local coaches must get that salary added Mahela.
Actually our spinners were not upto standard compared to Keshav Maharaj, Mitchell Santner and Adam Zampa. Our spinners have to improve a lot if we are to fare well in the future.
We knew that when we go to India when we saw the wickets how they were behaving we had to play at high tempo which we discussed with the batsmen something they were not used to before this world cup added Mahela.
Especially they had to play on surfaces they were not used to here in Sri Lanka. For me biggest game momentum was against Pakistan at Hyderabad. When we played highest level at this world cup. Actually batting we need much more consistency. For me biggest concern is our fielding. We dropped 16 catches which is highest in the competition. When we were going with this level of bowling fielding is more important. When we got to win we have to get wickets and batsmen must know shot selection.
Actually we left Dasun Shanaka the skipper from the side due to his injury and there were no pressure or any other matter from any one to drop him from the team said Mahela. According to medical advice 2-3 weeks needed for him to recover from injury. If Dasun recovered he had chance to enter the team. While his recovery process he started first to run and gradually increased his intensity and after 10-12 days he started to bowl at training. We had two traveling reserves and they also practiced with us. We made team composition with Dasun as number 7 batter but when Dasun got injured we had to get services of Chamika Karunaratne who was a travel reserve. We kept Dasun with the team if any player got injured we had Dasun Shanaka to replace him explained Jayawardena.
Actually our players had to work hard to get World Cup qualification and they did really well but unfortunately disappointing performance at World Cup but they have to do plenty of learning said Sri Lanka head coach Chris Silverwood. They missed few catches at fielding and have to lot improve and now make a plan to go forward especially we have lot more cricket and T-20 World Cup next year said Silverwood.
The skipper Kusal Mendis apologized for their poor performance from the public. I played well first two matches but little bit pressure after my captaincy and not up to expectations and disappointed about that. I knew my usual game was not there and tried to come back and it was not executed added Mendis.
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