da roleta： Sri Lanka coach Dav Whatmore believes it will be hard for West Indies tocomeback in the second Test starting Wednesday having lost by ten wicketsdespite scoring 448 in their first innings
Saadi Thawfeeq19-Nov-2001Sri Lanka coach Dav Whatmore believes it will be hard for West Indies tocomeback in the second Test starting Wednesday having lost by ten wicketsdespite scoring 448 in their first innings.”I think it is going to be harder for a team like West Indies in Kandyalthough South Africa, England and India have reversed their form inrespective series against us,” hoped Whatmore after Sri Lanka had won thefirst Test rather comprehensively by ten wickets at Galle on Saturday.He admitted that Sri Lanka’s record in Kandy was poor, but believes the teamwill overcome their poor run if they concentrate on the cricket.”We have to acknowledge that our record in Kandy hasn’t been good,” he said.”But a cricket match is not won or lost by any hoodoo, voodoo or horoscopesor whatever. But it is won or lost by what you do out in the middle.”There have been a number of reasons for losing in Kandy, but the bottom lineis that during occasional sessions we haven’t done very well at all. Whilstyou can’t win a game in that hour or two, you can sure go a long way towardslosing it. That’s what we have been unfortunately been guilty of.”Whatmore was delighted by the character shown by the Sri Lankans who carriedon fighting throughout the Test despite facing a large first innings score.”In other games, we won pretty convincingly like today, but in a differentway,” he said. “We batted first and put the pressure on the opposition. Thewickets turned more and became unpredictable. This one here, I thought, wasa full effort everyday on a better pitch. It’s tremendous for the team toknow what they can overcome.”All the batsmen contributed quite nicely and there were one or two whoreally performed for us. Without those contributions you can’t come close to448. I was very pleased with the boys because chasing a target of 448 is noteasy, no matter what conditions, but they stuck to their task for over 200overs,” he said.”Mahela’s was a class innings although he was bitterly disappointed, likethe rest of us, that he missed out on a hundred. He really showed his class.Kumar Sangakkara is falling nicely into a pattern of getting a fifty or ahundred in every third innings. We haven’t seen the best of Kumar. He’s gota long way to go. Early indications are that he’s got every chance of beingone of the really good players for Sri Lankan cricket.”Tillakaratne is a veteran, but since getting a hundred against India thisyear, his confidence has risen as well. He is a pretty solid middle-orderplayer,” Whatmore said.Whatmore said that although Sri Lanka had won four out of their last fiveTests they had still a long way to go.”I think if you are realistic, you have to keep performing like this for anumber of years before we can really say that we have turned the corner.Another fact that is that Sri Lanka can be competitive at home, but notaway.”We are mindful of that, and that’s one of the reasons why we areexperimenting and playing with some new pace bowlers. The big one is againstEngland next year. In our group of touring players there will be five or sixtough medium-pace bowlers who can get out there and compete,” he said.