Jayawardene defends his decisions despite loss to http://www.senore.com/Cricket/India-c750 – Cricket News Update
Despite suffering a calamitous loss against the Indians, Sri Lankan skipper, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/DPMD-Jayawardene-c1397, defended the decisions he made on the field in 11th match of the Commonwealth Bank, played at Bellerive Oval, Hobart, on Feb 28, 2012.
http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Sri-Lanka-c758, while defending a gigantic total of 320, faltered in front of the Indian batters, who took full advantage of the flat pitch, along with the lacklustre bowling of their opponents, clinching a miraculous win inside 37 overs.
The 34-year old Lankan captain, however, defended the weaknesses they displayed on the field, while justifying his stance on delaying the power play till the 28th over.
"That [delaying the Power play] was a decision because I wanted to bowl my spinner but they (Indians) were going at nine an over, and I couldn't just take the Power play then," said Jayawardene.
The decision proved expensive as http://www.senore.com/Cricket/SK-Raina-c2539 collected a healthy 49. The Lankan skipper admitted that his choices just couldn’t work today.
"I was going to delay it [Power Play] just for few overs, just to settle things down, slow it down a bit more, but it didn't work today.,” said veteran.
The surprise was the performance of spearhead pacer http://www.senore.com/Cricket/SL-Malinga-c2540. The pacer took an unlikely beating in his 7.4 overs, which yielded a whopping 96.
Used in short bursts, his first three-over spell went for 28 runs before he came on for another over, where he took the prized wicket of http://www.senore.com/Cricket/SR-Tendulkar-c2556, despite giving 15 runs. However, his last spell was decisively expensive
as he conceded a massive 53.
The captain felt that bowling Malinga in the later overs was justified (regardless of his poor display in the early spells) as the pacer has the experience and potential to effectively bowl with the old ball.
"In 40 overs, I had six of him (Malinga’s) left. Once the ball gets a little older, that's when he gets more effective. I could have used Malinga up front and finished him off and I didn't have bowlers,” said Jayawardene.
The Lankans will now have to win their next match against http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Australia-c746 in order to qualify for the finals as the currently fall behind the Indians on the points table.
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