Jayawardene pleased to see Kumar Sangakkara back in form – Cricket News Update
Sri Lankan skipper http://www.senore.com/Cricket/KC-Sangakkara-c1779’s return to form, saying that he always had faith in the wicketkeeper batsman.
Sangakkara, the 34-year-old left-handed batsman from Matale, has been struggling for runs off late. The left-hander had only 54 runs in his bag from four innings before going into Saturday’s fourth ODI, where he played a painstaking
97-run knock to take Sri Lanka to a respectable total of 243 for 8, before the Thisara Perera-led pace attack bundled the tourists out for just 199 with five overs to spare, handing the hosts a 44-run win.
"I am not too worried about Kumar's performances because I know that when he struggles for a couple of games he is much hungrier for big runs,” Jayawardene told media reporters at the post-match press conference on Saturday.
After opting to bat first, the Islanders got off to a slow start. Sangakkara, the former Sri Lankan skipper, who stepped down after the World Cup last year, picked up the scoring rate in the batting powerplay with incumbent Mahela
Jayawardene (40) at the other end. The duo stabilized http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Sri-Lanka-c758’s batting with a 110-run stand for the fourth-wicket partnership.
“Once Kumar and myself got together I just told him, 'let's try and take the bowlers on' because we had to push the run-rate. Once we got that momentum both of us batted really well," said the right-handed top-order batsman, who has
dropped himself to number five on the batting order to allow http://www.senore.com/Cricket/WU-Tharanga-c2802 to open with Dilshan.
"It's about understanding each other's game. It was important that in the first 20-30 overs we didn't lose too many wickets. It was a very good team effort a lot of guys took responsibility in different situations and performed well,"
he added further.
Sangakkara missed his well deserved century by just three runs and Jayawardene blamed the slow R Premadasa track for that.
The hosts now have a 2-1 lead in the five-match One Day International series, with the last ODI getting underway at the same Colombo ground on Monday, June 18.
The ODI series will be followed by three Tests, commencing at Galle from June 22.
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