http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Australia-c746 – Cricket News Update
Mahela Jayawardene, the Sri Lankan skipper, is not satisfied with his side’s performance in the recently-concluded Test series against Australia and admitted that the Islanders did not put up enough fight.
Having won the third Test of the three-match series at Sydney, the Kangaroos whitewashed http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Sri-Lanka-c758 3-0 and looked a far superior unit in every department of the game.
The seasoned cricketer feels that the visitors did compete in the first and the third match but they failed to live up to the expectations in the second fixture at Melbourne, where the hosts won a mammoth margin of an innings and 201 runs.
At Sydney, where the conditions were conducive for spin bowling, the Lankan skipper thinks that his team had a chance of dismantling the Baggy Greens but they failed to grab the opportunities.
“I think Hobart was a good fight, tough conditions, I thought we hung in pretty well there. Melbourne, we never showed any fight in that test match which was pretty disappointing,” said Jayawardene. “Here, I think we fought really well, but it wasn't good
enough. The Australians played some really good cricket, they did give us a few chances but we weren't good enough to take control and push forward.”
The Sydney Test was Jayawardene’s last as the captain of the Lankan side as the great middle-order batsman has resigned from the post.
Since the retirement of http://www.senore.com/Cricket/M-Muralitharan-c1864, one of the greatest spin bowlers of all times, Sri Lanka have just managed one series victory, that too by a narrow margin of 1-0 at home in 2012.
The cricketer from Colombo admits that his team were not quite up to the mark against Australia and they must raise their game in order to compete against the top teams of the cricketing world.
“When you are competing at this level, I think we need to be much better prepared and show more character to win test matches in these conditions,” he added.
The five-match One Day International series between the two sides begins from January 11, 2013, at Melbourne, which will be followed by a couple of T20s.
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