Mahela Jayawardene willing to trade century with ICC 2011 World Cup win
Sri Lankan vice-captain, Mahela Jayawardene, has stated that his century in the World Cup final is of little consolation to him after the Lankans failed to defend their score of 274 and went down by 6 wickets to http://www.senore.com/Cricket/India-c750.
Jayawardene struck a sublime century, which was one of the finest seen in a World Cup final, yet as luck would have it he would go down as the first centurion in a losing cause on cricket’s pinnacle stage.
The elegant right-hander had done his best to take his team to a very strong position in the final of the tournament. Yet the Lankans caved in against the determined batting effort of the Indian team led by their icy cool captain,
http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Gautam-Gambhir-c58623.
He stated that he was willing to go all out and do his best in the years to come for his country, despite scoring one of the finest tons in the tournament. Jayawardene is happy to trade his century with a winner’s medal, something
that has eluded him in two successive 50 over finals besides the T20 final against http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Pakistan-c755 two years ago.
"I would swap that century any day for a championship medal," Jayawardene told the
International Cricket Council (ICC), adding that India's batting line-up proved too strong to defend 274 against.
"We fought well but it wasn't enough. We had to take wickets to control this Indian batting line-up. We got a couple of early wickets but we couldn't get anything going after that. "We didn't have the penetration that we normally do,
and they batted very well".
Jayawardene's unbeaten innings of 103 was a flawless one, the right hander struck boundaries at will on his way to a ton off only 88 balls.
At the half way stage the Lankans had the confidence and belief that they would defend the score and win the tournament for the second time in their history.
The innings typified the way the elegant right hander has played all his life. The pundits of the game were awestruck with the ease with which he manoeuvred the ball and made life tough for the Indian bowlers, who had little or no
answer to his flawless timing and placement.
He felt that his team had enough runs on the board especially after two handy partnerships with Nuwan Kulasekara and Thisara Perera, who both struck big sixes off Zaheer Khan at the death of the innings.
"When I went in it felt really good, got a couple of loose balls and I struck a few boundaries. That gave me the rhythm and momentum. When Kumar got out I knew I had to bat the 50 overs. With the Powerplays you know you can catch up.
I'm quite happy with the effort but unfortunately we ended up on the losing side".
At the end of it all the loss hurt him considerably, he was the captain when the team lost the 2007 final to the Australians at Barbados and now would have to wait for 4 years to have any chance of winning the big prize in conditions
that are alien to the Sri Lankan style of play.
It remains to be seen if the stalwart can last four more years and play a role in the 2015 World Cup set to be played in http://www.senore.com/Cricket/New-Zealand-c754, whether he makes it or not, his name is certain to become part of Sri Lankan folklore.
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