Angelo Mathews happy to have broken ‘barrier of finals’

Monday, 10 March 2014 00:05 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Sri Lanka have not won a major title for a long while and captain Angelo Mathews on Saturday said that his side were happy to have broken the “barrier of finals” by defeating Pakistan in the summit clash to lift the Asia Cup in Mirpur.

Sri Lanka were runners-up in the 2007 and 2011 50-over World Cups as well as in the World Twenty20 in 2009 and 2012. They were also the runners-up in the 2010 edition of the Asia Cup. “We wanted to break the barrier between us and the finals. Big victory not only for me, but for the whole team. Haven’t won a major tournament for a while,” Mathews said after Sri Lanka regained the Asia Cup title which they had last won in 2008. “Credit to the whole team. I thought the toss wasn’t crucial and Lasith (Malinga) set us up wonderfully. It was a very good run-chase,” he added. Asked about leaving out spinner Ajantha Mendis, who had a fine tournament by picking nine wickets from three matches, for today’s final, Mathews said, “Very tough call to leave Mendis out because he performs well whenever we ask him to. “But we wanted an extra death bowling option and Lakmal was brilliant,” he said. Sri Lankan opening batsman Lahiru Thirimanne, who hit 101 today and was adjudged Player of the Series, said, “Actually, I just wanted to play the anchor role today. We knew 260 was gettable but one man has to take up the responsibility and play through the innings. I am happy I did that. “The ball was skidding onto the bat and I used the pace. It’s my first Man of the Series and I’m very happy about it.” Man-of-the-Match for his 5/56 effort, Lasith Malinga said he

stuck to the basics. “Last couple of days we were training hard. It was a big final and I just stuck to the basics. At the end of the day, I am happy that I have helped the team to win the title,” he said. “Just tried to bowl good line and length and it worked for me and the team. The last few games I’ve done well against Pakistan and I’m looking forward to picking more wickets in the future.” (sports.ndtv)

‘Thirimanne batted with a niggle’: Mathews

After missing most of Sri Lanka’s series against Bangladesh with an ankle injury, Lahiru Thirimanne returned to the side ahead of the Asia Cup. After he scored a century in the final to help his team achieve a five-wicket win, Sri Lanka’s captain Angelo Mathews said Thirimanne had batted with a “bit of a niggle” in their last two games. “He [Thirimanne] has been amazing for us,” Mathews said. “He got injured, unfortunately, in the last series but he came back for us. He had a little bit of a niggle still, while he was batting, in the last two games, and he was very courageous to come out and play, the way he did. “[I am] very happy, because you push him up the order, you push him down the order, he’s one of those players who never get a chance at one spot. And wherever he gets the opportunity he scores runs for us. And that’s a team player for me, and he did amazing for us, and he’s a great find for us.” Mathews agreed when asked if Thirimanne was in line to become Kumar Sangakkara’s long-term replacement in the Sri Lanka side. “Yeah, after Sangakkara, Mahela [Jayawardene] retire, Thirimanne, [Dinesh] Chandimal are the ones who are going to take their reins. It is not easy to fill their shoes, but the way they are performing right now, I’m pretty sure they’ll take responsibility in the future.” After his century in the final, Thirimanne’s average in the top three rose to 49.08 in 14 innings. At No. 4 or lower, he averages 22.80 in 33 innings. “We’ve got to see how it goes,” Mathews said, when asked if Thirimanne would retain his role as opener in the near future. “He opened the batting because [Tillakaratne] Dilshan got injured in the Bangladesh series. As I said before, he’s one of those players, you give him the opportunity, wherever you bat him, he will score runs for us. We still haven’t thought about where he’s going to bat, but definitely he’s been a find for us this tournament.” Lasith Malinga was Sri Lanka’s other hero of the day, taking all five wickets that fell during Pakistan’s innings. He was returning to the side after sitting out the match against Bangladesh. “Really happy that he rested against Bangladesh,” Mathews said. “It’s not easy to play consistently, especially for the fast bowlers [who] especially tire out so much. We don’t have a lot of time in between [matches] so it’s always useful to manage the fast bowlers, especially their workloads, and we saved him for the final. He got a five-for in the first game against Pakistan, and also another five-for today, so he’s been performing tremendously for us and he’s been our premier bowler for so many years.” At the toss, Sri Lanka took the unexpected decision of leaving out Ajantha Mendis, who had till then been their highest wicket-taker in the tournament. Mathews said the team had wanted to play an extra fast bowler after looking at the pitch. “All we talked about was, the wicket is very good, and it played very good as well,” Mathews said. “It didn’t spin so much, that’s why we wanted to play the extra seamer, because the wicket wasn’t, it didn’t look slow, initially.” Asked why it was Mendis who sat out, Mathews said it had been a hard call, but the team went with Sachithra Senanayake’s ability to bowl economically in difficult situations. “He’s been performing for us, brilliantly, Mendis, and all the bowlers played their part in the last game as well, so it was a very tough decision,” Mathews said. “Even though Senanayake went wicketless in the last game [against Bangladesh], in his 10 overs he went for 37 runs and he bowled in the first Powerplay and also in the batting Powerplay and also in the last 10 overs, so those are the crucial times you have to stop runs and he’s been doing that for us. “It’s just that one game where he went off track today, can’t really blame, because bowlers tend to have one off day. He has been a star performer for us, even though he hasn’t taken a lot of wickets.”

Misbah bemoans ineffective bowling

Pakistan captain Misbah-ul-Haq has attributed his team’s Asia Cup final defeat to his bowlers’ inability to put pressure on Sri Lanka’s batsmen. Chasing 261, Sri Lanka, led by a century from Lahiru Thirimanne, cruised to a five-wicket win to take their fifth Asia Cup title. Only Saeed Ajmal posed a threat to Sri Lanka, as Pakistan looked to defend a hard-earned total. Ajmal took 3 for 26 in 10 overs, but apart from him and to an extent, Mohammad Hafeez, the rest of the attack - Umar Gul, Junaid Khan, Mohammad Talha and Shahid Afridi - were all ineffective. Misbah had to take Ajmal off after the offspinner had taken two quick wickets in his first spell of four overs. He had given away just ten runs, having delivered two maiden overs as well. The Sri Lankan batsmen opted against attacking Ajmal, prompting Misbah to switch bowlers to try and wrestle a wicket.

“They were just consuming his [Ajmal’s] overs, just blocking him,” Misbah said. “I thought I would take a chance with someone else, to get the wicket. But I think it was a bad day for all the bowlers. They couldn’t really put pressure, and you can’t win matches with just one bowler. You need to bowl well as a unit.” Gul and Talha have now had two poor games back-to-back after bowling ordinarily against Bangladesh. Junaid went for 56 in nine overs, only picking up Ashan Priyanjan’s wicket very late in the game. “We sought early breakthroughs which Saeed Ajmal finally provided us. Bowling too requires partnerships but none of the bowlers could build that sort of pressure on the batsmen. I think it became easy for them, and they won the game. “We didn’t bowl wicket to wicket, and build pressure. Sri Lankan bowlers did that. It was a slow wicket so you had to bowl straighter. Our lengths were quite short too. And we gave a lot of width too, which made it easy for them.” “Thirimanne played really well and Malinga’s first spell was a good one as he swung the ball. He put us under pressure, but we did play some bad shots. “It was our plan not to give Malinga wickets, but we failed to execute that. He again took five wickets and put us under pressure.” Despite losing the first and last game of the tournament, Pakistan will leave with a happy batting line-up after the wins against India and Bangladesh. They successfully chased 245 and 327 respectively, the latter having broken the record for their biggest chase. “The team really played well, especially the batting department. Ahmed Shehzad played well. Fawad Alam played two very good innings. Shahid Afridi finished two games. Hafeez and Umar Akmal are in good touch. These are positives. We chased well in two games. Before the World T20s, we are in good shape and are confident.”