Jayawardene: Windies played into our hands
Sri Lanka captain Mahela Jayawardene said that the West Indian strategy of being positive rather than being defensive played right into his team’s game plan in the First Digicel Test match at the Guyana National Stadium.“We wanted them to play a few shots on this wicket because that’s how we could have created opportunities. That’s why we gave them a target (437) they could have achieved rather than giving them 500 when they would have been in a very defensive frame of mind. We gave them a target thinking this is a target they could chase especially since they have shotmakers,” Jayawaredene said at the post game press conference after he led his team to their historic first Test victory in the Caribbean.
“The way they (Dwayne Bravo and Ramnaresh Sarwan) batted yesterday(end of the fourth day) was good, they took some chances and it paid off for them, that’s the way they bat,” the 30 year old Jayawardene said.“We had a challenge when we came and that was to win a Test match in the West Indies and we have achieved that. We played hard, a lot of guys contributed. (Vaas’ was an) amazing effort and our quicks (fast bowlers) took 13 wickets in the Test match so a lot of credit (must go) to them. Murali (Muttiah Muralitharan) bowled his heart out. Overall it was a very good team effort,” declared Jayawardene whose Sri Lanka team beat the West Indies by 121 runs with a mere 16 minutes left on the final day.
The right handed batsman who scored a century in the Sri Lankan first innings said that when top scorer Dwayne Bravo (83) and vice captain Ramnaresh Sarwan (72) were at the wicket he knew patience was the key.
“Yesterday (last hour of fourth day) their attitude was totally different in the way they approached it and we knew that we were up against a good challenge, Bravo and Ronnie (Sarwan) both batted really well and we had to be very patient with those two guys, make sure that we don’t give them too many easy runs, wait for our opportunity which we did and once we got that breakthrough, we picked up a few more wickets, then we know we could put pressure on the (other batsmen),” Jayawardene explained.
“If they (Bravo and Sarwan) had batted til about tea time it would have been a different story, we would have struggled, we managed to get Bravo before lunch and then Ronnie before tea which were two crucial wickets and in between we got Shiv (Chanderpaul) which was an important wicket for us,” Jayawardene said.
“Even though Chris was at one end we knew we could put pressure on the other batsmen and see what would happen and our guys bowled really well to pick up those wickets. At the end, in the last hour it could have been anyone’s game in the sense that they could have saved the game or we could have gotten the win so once we got into that situation we knew we had to give everything we got and see whether we could win because for four and a half days we put in a lot of effort to see if we could create this opportunity and we could not let it go just like that,” Jayawardene explained.
The Sri Lankan captain said the team’s plan was to allow themselves a minimum of 110 overs to get all 10 West Indian wickets in the second innings in order to secure the victory.
“For us it was important that we had anything over 110 overs to bowl at them, that was our target and anything over 400 (runs), that was something that we were going to set them. We got 436 which was more than we wanted and we still had more than 110 overs,” Jayawardene explained of his second innings declaration at 240 for 7.
And Jayawardene admitted that the positive manner in which Bravo and Sarwan batted in the last hour of the fourth day put his team under some amount of pressure but that he was happy with the way his teammates recovered on the fifth day.
“We were under pressure last night but we came back strong this morning and once we picked up those wickets we knew that we could put pressure on them,” Jayawardene said.
And asked if he will encourage his team to relax and play for a draw in order to secure a 1-0 series victory in the two match Digicel Test Series, Jayawardene said it is not their style.
“It’s important that we go for a win in the second match as well, that’s the way we play cricket, we want to win every Test match we play. That’s the attitude whether it is home or away. That has served us very well in the last five to six years, that’s why we’ve been winning Test matches away from home and we won’t go away from that attitude,” Jayawardene warned.
The Second Digicel Test begins April 3rd at the Queen’s Park Oval in Trinidad and Tobago.