SL need to win at least two crucial matches to keep SF hopes alive, says Mahela

Ahead of Sri Lanka’s third match of the ongoing ICC Cricket World Cup, Mahela Jayawardena, the consultant coach of the national team says Sri Lanka must win at least two crucial games in the remaining seven to have a realistic chance at a semi-final spot.

Sri Lanka and Australia, who have lost both their league games, will battle it out at the Ekna Cricket Stadium in Lucknow on Monday.

Sri Lanka are currently in seventh position in the points table while Australia have been pushed to the ninth position.

Sri Lanka were blown away by the South African juggernauts in their campaign opener in Delhi before conceding defeat to Pakistan despite being in a position of strength in the match.

Australia, the five-time World Champions, are enduring a hard time in India losing both their games so far against India and South Africa, and convincingly too, leaving them under tremendous pressure moving forward.

“We need to win a couple of crucial games and put ourselves in the frame for a semi-final spot,” Jayawardena, who was part of two 50-over World Cup finals, said at the team hotel in Lucknow.

“It would have been better, if we had at least one win at the beginning of the tournament to get the momentum early. It’s a long tournament. So, we need to think positively. We don't know how the rest of the matches are going to go and we need to control what we can control,” the former captain said.

Having reached Lucknow on Wednesday on a chartered flight from Hyderabad, the players were enjoying a two-day break before they hit the training ground this afternoon to prepare for the crucial game against Australia.

“We always wanted to have a positive start in the World Cup. South Africa was a strong side and they’re playing some really good cricket. The result was disappointing but we were beaten by a better team on that Delhi wicket and on a small ground,” Jayawardena explained.

He is, however, disappointed about how Sri Lanka conceded the second game to Pakistan.

After putting on a sizable 344, they let the match slip through their fingers owing to a lacklustre bowling effort.

“A bit disappointed with the Pakistan game where we were playing positive cricket, which we have asked the guys to play. This is the tempo we need in this World Cup, given the wickets in India and how the tournament was going. They're not used to it, but we have to take that kind of approach, especially with a weakened bowling attack. So that's what we were planning but it was disappointing that we couldn't defend that total,” Jayawardena, who has been Sri Lanka Cricket’s consultant for the last two years, said.

According to him, the depleted attack does not have the skills and techniques required to protect the short boundary.

“At the same time, we need to have much more energy. These are areas we need to improve going forward. We could have easily put pressure on the Pakistani line-up with some discipline. However, when one area of our game gets consistent, the other gets weakened. We knew it was a depleted line-up coming into the tournament when both Wanindu Hasaranga and Dushmantha Chameera were ruled out due to injuries,” he added.

(Champika Fernando in Lucknow)