Jayawardene calls for ruthlessness away from home
Kaieteur News
March 28, 2007
Sri Lanka skipper Mahela Jayawardene wants his side, hunting their second World Cup title and first since 1996, to be ruthless in matches away from the sub-continent as they open their Super Eight campaign at Providence today.
“We win pretty well at home and have that ruthless instinct but never seemed to have that kind of edge when we travel. Over the last 15 or 16 months, we have developed that. We've done well on tours in England , New Zealand and Australia.” he said at the Guyana National Stadium at Providence yesterday.
“As a team, we have realised that we have to compete harder and be ruthless. Once you have the opposition down, you have to finish the games. At home, you feel that you could win a match from any situation. If you can do that when playing away from home as well, that's what ruthlessness is, that self-belief.” the skipper noted.
Jayawardene was high in praise for Tom Moody, appointed coach two years ago. “Tom has brought something new to the table for us. He's pushed us from our comfort zones. Mentally, he wanted us to be much tougher as a group, and not just as individuals.”
Jayawardene said South Africa are the number-one ranked team and everyone wants a piece of them.
“We carry points [from the win against Bangladesh ], but we're not taking them into account. Taking early points against South Africa will definitely benefit us, so it's a very big game for us.
They're a good side, but have their weaknesses as well.
So you just have to penetrate them, and see if they are tough enough to handle it.”
Lesser sides like Ireland and Bangladesh have qualified for the Super Eights but Jayawardene feels it is really the top six teams battling for four places. He thinks any team needs to win at least half of their Super-Eight games to advance to the semis.
“That would be a minimum. If we can win more, we can be in a comfort zone,” he added.
“The earlier you get those wins under your belt, the easier for you going forward. You just have to make sure that you make the most of the opportunities you get because things like rain could be a factor. When we came to the World Cup, our objective was to have the right balance in the squad. We knew that different venues would give you different conditions” explained Jayawardene
“ Trinidad gave us a new challenge. The ball was moving around a bit and our quicks came to the fore. We handled the batting part of it pretty well too. It was one of the things we looked at when we picked our squad. You can't say that we're perfect, but we're trying to make sure we have the right balance.”
Jayawardene feels the new pitch at Providence looks a bit different from the Trinidad wicket.
That was obviously bouncier with a bit of grass on it, and did a bit throughout the day. This one does not have that much grass.
It looks pretty flat. But there's been a bit of rain here and much will depend on how firm the wicket is”.