Sangakkara elated over series victory

An elated Sri Lanka captain Kumar Sangakkara described his team’s sensational seven-wicket victory over Pakistan in the second Test as ‘a great achievement’.
“From where we were yesterday and at lunch today to be here with a match won, I think it’s a great achievement. We should be mindful of the fact that we should have batted them out of the game in the first innings and never put ourselves in a position to have turned the match miraculously,” said Sangakkara.
“We’ve always known that about Pakistan. It’s just the case of how long we can continuously exert pressure on them. The key is not to give them too many runs but hold them in as much as possible until that one crack appears and then try and dominate. We were a bit loose yesterday in a couple of sessions giving away too many singles and boundaries. Today after a few discussions last evening we managed to get the field a bit better for the day that helped the bowlers as well,” he said.
Sangakkara revealed that on Monday evening when he went home he had a chat with his father trying to find a way how his team could achieve a breakthrough. “Pakistan was in such a strong position where they could have gone on to dominate. But a false stroke let us into the middle order with two bowlers doing a fantastic job. Today it was a case where everything went our way. It would have been nice to win a Test match which sees absorbing cricket.”
It was the second new ball taken straight after lunch that did the trick for Sri Lanka. At that stage Pakistan had lost their captain Younis Khan for 82 and had gone to lunch strongly placed at 294-2 with Fawad Alam going strong at 164. However the entire complexion of the game changed when Sangakkara decided to throw the new ball to Rangana Herath. The left-arm spinner obliged his captain by dismissing Mohammad Yousuf with his second ball and from there onwards it was a downward slide for Pakistan.
“We expected the spinners to get some bite off the new ball. If it lands on the shiny side it would slip through and hopefully hit the pads. We walked onto the ground thinking maybe having the two fast bowlers from both ends but I tossed the ball to Rangana who came up with a wicket in his first over Mohammad Yousuf again. No matter who bowled we needed someone to stand up and do something special for us. Luckily we had two people today (Nuwan) Kulasekara and Herath who bowled marvelously in partnership,” said Sangakkara.
“Rangana’s had a lot of success against Pakistan in Pakistan. It just goes to show it doesn’t matter whether you are a freak or an unorthodox bowler if you are patient and you bowl a good line and length and trust yourself to do well, you can do wonders and win matches. Rangana not only bowled a very good line and length but a lot of revolutions on the ball and put the ball in the right place.
“The amount of cricket that Rangana has played at home and abroad he’s matured very well. He knows what his bowling is about. I remember when I was playing my first years of Test cricket it took me a while to understand how I played and what my game was. Once you understand that things become a bit easier and you can do a lot more of what you have. Rangana’s really learnt those lessons well. The other thing is he is just hungry. He wants to come in and play in any Test match. He’s been in the wings and unfortunately fighting against two of the best spinners in the world, one of them the best ever. It’s unfair in one way,” Sangakkara said.
Praising the bowling of joint man of the match Kulasekara, Sangakkara said: “Nuwan is a bowler whose strength is accuracy and movement. (Chaminda) Vaas is very much the same. Nuwan has worked his butt off the last year and a half and he’s got to no. 1 in the world in ODIs so he can’t be a bad bowler if that’s the case. We picked him looking at the Galle wicket and you can’t do anything more than that to impress and press for selection. Again he was wonderful. It’s tough for everyone sitting out especially guys like Vaas who’s played years and years and done wonders. The three guys who were picked in the two Tests really deserve their places and they’ve done a lot of good work.”
Sangakkara admitted that the two wins which his team has achieved and given them a historic maiden series win at home against Pakistan have been carved out by the bowlers. “They should take credit for it. But again whatever total they have to bowl and defend is due to the batsmen. Everyone chipped and did their part in the chase to day.”
It has been a wonderful start for Sangakkara as Test captain taking over from his predecessor Mahela Jayawardene to win a Test series on his first attempt, but he was wary of the obstacles that lie ahead of him.
“When you are winning you’ve got to be very careful of the fact that you got to enjoy the good times but also make sure that you are prepared and the team is prepared that when a bad time comes it doesn’t last long and we can bounce straight out of those. It’s going to get a lot tougher as the years go by but I think we have the depth and the ability to meet all those challenges. You’ve got to keep fresh and working hard and the amount of work we do on the field and off it will be the key to our focus over the next few months,” Sangakkara said. - [ST]