By Srian Obeyesekere

Sri Lanka Head Coach, Sanath Jayasuriya, the new dimension pinch hitting creator during his 1990s-2000 hey-day which magical batting trend he set up with his opening partner Romesh Kaluvitharana which has today teethed world white ball cricket in all its electrification, on the eve of Sri Lanka’s second ODI versus Bangladesh voiced at the pre-match media conference that he had worked hard with the team to bringing it to the fourth spot in the ICC ODI Team Rankings, and he was optimistic that the team led by a highly result focused captain Charith Asalanka who had hit a century vein in recent triumphs, would go the distance to getting among the top three and challenging the top two to reaching the ultimate summit.

“We have been working very hard as to the way to go to rebuilding the team, and coming from behind up to No.4 has been the result of commitment by all concerned from the captain to the players and support staff,” he said.

Jayasuriya who emphasized that there was a long way more to go to reaching the desired goal to the country regaining the pristine glory it once basked in in having scaled world cup heights.

Commenting on Sri Lanka’s dramatic coming from behind triumph over Bangladesh which had looked well set to pull off the opener, Jayasuriya attributed it to two masterclass acts that changed the complexion of the game.
“That brilliant run out by Milan Rathnayake’s bulls eye throw to the wickets and out of this world catch by Janith Liyanage to dismiss the well set Tanzid Hasan, brought back Sri Lanka to pulling it off when Bangladesh was well placed on 100 for 1 wicket.”

As to tomorrow’s final eleven and whether bowling all-rounder Dunith Wellalage who has created a name as a match winner at the R. Premadasa International Cricket Stadium with his magical off spin that started with the outing of India last year, the Sri Lanka Head Coach said, “It will all depend as to how the wicket would behave on inspection on the morning of the match on which lines the final eleven would be decided.

Responding to questions by Bangladesh media men as to what he thinks Bangladesh needs to do to raise its game from the current impasse it is in, Jayasuriya said, “Every country has undergone such a difficult period. Sri Lanka did so and other countries too. I believe that young up and coming Bangladesh players need to be given that much of confidence to perform instead of looking down on their performances.
To discourage them would be not good. What they need is the confidence factor from the management to go out and perform.”

To a question as to what sphere in his career cricket or politics had stood him well, Jayasuriya said, “By far it is cricket, politics I regret it.”
Meanwhile, Bangladesh’s top scorer Tanzid Hasan, who faced the media in the pre-match hype, responding to questions mainly by his country journalists who asked in one voice what went wrong for Bangladesh to lose its way when he and Najmul Hossain Shanto had put their side on the road to victory said that it was very unfortunate that they had stumbled on it.