Jayasuriya promises tough fight in final two games
Charlie Austin - 1 December 2002
Sri Lanka skipper Sanath Jayasuriya promised South Africa a tough fight
after in the final two games of this five-match series after his side's
first victory of the tour on Sunday.
Sri Lanka coasted to a seven-wicket win with 8.2 overs to spare after opener
Marvan Atapattu scored an unbeaten 123 off 121 balls.
"The batsmen are starting to come right and we can give them a good fight in
the next two games," said a relieved Jayasuriya.
Nevertheless, he admitted there was plenty of room for improvement.
"We have to improve our fielding which was poor today in stages and still
have to show more discipline in the bowling department," he said.
South African captain Shaun Pollock said his side deserved to lose.
"We were average in all departments today – batting, bowling and fielding,"
he said.
"If you play like that at the top level you expect to lose."
He vowed to come back hard against the Sri Lankans in the next game at
Kimberly on Wednesday.
"We don't enjoy losing and have got to get our standards back to where they
were in the opening two games," said Pollock.
Lance Klusener, who scored an unbeaten 60, his first fifty in 11 innings,
admitted that he still had some way to go to cement a place in the side for
the World Cup.
"It was good to spend some time in the middle, but I still have a long way
to get back to where I was," said Klusener.
"It is frustrating when you can't perform like you want to but perhaps the
wheel is starting to turn."
© CricInfo
