One of the most anticipated events by both the players and fans has come and gone. It was a great experience and one that I will long-cherish though the end result was bitterly disappointing to say the least. Getting in to the final was undoubtedly very creditable but losing our second successive World Cup final was a hard pill to swallow.
Mahela Jayawardene (R) with his wife Christine (2R) and Tillakaratne Dilshan (L) with wife Manjula (2L) arrive at a tea party hosted at the Presidential residence. |
At the end of the day, while we did well to reach 274 from what looked like a 240-250 total midway through our innings, I still felt it was still considerably short of what would have constituted a winning total against the Indian’s. Another 20 to 30 runs, which would have been possible were it not for the unfortunate dismissals of Dilshan and Sanga, would have made life far tougher for India.
The reality is that to have beaten India at the Wankhede Stadium that day we needed to play the game of our lives. That meant a great start to our innings, a great middle section and a great finish. In other words a near-perfect team innings. Our start to the innings perhaps was too tentative, which of course was not helped by the brilliant Indian fielding, while the middle overs saw us lose some ground after Sanga got out.
We managed a great finish thanks to the brilliant contributions from Nuwan Kulasekera and Thisara Perera, who both batted brilliantly having been given greater responsibility after the cruel loss of Angelo, but collectively it was insufficient a total given the quality of India’s batting despite two early wickets that gave us all hope of pulling off victory.
 Disappointing as it was, credit has to be given where it’s due and the fact is that Gautam Gambhir and MS Dhoni both played beautiful knocks. They also showed great temperaments and mental resilience in the face of immense pressure and weight of expectation.
Gambhir, helped by Virat Kohli, remained positive from the start despite the loss of Sehwag and Tendulkar and just kept putting the bad balls away. Unfortunately there were too many bad balls and our fielding was well below our normal high standards. In the past 18 months our bowlers and fielders have won us countless games and we backed them to defend a 275-run target, but this they were not able to control and contain. Runs leaked far too easily and between the 7th and 20th overs we lost control of the game.While a loss understandably leads to post-mortems by fans, the media and the team management, some of the conspiracy theories being bandied about are extremely far-fetched and wide off the mark. There was no big selection fight over the team for the final – in fact the team management had an excellent rapport with the selectors in the past four months – and there was no issue of political interference. We lost the final because we did not play as well as India. It’s that simple.
As for the debate over team selection, I can understand people’s concern about four changes for a final. However, what people need to appreciate is both the considerable difference in conditions between R. Premadasa and Wankhede, which was always going to have more bounce, as well as the considerable disruption caused by Angelo’s leg injury.
We always wanted to play five bowlers against India and had Angelo been fit the selection would have been far easier with Dilhara Fernando very likely to play with Nuwan and Lasith as the other fast bowlers. Then we could have had either Ajantha or Rangana to partner Murali. When Angelo was injured we needed to change things more to get the right balance in the team, which meant Kapu, Randiv and Thisara coming into the team.
The selection of Randiv ahead of Ajantha and Rangana, meanwhile, which I know has been queried by some, was driven by the simple fact that we know India’s batsmen find Randiv difficult to face and he has an excellent record against them. He had been training with the squad for most of the World Cup and we all knew how unlucky he was to miss being in the final 15. Bringing in him for the final game was a gamble designed to make life tougher for India’s batsmen and I actually thought he bowled really well, second only to Lasith on the day. If that catch had been taken in his first over then the result might also have been very different, although not necessarily if our bowling had also not improved.The end of a World Cup is always a good time to prepare for the future. In this respect, I fully support the decision of Sanga to step down giving the new selectors and cricket board an opportunity to make a fresh start. He told me several weeks before the World Cup started and he was as adamant then as he is now that this is the best time for a new captain to grow into the job so he is ready for the 2015 World Cup. The new captain will have a new coach, new selectors and both Sanga and I to help him if required.
When I myself retired from the captaincy, I always knew that Kumar would do a fine job and he certainly has delivered. My own resignation was merely a confirmation of what had earlier been agreed, which was that I would serve as vice-captain up until the end of the World Cup. I was always just an interim vice-captain helping out until the end of the tournament.
I think it is an exciting time for Sri Lanka cricket with so many youngsters putting their hands up and the likes of Kumar and I can look forward to concentrating on our batting in the last phase of our careers while of course offering our experience and guidance when and if required to the new captain.
The World Cup Final was also the final curtain for our great champion Murali and it is hard to contemplate life without him on the field and in the dressing room. Life goes on and indeed we must move on but sometimes this is easier said than done. The loss of Murali exemplifies this more than ever. |
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