Arjuna not ready to quit yet (28 May 1999)

28 May 1999

Arjuna not ready to quit yet

Sa'adi Thawfeeq

TAUNTON, Wednesday - Arjuna Ranatunga is not ready to quit yet despite the disgrace his team suffered at the hands of India which brought to an end an era of Sri Lanka's dominance in one-day cricket.

Sri Lanka put on a disgraceful performance in their Group 'A' match here yesterday to lose by a massive margin of 157 runs, a defeat which more or less puts them out of the '99 World Cup.

India amassed the second highest total in one-day internationals - 373 for 6 after Sri Lanka's 398 for 5 against Kenya at Kandy in 1996, with Sourav Ganguly (183) and Rahul Dravid (145) sharing a world record partnership of 318 for the second wicket which helped them pull off a comprehensive victory.

When questioned by the media whether he should quit from the game, the 35-year-old Ranatunga replied: "Why should I go, I don't think I will retire".

"Sri Lanka cricket is not finished. We were a very good side for the last so many years, we can regroup and try and win once again. We may be out from this competition. We can't do anything about it. But there are so many tours coming up and if we work hard we can attain the normal standard," said Ranatunga.

He described the performance of his team as "the worst day in Sri Lanka cricket I have seen" and laid the blame squarely on his bowlers, especially the fast men.

"The performance of the three fast bowlers was pathetic. We bowled really bad at the start and we gave the batsmen a lot of room and width. The ball was moving in the morning, but the fast bowlers were off line and off length. The two batsmen (Sourav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid) capitalised on that and batted really well, hitting the loose balls for four and got quick runs".

Chaminda Vaas, Erik Upashantha and Pramodya Wickremasinghe conceded a total of 229 runs in the 30 over they bowled amongst themselves, while off-spinner Muthiah Muralitharan was punished for 60 runs off his ten overs.

"We bowled very well and fielded brilliantly in the last couple of matches and I though we were shaping up really well, but today was one of the very bad days. We sent India first to capitalise on the moisture in the wicket, but the bowlers let us down very badly," said Ranatunga.

"Practically we maybe out of the tournament, but you can't cry or do anything about it. We will have to accept that we played badly," he said.

Ranatunga said it was a good batting track and a total of between 250 and 300 on it was attainable. "If we had about 100 runs in the first 15 overs we had a chance. Unfortunately, we couldn't get a proper start today. The credit however should go to India. Ganguly and Dravid batted really well," he said.

"Having lost a few matches before coming here things were coming out alright for us. There was a marked improvement in the bowling and fielding, but the funniest part was that batting, which is our strong point, started to fail. We have a good batting line up with experienced players. Unfortunately, in this game the bowling fell apart. That made things difficult for the batsmen especially when they were out of form," said manager Duleep Mendis.

Sri Lanka, who have just one win from four games, complete their group matches when they meet Kenya at Southampton on Sunday. The team will return home immediately afterwards if they fail to qualify for the next round.

Source :: The Daily News (https://www.lanka.net/lakehouse/)