Sri Lanka’s coach Marvan Atapattu has spoken of the importance of absorbing pressure during knockout stage of the ICC Cricket World Cup. Sri Lanka, who finished third in Group ‘A’ will meet South Africa, who emerged second in Group ‘B’, in the first quarter-final of the tournament at the Sydney Cricket Ground on Wednesday.
“We would like to take this game as a fresh game for us. We’d like to start from scratch and build up confidence as the game progresses, in whatever we do –bat or bowl— first. More importantly, we’ve got to be able to absorb pressure, be calm and go about doing our roles to the best that we can,” Atapattu told journalists after Sri Lanka finished a training session at SCG yesterday.
SCG was the venue for Sri Lanka’s Group ‘A’ clash against Australia in front of a packed stadium of 40,000 fans. A big turnout is expected for the quarter-finals with Sri Lankans living in other Australian cities like Melbourne, Perth, Adelaide and Brisbane expected to turn up.
Atapattu felt that his team’s experience will be crucial in the crunch game as Sri Lanka look to book a place in the last four. Sri Lanka have reached at least the semi-finals in the last three World Cups, since their disastrous campaign in 1999 where the defending champions made an early first-round exit.
“We’ve got a lot of experience. If you count the number of matches that all of us have had within the 15, it’s more than any other team in the competition. So for them having been so long in the system, and played so many World Cups and knockout games, they know how to cope with pressure, and they know exactly how to prepare for that.”
Sri Lanka have handled the return of Lasith Malinga from injury carefully. Malinga struggled in his initial few games, but was the best Sri Lankan bowler during the epic clash against Australia where all bowlers were carted around the park as the hosts posted a mammoth 376. He bowled intelligently foxing the dangerous David Warner with a slower delivery earlier on and then returned when Angelo Mathews was desperate for a wicket and removed Michael Clarke with a yorker.
“He feels confident, which is the most important thing. You may not see the same speed that he got two or three years back, but that’s something that everybody, including the greats, have had to face. Lasith is somebody who, come the big game, can rise up to that. He’s somebody that is looking forward to having a good performance. He’s a match winner, and I’m sure he’ll live up to that,” Atapattu said.
