Jayasuriya meets his Waterloo?

Under-fire batsman Sanath Jayasuriya will find out today whether he made the mistake of not throwing in the towel or had his right to live on borrowed time as Sri Lanka will most probably give him one last shot in the opening match of the Tri-Nations series at the Premadasa stadium in Colombo.


The veteran of 435 matches, 13,000 runs, 28 tons and 67 half centuries has not delivered a kill since he made a devastating 125 against India at the Asia Cup final in Karachi in June 2008 and now finds himself having to choose between settling a score with his critics or committing career-suicide.


None could be more worried about his presence in the team than his team-mates.


“We are looking forward to playing Sanath (Jayasuriya) as an opener. He is looking forward to it himself and we know he’s someone who can play and come back roaring”, said Sri Lanka skipper Kumar Sangakkara.




Jayasuriya goes into today’s contest with nothing or very little for the New Zealanders to fear and his present mess has given the tourists something to cheer.


“We like to keep him (Jayasuriya) out of form. We know he is a class player who can always strike back”, said New Zealand skipper Daniel Vettori.


But Jayasuriya apart, both Sri Lanka and New Zealand contend that what happened in the two Twenty-20 games will count for little in the 50-over game.


“If we try to dwell in the past and forget what’s going to happen tomorrow, then we are going the wrong way.  We have to look forward and one-day cricket gives us more overs and a lot of time”, said Sangakkara.


New Zealand after their new found edge over Sri Lanka with victories in the two Twenty-20 games admit they will have to play better cricket to beat their hosts.


“Fifty over cricket is different and we got a lot to do. No doubt we’ll take the good things that we had in the Twenty-20”, said Vettori.


India is the third team in the fray and the contestants will play for a digital trophy, the first of its kind in the world which can record the proceedings like a computer.


Source : Daily Mirror