By Dhammika Ratnaweera
Sri Lanka’s former cricket skipper, who stepped down from captaincy due to enormous pressure following his team’s bad run in 2017 says that he is very much impressed with new found stand-in skipper Suranga Lakmal’s leadership qualities.
“I think Ccptain Suranga Lakmal does his captaincy role really well. Being captain, he did not opt to bowl quickies on this pitch but used the spinners instead and handled the team very well” said Matthews.
It was a team plan to bat until lunch and pose a tough task for the visitors. Mathews said that it was always satisfying to beat a time like South Africa and we are looking forward to do it as soon as possible and take the series 2-nil.
Mathews furher said that the spirit in the team is really high after the victory in the first test and they wanted to continue to the same as long as possible. “It was interesting to see everyone was contributing well towards success ” he added.
Mathews was sidelined due to injury over the recent past and he said he was happy to comeback to the team and play his normal game and to be among runs.
Meanwhile in a post match interview, South African opening batsman Dean Elgar admitted that Sri Lanka is in a very strong position after third days play and once again heading for victory. South Africa still have to get 351 runs to win with half of their wickets fallen and two more days to go.
” We are under pressure once again and our top order batsmen are struggling. The local spinners come up strongly. We had to get over 450 runs. Chasing this type huge target on this type spin wicket is big challenge.” explained Elgar.
However Elgar said the they think during the one days they could bounce back in different conditions. “We have a good side and are looking forward to do well” said Dean Elgar.
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