da 888casino： Marvan Atapattu’s seventh Test 100 put Sri Lanka firmly in charge atthe end of the second day of the decisive final Test in Colombo andthe Sri Lanka vice-captain was delighted to finally get a big scoreafter eight innings without a fifty
Rex Clementine30-Aug-2001Marvan Atapattu’s seventh Test 100 put Sri Lanka firmly in charge atthe end of the second day of the decisive final Test in Colombo andthe Sri Lanka vice-captain was delighted to finally get a big scoreafter eight innings without a fifty.”It was matter of spending some time in the middle,” he said. “I havebeen getting starts and getting out, but I didn’t worry about it toomuch since I have been hitting the middle of the bat during thattime. I knew that a big score was due and I just kept going.”This was his seventh Test century, four of which he has converted intodouble tons: “After passing the hundred I was not thinking of a doublehundred or anything. I just kept on batting. My main target was tostay in the middle till the end of the day and I was a bitunfortunate to get out.”He was indeed unfortunate to be given out by umpire David Orchard:”It’s part of the game. I always take it that way. There areinstances where you are out but the umpire doesn’t rule you out.”Speaking of the batting track on which the runs came freely for SriLanka,Atapattu said, “Superb batting track. Hopefully things willget a bit difficult by tomorrow and we can put pressure on theIndians. But so far this has been a good batting wicket.”Harbhajan Singh whom everyone thought would create much trouble forthe Sri Lankans has not been a real threat so far. “He’s a superbbowler. He has his good days and his off-days, so probably this wasone of those off-days. But to be fair to him he didn’t have the idealconditions. Also full credit to our batsmen. We played him well.”Atapattu also felt the Indian bowlers didn’t put much pressure on theSri Lankan batsmen, “There wasn’t the discipline in their bowlingwhich we saw in Kandy. They gave away too many runs and didn’t keepthings tight and as a result we have scored about 310 runs today.”Though Sri Lanka are in the driver’s seat at the end of the secondday, Atapattu believes that: “There is still alot of cricket to beplayed in this game. If we can get 100 – 150 runs more, we’ll be ableto put the opposition under pressure.”