Story ProgressBack to home
Warnapura plays down maiden Test hundred
Malinda Warnapura feels he has a long way to go before anyone can put his name in the same bracket with Sanath Jayasuriya.
- Agence France-Presse
- Updated: March 23, 2008 08:58 AM IST
Read Time:3 min
Providence:
The left-hander was speaking after he collected his maiden Test hundred against West Indies on the opening day of the opening Test at the Guyana National Stadium.
Warnapura made 120 playing in his third Test to lead Sri Lanka to 269 for four in their first innings when stumps were drawn, after they chose to bat in ideal conditions.
The retirements of Jayasuriya and Marvan Atapattu have left vacant spots at the top of the Sri Lanka batting line-up, and Warnapura is the latest choice of the national selection committee to try and fill the void.
"I don't feel any pressure from the expectations that I can replace Sanath Jayasuriya," Warnapura told reporters after the day's play.
"I am not Sanath Jayasuriya. I am only a player who has been given an opportunity, and I will have to take the chance and prove that I am good enough to play for Sri Lanka."
The 28-year-old Warnapura believes that the Sri Lankans' good fortune of having to play their only warm-up match prior to the Test at the National Stadium worked in his favour.
Warnupura entered the match in a rich vein of form with the benefit of retiring-out in both innings of the match against a West Indies Select XI for scores of 132 and 50.
"I think it helped us a lot to adjust to the conditions," he said. "It was much easier batting against the new ball on this pitch, since it was coming on to the bat nicely.
"But once the ball got old, the pitch became a lot slower, and it was much more difficult to play your strokes.
"It was the same thing when we played the three-day game, so I knew it was going to be slow, and I just had to be patient."
Warnapura, a nephew of former Sri Lanka batsman Bandura Warnapura, felt his knock was vital since it gave his side a strong start to the series.
"It was the responsibility of each one of us to bat through the innings whichever one of us got to 60 or 70, and I think I did well to achieve this goal," he said.
"We had a game plan to not lose more than two wickets a session, and I think we did well, since we batted through the first session without losing a wicket, and we only lost one wicket in the second session which was good.
"Unfortunately, we lost three wickets in the last session, and I think that was the only thing that went wrong. But we are looking alright at the end of the day."
Sri Lanka are aiming to win their first Test match in the Caribbean having lost two and drawn two of their previous four.
Malinda Warnapura feels he has a long way to go before anyone can put his name in the same bracket with Sanath Jayasuriya. The left-hander was speaking after he collected his maiden Test hundred against West Indies on the opening day of the opening Test at the Guyana National Stadium.
Warnapura made 120 playing in his third Test to lead Sri Lanka to 269 for four in their first innings when stumps were drawn, after they chose to bat in ideal conditions.
The retirements of Jayasuriya and Marvan Atapattu have left vacant spots at the top of the Sri Lanka batting line-up, and Warnapura is the latest choice of the national selection committee to try and fill the void.
"I don't feel any pressure from the expectations that I can replace Sanath Jayasuriya," Warnapura told reporters after the day's play.
"I am not Sanath Jayasuriya. I am only a player who has been given an opportunity, and I will have to take the chance and prove that I am good enough to play for Sri Lanka."
The 28-year-old Warnapura believes that the Sri Lankans' good fortune of having to play their only warm-up match prior to the Test at the National Stadium worked in his favour.
Warnupura entered the match in a rich vein of form with the benefit of retiring-out in both innings of the match against a West Indies Select XI for scores of 132 and 50.
"I think it helped us a lot to adjust to the conditions," he said. "It was much easier batting against the new ball on this pitch, since it was coming on to the bat nicely.
"But once the ball got old, the pitch became a lot slower, and it was much more difficult to play your strokes.
"It was the same thing when we played the three-day game, so I knew it was going to be slow, and I just had to be patient."
Warnapura, a nephew of former Sri Lanka batsman Bandura Warnapura, felt his knock was vital since it gave his side a strong start to the series.
"It was the responsibility of each one of us to bat through the innings whichever one of us got to 60 or 70, and I think I did well to achieve this goal," he said.
"We had a game plan to not lose more than two wickets a session, and I think we did well, since we batted through the first session without losing a wicket, and we only lost one wicket in the second session which was good.
"Unfortunately, we lost three wickets in the last session, and I think that was the only thing that went wrong. But we are looking alright at the end of the day."
Sri Lanka are aiming to win their first Test match in the Caribbean having lost two and drawn two of their previous four.
Topics mentioned in this article
Cricket Sreesanth
Get the Latest IPL 2024 Updates, check out IPL 2024 schedules and IPL points table at NDTV Sports.Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter for more sports updates. You can also download the NDTV Cricket app for Android or iOS.