Jayasuriya stays modest after his feat

Sri Lanka's champion allrounder Sanath Jayasuriya said that whoever tries to emulate his feat of scoring 12,000 runs and 300 wickets in ODIs will have to work really hard for it and also have luck on his side.

"It's tough to get 300 wickets and score over 12,000 runs. Its hard work and a lot of sacrifice in your career. It's not easy. Somebody who wants achieve that feat will have to work really hard and be lucky," Jayasuriya said after taking four wickets for 31 runs as well as the Man-of-the-Match award in the second one-day international against Bangladesh.

Jayasuriya who started the match with 296 wickets from 396 matches said: "I never thought of getting the four wickets today. But I am extremely happy with my achievement."

His great moment came when he snapped up the final Bangladesh wicket by having last man Syed Rasel caught by Jehan Mubarak at mid-off. "I am not a big wicket-taking bowler. When I bowl I am not looking at taking wickets but I try to bowl my ten overs for less runs and try to keep it as tight as possible. I just want to do the basic things for the team. If I am lucky I will get wickets," the 38-year-old allrounder said.

"Some of my best bowling had been in the 1996 World Cup against England and against India in the semi-finals. I also took crucial wickets in the 2007 World Cup. Sometimes if you fail to score runs but can contribute with the ball it is good for the team and it also gives me a lot of confidence.

"I went through a rather lean patch in my bowling and when I was in India the last time I got some help from Bruce Yardley [the former Australian offspinner and former Sri Lanka coach]. That worked really well for me."

Sri Lanka captain Mahela Jayawardene recognising Jayasuriya's achievement said: "It's a great achievement when you look back and see that no one has done it. Sanath has done it in a very quite manner. He hasn't taken a lot of credit for the work he has done for Sri Lanka cricket.

"Batting-wise a lot of people have recognised him, not many have recognised his capabilities with the ball. He's made a huge difference to our team over the last 10-12 years with his bowling. That's why we've got a very good balance in our team. We have three guys with over 300 wickets in our line-up. We got another two young guys who are doing well. It's a very good combination to have."

Jayawardene stated that his team made some mistakes in this match which they won by five wickets to take a winning 2-0 lead in the 3-match series.

"We made a few mistakes today. We dropped a few catches and batting wise we lost a few wickets. We need to iron out all those mistakes and be very professional in our game. When we have a target like this the tendency is to finish it off quickly. We were not sure about the weather also. It was drizzling a bit and we didn't want to take it to another day. The wicket was not coming that well in the latter part and it was a bit difficult to play shots. We probably should have been a bit more patient with our approach," Jayawardene said.

Bangladesh coach Shaun Williams expressed disappointment in their batting and said the main problem was that the batsmen were unable to cope with the bounce.

"It was disappointing again we need to find a way to bat better. You need to give credit to their bowlers. They are doing exceptionally well. We are not playing as well as we need to. We are struggling to cope with bounce and the Sri Lankan fast bowlers are really exposing that," Williams said.

"If we are to move forward as a batting side we need to come out with a way to over come it. The only way to do that is when you go back home you need to have pitches prepared in a way that prepares us better to face the bouncing ball. Even in the Test matches the extra bounce was the major problem."

Having lost the Test series 3-0, the Bangladesh team is trying hard to avoid another whitewash in the one-day series.

"We are putting every effort into and making sure we post a score. If we do that we got a good chance. We can be confident we can bowl well. We bowled quite well in the first two matches," Williams said.

The third and final match is scheduled for July 25 at the same venue, the R Premadasa Stadium.