da prosport bet： Veteran middle order batsman Aravinda de Silva, the longest servinginternational cricketer on the circuit today, has applauded his youngerteammates for their abrasive, never-say-die approach in the final Testagainst South Africa
Charlie Austin26-Nov-2002Veteran middle order batsman Aravinda de Silva, the longest servinginternational cricketer on the circuit today, has applauded his youngerteammates for their abrasive, never-say-die approach in the final Testagainst South Africa.Sri Lanka nearly pulled off a dramatic victory on the last nerve-tanglingday at Centurion as South Africa lost seven wickets chasing a moderate 121for victory.© CricInfoDe Silva, who watched the match from Colombo having retired from Testcricket in October, was impressed by attitude shown by the likes of KumarSangakkara, Mahela Jayawardene and Russel Arnold, who took the game to theSouth Africans.The heated verbal exchanges between Jacques Kallis, Shaun Pollock and theSri Lankan fielders raised eyebrows amongst those used to watching Asiansides succumb meekly overseas.De Silva, a vastly experience batsman who will be playing his 289th game onWednesday, has seen first-hand Sri Lanka’s steady rise from internationalminnows in the 1980’s to the competitive force they are today.”We have a new bunch of players that play the game differently to what weare used to,” said De Silva after joining the team in Johannesburg for fiveOne-Day Internationals.”They are not scared to give as good as they get. They are not overaggressive but, compared to other sides of the past, they are not preparedto sit back and take it without giving something back.”Although skipper Marvan Atapattu admitted afterwards that there had been “alittle too much” verbals for his liking, De Silva has no qualms aboutsledging as long as they players are mature and that the banter stays on thefield.© CricInfo”It is a good thing as long as it is left on the field and the players geton well with each other afterwards. It is not something that we really didin the past. But it’s become part of cricket now and it possibly makes thegame more interesting.”De Silva felt that Sri Lank could have won that Test if the batsmen had beenable to muster together a handful more runs.”We played really well in that game and with another 50 runs on the board wewould have won. We fought back really well and thanks to players like HashanTillakaratne, we were in the game right up into the last day.”He hopes that the Sri Lankans can carry some of that fighting spirit intothe forthcoming one-day series. If they can then he believes that Sri Lankawill upset the Proteas on home soil.”If we play as well as we can then we can win here,” he said. “We lacked abowler in Potchestroom and the rain breaks did not make it easy for us. Idon’t think too much should be read into that game. The eventual target wasvery difficult.”De Silva is now looking forward to a final swansong. He has alreadyannounced his retirement after the World Cup and will no doubt be looking tofinish on a high.”The world cup is what has kept me going, without that I might have retired.But I am feeling in good nick at the moment and I enjoyed the game atPotchestroom even though we lost.”