da bwin： Sri Lanka’s wicketkeeper batsman, Kumar Sangakkara who made anunbeaten 105 and helped his side consolidate their position in thefirst Test Match against India at the Galle International Stadium wasdelighted with his maiden hundred today, “It feels
Rex Clementine16-Aug-2001Sri Lanka’s wicketkeeper batsman, Kumar Sangakkara who made anunbeaten 105 and helped his side consolidate their position in thefirst Test Match against India at the Galle International Stadium wasdelighted with his maiden hundred today, “It feels quite good. Notonly because this was my first one, but also considering the fact thatI haven’t been among the runs for a while. So I am glad that Icontributed to the team at the end.”Sangakkara has got out in 90s on two occasions, once against SouthAfrica at the Centurion Park and the next at Kandy against England.This time too there was the scare that he might not get there, but atthe end he managed to get to the three figures, “I actually wasnervous, because I was running out of partners. I had to decide how torotate the strike and then when Murali came to bat he just said we’dtake it as it comes and see what can be done. It’s good to get thathundred.”However the left-handed batsman refused to single out one particularknock as the best of his short career, “I like the 98 in South Africa.The 95 in Kandy also was important considering the position we werein. There was a quite a bit of pressure here as well. Every singletime you get runs you feel pretty happy. So I can’t single out oneparticular innings,” said the wicket-keeper batsman.Sangakkara singled out Venkatesh Prasad as the most difficult Indianbowler out of the lot, “I think it was Prasad,” said Sangakkara. “Hewas bowling very well with the old ball. He was quite accurate thoughwasn’t the quickest. But once again he made up for the lack of pace byhis accuracy”On the overall Indian bowling performance he said, “They bowled wellbut they gave us too many bad balls and took the pressure off us.”Harbhajan Singh ended up the innings with just one wicket and was notthreatening as expected. That can give a big boost Sri Lankan batsmensince there are two more matches to be played in the series,”Harbhajanis a good bowler. I was lucky to get a life when Dravid dropped me offhis bowling when I was on eight” remarked Sangakkara. “Though hebowled well, we handled him pretty well. He bowled about 30 overs andwe are happy that he just gave away one wicket for him. That gives usthe confidence that we can play him in the future games as well.”