Dubai: Kumar Sangakkara, through a spectacular match winning performance showed that he is as good as he was during his playing days in international cricket.
Though it is close to three years since he retired from international cricket, the 40-year-old left-handed batsman, with brilliant strokes and even reflexes stunned everyone and emerged as the match winners for debutants Multan Sultans.
Sangakkara cracked 57 runs off 51 balls with two sixes and three boundaries to bag the man of the match award. When asked about the ease with which he played the pace and spin, he said: “I have changed my stance and my initial movement in order to give myself that extra time.”
It is not just the agility to be at the right position to play the strokes, be it the pull, hook and drive that surprised everyone but his reflexes in keeping the wickets too. He looked as fit as any current international wicketkeeper.
When asked about how he is still able to do the toughest of all jobs on the field as a wicketkeeper? Sangakkara remarked with a smile: “I am not the greatest of fielders, hence it’s nice to be behind the stumps.”
Multan’s skipper Shoaib Malek hailed Sangakkara’s knock by saying: “Peshawar had batted well and to chase 150 runs wasn’t easy but the way Sangakkara batted was crucial.”
Sangakkara felt that Malek too played a crucial role in the victory. “I think there was a bit in the wicket initially but I think Shoaib was just outstanding today and he did the job for us.”
Sangakkara feels that though Multan is a new team, they have a very good combination. “You need a good mixture of young talent and experience and we’ve got that. Hopefully we’ll get better as the tournament progresses.”
Multan’s coach Tom Moody was also Sri Lankan team coach and hence Sangakkara revealed that he has a special relationship with him. “Moody and I have a close relationship since 2005 when he took over SL. It’s big for the owners, franchise and players to win our first game.”
However, Sangakkara feels that T20 requires many others factors to win matches. “Lot of luck is needed in T20. We’ll take one game at a time. T20 is a format where you express yourself. I am still enjoying it. It’s a great format to play in,” he said.
Darreen Sammy, the Peshawar captain, said: “I think were about 10 runs short. We gave away about 20 runs extra in the field too.”
Brief scores: Multan Sultans bt Peshawar Zalmi by 7 wkts. Peshawar 151 for 6 in 20 overs (Mohammad Hafeez 59, Dwayne Smith 24, Darren Sammy 29, Mohammad Irfan 2 for 19) Multan Sultans 152 for 3 in 19.1 overs (Kumar Sangakkara 57, Shoaib Malek 42n, o, Wahab Riaz 2 for 19) Man of the match: Kumar Sangakkara.
