Dunedin, New Zealand: Sri Lankan maestro Mahela Jayawardene said it took all his powers of concentration to produce his match-saving World Cup century against Afghanistan in Dunedin on Sunday.
He was too focussed to even acknowledge his 19th ODI hundred, and fourth in a World Cup, but said afterwards he ranked it with his best Cup efforts.
Jayawardene’s mission started with Sri Lanka on the ropes at 18-3 chasing Afghanistan’s modest 233-run target in their Pool A game at University Oval.
At 51-4, the situation was even more dire with the former world champions looking average against an associate side that has only been playing international cricket for six years.
“I was telling myself to make sure I commit to each and every shot,” Jayawardene, 37, said.
“I was waiting for every loose ball, every shot, every leave I did there was a lot of commitment.
“I had to make sure my focus was there because we had to keep the scoreboard ticking. That was the only way we could create a bit of pressure on them.”
Ball by ball, in partnership with captain Angelo Mathews (44), Jayawardene turned the game around, showing no emotion when he took a single off Shapoor Zadran for his century.
“I just wanted to finish the game off, not get myself rattled, and keep the focus going, simple as that,” Jayawardene explained of his lack of celebration.
But he admitted he “enjoyed that hundred as if it was the World Cup final hundred, a tough situation,” recalling his unbeaten 103 in the 2011 Cup final when Sri Lanka came up short against India.
“Mentally, I had to be very strong out there today, so I’m very pleased with the effort. The (lack of) celebration is because I wanted to finish the game off so I was disappointed at the end.”
Jayawardene’s single off Zadran was his last scoring shot as two balls later his attempt to flick Afghanistan’s chief wicket taker Hamid Hassan over the boundary fell into the hands of Nawroz Mangal at third man.
It was Sri Lanka’s first win in the tournament after they suffered a heavy defeat to New Zealand in their first game, and Jayawardene said Afghanistan were the right opponents to get them going again.
“For us to play a tough match like that was probably a good thing in this tournament. There are areas which we need to improve and hopefully we can improve those going forward.”
There was also relief in the Sri Lanka camp that bowling spearhead Lasith Malinga took three wickets in his second game since returning from a six-month injury layoff.
“Every game Mali plays gives him that match practice he needs so he could try a few things as well,” Jayawardene said.
There were “no complaints with his body after the game so that means he’s good. Every match that he plays he’s going to gain confidence and that’s what we want for Lasith because he’s a key factor in our set up.”
