Kolkata: Sri Lanka’s Tillakaratne Dilshan, who is nearing 40 years of age, played a stupendous unbeaten 83 to steer his team to a six-wicket victory over Afghanistan on Thursday. If not for his innings based on his years of experience, Afghanistan may have won the match.
So when asked whether he too was planning to retire anytime soon like seniors Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene did, Dilshan said: “If I am batting like this and if I’m playing like this, I won’t think about my retirement at the moment. But you never know, one fine morning after I get up, I might think otherwise. But at the moment I’ve no plans to retire. Right now I want to contribute as much as I can for my country’s win.”
Dilshan’s only aim was to win the match. “We have come here to win and it was important we won the match against Afghanistan. In these kinds of tournaments, the first matches are very important. Senior guys need to stand up and perform so that the middle order can bat around us,” he said.
Talking about his innings without throwing away his wicket, Dilshan added: “It was important I batted through so that youngsters could bat around me. Our team policy is that whoever gets going should finish the job. It does not matter whether it is a senior or a junior player. We can go a long way. With our brand of cricket we can beat any team.”
Did he do anything special to overcome his recent bad form? “There’s nothing special. I’m doing the same thing. I have had some bad games in the Asia Cup and in New Zealand. But I don’t think I’ve to change my technique. Nothing has changed much, I just need to focus.”
Dilshan said it wasn’t easy to chase runs on the Eden Gardens wickets. “The pitch was a bit slow and it was not easy to play spinners. I wanted to bat as long as possible. It’s not easy to chase 150. They put up a very good total. They batted well, especially their captain. It was not an easy target to chase.”
And the man who invented the Dilscoop wants to continue playing the way he loves to play. “I enjoy playing my shots and I will continue to do it,” he assured.
