Look forward to a big score: Ford
First Published : 14 Feb 2012, 10:24
Last Modified : 14 Feb 2012, 10:58
Adelaide, Feb 14: Ahead of Sri Lanka’s second CB series encounter with India, coach Graham Ford agreed that the Lankans needed to get wins under their belt to remain in the competition. Sri Lanka are yet to register a win in the ongoing tri-series while India and Australia have won two games each. On the eve of the match, the newly appointed coach spoke about his wards in a brief interview.
Excerpts:
On the team needing to win four of the six remaining matches
Yes. I think we have played some reasonable cricket; there is a lot to be positive about but we need to get on the winning way. We need to start getting out on the line. We came close last time around but if we don’t get on the winning way, the competition is going to get away from us.
On the team’s batting failures
Credit to Australia because they bowled really well and put us under pressure. From our side, a number of batsmen got starts and looked in pretty good touch. Unfortunately, nobody managed to convert any of their starts into a big one and we know just how important that is. The guys are well aware of that as something that they’ve got to try and put in place and hopefully they will get it right today [against India]. Like I said, there are a numbers of them in good touch.
On whether the batsmen would find form at the batsman-friendly Adelaide
Yeah, I am sure they will be happier here than they were at Perth although it didn’t look like there were major problems in Perth; but it is a good strip. It looked a very good strip the other day and I’m looking forward to them posting a big score.
On how important it is to him that the team does well and makes it to the finals
At this stage, quite a lot of it is new to me and obviously I’m new to the players. There has been quite a bit of positive work done in terms of us getting to know each other and we’ve made a lot of progress as a group. Ideally, one must look at the long-term picture rather than the very first outing but there needs to be progress; we need to start playing some good cricket.
