15 July,2009 12:39 PM IST | | AFP
Kumar Sangakkara today celebrated victory over Pakistan in his first series as Sri Lanka's captain with a warning to teammates to guard against future setbacks.
"It's true you have got to enjoy the good times, but you need to make sure that the team is prepared to face the bad times and those bad times don't last long," said Sangakkara.
"It's going to get a lot tougher, but we have got the ability to get better and the amount of work we do on the field and off the field with our focus on cricket is going to be the key."
Sri Lanka clinched the three-match series with a seven-wicket victory in the second Test yeterday after the temperamental tourists suffered a spectacular collapse.
Pakistan, sitting pretty at 285-1 just before lunch on the third day, crashed to 320 all out after the break to leave Sri Lanka a victory target of 171 on a good batting pitch at the P. Sara Oval.
Sri Lanka cruised home with two days to spare to record their first home series win over Pakistan after losing three of their five previous series and drawing the other two.
Sangakkara (31) took over as captain after Mahela Jayawardene stepped down in March to concentrate on his batting and allow his successor to build a team for the 2011 World Cup.
Sangakkara, a long-time deputy to Jayawardene, showed he was cut out for the job with imaginative leadership in the two Tests.
His use of left-arm spinner Rangana Herath in the two Tests in the absence of the injured Muttiah Muralitharan bordered on a reckless gamble, but it paid off handsomely both times.
On a seamer-friendly wicket in the first Test at Galle, Sangakkara threw the ball to Herath on the fourth morning when Pakistan needed only 97 runs to win with eight wickets in hand.
Herath removed the two overnight batsmen, Mohammad Yousuf and Salman Butt, with his first four deliveries and finished with a career-best 4-15 as Pakistan lost their last eight wickets for 46 runs.
Yesterday, Sangakkara handed the new ball to spinner Herath, instead of his fast bowlers, and the left-armer once again dismissed Yousuf with his second delivery to trigger another Pakistani collapse.
Herath finished with 5-99 and seamer Nuwan Kulasekera took 4-37 as Pakistan lost their last nine wickets for 35 runs after debutant Fawad Alam's superb 168 and Younus' 82 had put the tourists in a good position.
"We expected the spinners to get some bite off the new ball because if it landed on the shiny side it would slip through and hopefully hit the pads," said Sangakkara.
"We walked onto the ground thinking of starting with the fast bowlers from both ends, but I tossed the ball to Rangana, who came up with a wicket in his first over.
"No matter who bowled, we needed someone to stand up and do something special for us. Luckily we had two people, Kulasekara and Herath, who bowled superbly in partnership."
Sangakkara, whose team lost to Pakistan in the World Twenty20 final in England last month, hopes to complete a 3-0 rout when the third Test starts at the Sinhalese sports club here on July 20.
But he said he was worried that Sri Lankan batting had not touched 300 in the four innings so far.
"We have got a lot of work to do with the batting," he said. "Everyone is batting well, but we just need to go on and bat for hours and hours."
