March 20, 2003	Thursday	Muharram 16, 1424

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JOHANNESBURG, March 19: Sri Lanka flew home from the World Cup on Wednesday knowing they did only half the job right.

If the batsmen had supported the bowlers, Sanath Jayasuriya’s men may well have been playing in Sunday’s final at the Wanderers here.

They had their best chance to end the campaign on a high note when, with considerable help from India, they squeezed past New Zealand and Zimbabwe into the semifinals.

Once there, they gave themselves a great opportunity when they restricted reigning champions Australia to a modest 212-7 at St George’s Park on Tuesday.

But the batsmen failed to deliver again and Sri Lanka were reduced to 123-7 in the 36th over before rain ended their misery.

Jayasuriya and the top order not only let down seamer Chaminda Vaas, who finished with a record 23 World Cup wickets, but also the retiring Aravinda de Silva.

Sri Lanka’s Australian coach Dav Whatmore hit the nail on the head when he said later the middle-order batting had to take the blame.

“I would not say the entire batting failed,” Whatmore said.

“I would say more the middle or lower order perhaps didn’t give us enough runs, that certainly was the case against Australia.

“We had some good performances, some good positives over the 10 matches. But one area where we could have done better, that would have been our middle order batting,” he said.

Mahela Jayawardene, Avishka Gunawardena and Russel Arnold, all usually good contributors with the bat, had dismal campaigns.

“They didn’t give us consistent assistance when we needed it. I thought our bowlers did very well throughout the tournament and I am very pleased for that,” said Whatmore.

The Sri Lanka-born former Australian Test batsman’s contract as coach runs out in May, but Jayasuriya said he hoped Whatmore will continue.

“Dav has been very good for the boys. We won the 1996 World Cup with him and we have done well again since he came back in 1999

“He has been doing a good job. He has been there for a long time.

“We have been grooming some youngsters since 1999 but unfortunately some of them did not perform well in this tournament.

“But we have some talent in the side and when we go into the middle we have to fight hard.”

Sri Lanka were disappointed they could not give a perfect farewell to de Silva, the hero of the 1996 World Cup win who was on his last international assignment.

“I was hoping the semifinal was not the last one but unfortunately that’s how it ended,” an emotional De Silva said.

“It’s pretty sad but after doing the hard work we really didn’t apply ourselves when we batted.”

The 37-year-old, who played in five World Cups, is the third highest one-day scorer in history after Indians Sachin Tendulkar and Mohammad Azharuddin with a tally of 9,284 runs.

He also made 6,361 runs from 93 Tests at an average of 42.97.

“It’s been a long career and I have been away from home for far too long, so I think it’s high time I spent a little bit of time at home with my family and concentrated on whatever the second phase of my life brings,” de Silva said.—AFP