07 October 2004	Thursday	21 Shaban 1425

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KARACHI, Oct 6: Marvan Atapattu, the Sri Lanka captain, blamed his middle-order batsmen for his side's defeat in the triangular series One-day International against Pakistan on Wednesday.

"We lost track in the middle phase of the innings after being comfortably placed in the 35th over. But then we suffered a collapse which prevented us from reaching a match-winning score," Atapattu said after Pakistan had won the first meeting between the sides since the Asia Cup in July by eight wickets.

Atapattu admitted that in hindsight he might have made the wrong decision to make first use of the National Stadium pitch. "We batted first because the history of this ground tells that teams batting first had won three of the last five matches.

"There was nothing wrong with the pitch and it was a good batting track. We batted badly and paid the price," he remarked. Despite the crushing loss, Atapattu graciously paid tribute to Shoaib Malik and Yousuf Youhana, Pakistan's batting heroes.

"I thought they were superb today and hardly looked in trouble, although we tried desperately to dislodge them." Pakistan captain Inzamamul Haq praised his side for restricting the defending Asia Cup champions to a modest total.

"The bowlers deserved to be complimented for restricting Sri Lanka to 232. Mohammad Sami and Shoaib Malik were outstanding. "After that it was left to Youhana and Malik to see us through," he said.

Inzamam, who left the field after the 35th over in Sri Lanka's innings, with a stomach problem, added that Wednesday's victory would serve as a morale-booster for next week's final.

"Definitely, it was a worthy performance from our team to beat the Asia Cup champions so convincingly. Yet, we must guard against complacency. "Sri Lanka are a very good side and will surely bounce back. But we will be ready for them," he pointed out.

Inzamam, however, could not hide his disappointment at the continual failure of openers to give Pakistan a solid start. "They (openers) are not performing as we would have liked. Yasir (Hameed) is a talented player who is now experienced enough to come through this lean patch. Just look at Shoaib Malik.

Through hard work, he has shown that he is a handy player at No 3. "We must overcome this shortcoming in the opening area before we go to Australia where conditions will be totally different and the opponents far stronger," he concluded.