Atapattu terms victory 'fantastic'

Published October 25, 2004

FAISALABAD, Oct 24: Terming his team's victory in the first Test against Pakistan " fantastic", Sri Lankan skipper Marvan Atapattu was looking ahead to the next match.

It was a fantastic win and it is important to have gone one up in the series early but the next Test starts from zero, he told journalists after Sri Lanka finished off Pakistan by 201 runs on the fifth and last day of the match at the Iqbal Stadium.

" It is okay to have won a game but no big deal, it will be a fresh game and we have to put things right to get the required results at the end of the fifth day, said Atapattu who ended up with a pair in the match.

"If it happens every time I don't think I will be there but I would love to see Sri Lanka through," the 34-year-old said of his pair.

Sri Lanka piled up an imposing 438 runs in the second innings, more than half of those runs being contributed by Sanath Jayasuriya who played a marvellous innings of 253.

"He is a match-winner and came back in time; he was tremendous in achieving victory.

"It was a good wicket I thought and going by the statistics, 280 was the average score at this ground and nobody has chased 250 in the fourth innings so we knew about it and we planned accordingly."

Atapattu, whose side scored their sixth win in nine Tests in Pakistan said that winning the match today did not mean he had achieved what he had wanted.

"Every day and every game is a challenge for me and we will work towards the goals that we have set for ourselves.

" We are still in the sub-continent; we come from the sub-continent and it is important for us to win outside the region."

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