After guiding Sri Lanka to the quarter-finals of the ongoing World Cup with his all-round exploits, opener Tillakaratne Dilshan said the team has the ability to play better cricket.
After guiding Sri Lanka to the quarter-finals of the ongoing World Cup with his all-round exploits, opener Tillakaratne Dilshan said the team has the ability to play better cricket.
Dilshan hammered a 131-ball 144 during his record 282-run stand for the opening wicket with Upul Tharanga (133) and then, picked up four wickets giving as many runs to cap off a memorable day, as Sri Lanka thrashed Zimbabwe by a massive 139 runs in a Group A match at the Pallekele International Cricket Stadium in Pallekele.
"Upul and I had a good opening stand today. We are playing good cricket as a unit at the moment, but the important thing is we can do better," Dilshan, who fell one run short of equalling Aravinda de Silva's record for most runs by a Lankan in a World Cup game, said.
Asked if he was aware of the record, the hard-hitting batsman said, "I didn't know that. When I went to the dressing room I was informed that Aravinda's record was 145 and that I had missed the milestone by just one run. That's how it goes, I don't look forward to records," he said.
"In the tournament so far I hadn't capitalised after getting a few decent starts. So I was determined to make it count this time around. It's good to got a hundred," he said.
Dilshan could have recorded the third hat-trick of the World Cup had Mahela Jayawardene, fielding at first slip, latched onto Graeme Cremer's edge. The opener, though, has no regrets.
"Mahela took a terrific catch to create the hat-trick ball. So you can't really blame him. These things happen in cricket," he said.
There had been media reports suggesting that Dilshan had failed a drug test, but Sri Lanka Cricket was quick to squash the rumours saying the player wasn't event tested in the first place.
Told about that, Dilshan said he wasn't worried about the speculations. "Honestly, it didn't bother me," he said.
Zimbabwe were going well at one stage with their openers taking the team to 116 by the 20th over, but Dilshan always knew it was going to be Sri Lanka's day.
"Not really. We knew that when the ball gets old attacking would get difficult. They had a big total to chase and things were under control."
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