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NEWS ICC Champions Trophy 2006>We have a long way to go: Jayawardene 11th Oct 2006 14.30 IST By Agencies Sri Lankan captain Mahela de Silva Jayawardene Tuesday attributed his team's convincing victory over Zimbabwe to Upul Tharanga 's brilliant batting and the aggression of the bowlers. "Upul batted brilliantly. And so did Kumar (Sangakkara) and Marvan (Attapattu) who has come back strongly. Now, other guys also have to get into the scene," Jayawardene told reporters after a 144-run win over Zimbabwe in their ICC Champions Trophy qualifier.
He, however, expressed concern at conceding a large number of extras runs through no balls and extras. "To take a critical view of our game today, the number of wides and no balls are a bit of concern. However, I feel that can be rectified as we have performed much better than the previous game. I think we are going in the right direction." "Sanath (Jayasuriya) and me have not got a good game yet in the tournament. We are eager to pay a role in the team's victories," he said. Tharanga cracked a brilliant 110, his sixth hundred in the ODI and second in the tournament, while Sangakkara scored a solid 80 to spearhead the Sri Lankan batting. With Sri Lankans now making the cut for the main tournament, Jayawardene was asked whether he now considered his team one of the favourites. "We have just played Zimbabwe and Bangladesh and we have a long way to go. We have to keep our standards up. We are yet to play the main teams. So, at this moment we do not consider ourselves favourites," he replied. "Malinga was quick and excellent. The bowlers were aggressive and performed their job," Jayawardene said and also gave credit to the Zimbabwe batsmen for playing well in the middle overs. Tharanga, the sensational young batsman, said that he did not feel any pressure batting with Jayasuriya. "After scoring my first 30 or 40 runs, I try to get a big score," said the 21-year-old left-hander. A dejected Zimbabwe coach Kevin Curran said that his team, now out of the tournament, would aim to end their engagements here on a positive note by defeating Bangladesh in their last match on October 14. "Our recent 3-2 win over Bangladesh will be a confidence booster. We bowled particularly well today in the first ten overs and kept the Lankan batsmen in check. We suffered as we lost wickets upfront. And we will take stock of the positives from this game as we prepare for the Friday battle," said the 47 year old former Zimbabwean. He praised Hamilton Masakadza and Brendan Taylor, who were involved in a 62-run partnership for the fourth wicket after Zimbabwe lost their first three batsmen cheaply. "But I think these two should had converted the 30s into bigger scores. Then we would have competed a little better," he added. Also View In-Depth Coverage: ICC Champions Trophy 2006 Team Page: Sri Lanka Team Page: Zimbabwe | LIVE CRICKET COVERAGE NEWS ~ Gilchrist has no plans to retire after World Cup ~ Ganguly's new batting approach may cost him sixer record ~ India 'squash the Orange' in World Cup warm-up game ~ Symonds gets a new hairdo for World Cup ~ Dhoni readies himself for stand-up act at World Cup (more in NEWS) FACE-TO-FACE ~ 500-mark a possibility in World Cup: Hayden ~ Minnows add charm to World Cup: Dravid (more in FACE-TO-FACE) COLUMNS ~ Will Sri Lanka replicate 1996 World Cup success? (more in COLUMNS) OFF-THE-FIELD ~ Ganguly again the darling of corporate world ~ Ganguly roped in as brand ambassador of Puma (more in OFF-THE-FIELD) PLAYERS Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly, Rahul Dravid, Anil Kumble (more PLAYERS) TEAMS India, South Africa, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Australia, West Indies, Zimbabwe, England, New Zealand, Bangladesh, Kenya, Holland | 
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