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Mahela Jayawardene is already looking forward to Sri Lanka’s next challenge, a Test series in Australia, after their 107-run victory in the final one-day international against England in Colombo offered a timely boost. Despite going down 3-2 in a contest they had been expected to win, Jayawardene said the way his side bounced back in the final match bodes well for the future.

“We knew we had this in ourselves and we know we are a very good side so it’s good that we’re off to Australia in 10 days’ time and it was a very good boost for us to go with a win,” he said. “It was a good start [to the series] and we finished well but we played some really ordinary cricket in between – it was well below par, especially for our standards at home.

“That’s something we really want to work at, but I was quite happy with a lot of individual performances. Batsmen should have taken more responsibility in this tournament with the way we played.”

Sri Lanka have a poor record in Australia having struggled with the extra pace and bounce in the wickets on previous tours. But the home side will take the field in a Test for the first time since the retirements of Shane Warne and Glenn McGrath, while Jayawardene feels there is time to adjust to conditions before the opening encounter at Brisbane on November 8.

“What we’re going to get in Australia will be totally different,” he said. “We’ve got two warm-up games before the first Test and that’s something for us to work on. We’ve got two or three weeks before the first Test match so we’ve got ample time to get back into things.

“This is what cricket is all about. If you’ve had a bad period you have to make sure you learn from your mistakes – that’s what being a professional cricketer is all about these days. You don’t have that much time to think about what went wrong, we have to get back into things straight away.”

Source:Cricket News

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