Opening the innings has changed my life

Tillakaratne Dilshan,who scored a match-winning knock of 106 against South Africa,said playing as an opener for Sri Lanka has played a major role in his improved batting.

Ive been in good form for the last year. Batting up the order has been the turning point of my career, Dilshan said. Opening the innings gives me the opportunity to play my strokes and take chances during the power plays, he added.

Dilshan was dropped from the one-day side in September last year after his average slipped to 25.87 in 21 matches. When he returned early this year to the team,he was asked to open in ODIs and he has never looked back since then. Dilshan was adjudged the Player-of-the-Series at the Twenty20 World Cup in England after he amassed 317 runs at an average of 52.83.

Meanwhile,Sri Lanka skipper Kumar Sangakkara wants his team to capitalise on the opening match victory against the hosts.

The match against South Africa is over and done with. Now we have to go back to the drawing board and see how we can improve and get better as the tournament goes on. We have got a good start but if we dont capitalise on it,this match will be worthless. Its back to square one for us, Sangakkara said.

South African skipper Graeme Smith said the loss was due to the failure to implement their game-plan.

We cant make any excuses. We didnt get our basics right tonight, Smith said. We got to improve very quickly as we have only one day in between before we meet New Zealand on Thursday. Weve got some planning to do for that game and hopefully we will get the performance which we know we are capable of, he added.

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Sangakkara was also all praise for Ajantha Mendis,who claimed three crucial wickets to help his team win. The skipper said the spinner was one of the few bowlers whom the batsmen struggle to read.

One good thing about Ajantha is that even if you see him on and off in a couple of games but still it is a big challenge playing him, Sangakkara said.