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'We would like to finish off on a winning note'
After losing to India in the sixth ODI, the Lankan captain Atapattu admitted that his team was plagued by inconsistency.
After losing to India in the sixth one-dayer, Sri Lankan captain Marvan Atapattu on Wednesday admitted that his team was plagued by inconsistency.
"We did poorly on this track. It wasn't a day for us. It's just a matter of being consistent. We are not short of experience, but we let ourselves down today. We are not playing consistently," a dejected Atapattu said at the post match press conference.
Yuvraj Singh and Mohammed Kaif steered India to a comfortable seven-wicket win over the Sri Lankans who were bowled out for 196.
Atapattu captain was not too happy with the Rajkot track that is known as a batsmen's paradise.
"The new ball was coming on a bit but slowly. A bit of dust began to come up later and it got slower. I wouldn't say it was the best pitch for batting, compared to the rest of the pitches in this series. But this is not an excuse for our poor performance," he said.
The Sri Lanakan captain felt his team had failed to gather momentum early in the series.
"When you are down in a long series like this, and when things are not going your way, it becomes very difficult to come back," he said.
Atapattu said a score of around 240 runs would have been a competitive total without his key bowler Muttiah Muralitharan.
He, however, insisted he wanted to "preserve and manage" Muralitharan for the coming Test series. The off spinner got a hamstring injury while playing the day-night match at Ahmedabad.
Atapattu praised man of the match RP Singh for "bowling consistently on good line and length".
He hoped to win the final match in Vadodara on Saturday. "We would like to finish things off on a winning note."
India now leads 5-1 in the seven match series. India won the first four consecutive matches to take an unassailable lead but Sri Lanka managed to win the Ahmedabad one-dayer by five wickets.
