Sri lanka team might not have the likes of Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene but lanka's new young leg-spinner Jeffrey Vandersay on Sunday says that, "Give the team some time; I am sure we will come back stronger in future."
The defending champions were on Saturday knocked out of the ICC WorldT20 tournament, losing to England by 10 runs here at the Feroz Shah Kotla stadium. The team had only one game out of their four against an associate nation Afghanistan. On Monday, the Islanders play a dead rubber match against the South Africa who have also been knocked out of the tournament.
Speaking on the eve of the match against the Proteas, Vandersay said, "We have a young team. We lost a couple of big names in the last three years. We are in the process of rebuilding. Give us time. Our batting is quite good. We have potential. From 15 for four we came back fighting and lost by just 10 runs (against England on Saturday). We will not take it easy, we will play to win."
When asked about the Indian pitches and his experience on bowling on these conditions he said, "I loved playing in India. It's more helpful especially to the leg-spinners. Personally, I am happy to contribute in some way. Every opportunity that has come my way, I have tried to grab it with both hands."
Meanwhile, Hashim Amla comes to Feroz Shah Kotla stadium after three months when South Africa played their last Test match of the series against India in December. When asked if it feels like Deja vu, he smilingly replied, "Delhi is a lovely venue and I always love playing here. Tomorrow we are going to give our best and end our campaign on winning note."
Tired of explaining their long- standing jinx at ICC events, a desperate Hashim Amla on Sunday said South Africa will surely grab an ICC trophy soon and next year's Champions Trophy could be it.
"We are asked this every ICC tournament. This team will win World Cup or an ICC tournament at some stage. We won in 1998 in England and it's quite a while back. It has been disappointing. We had opportunities we have not backed up batting and bowling to be in semis," he said.
Amla said their batting and bowling never clicked in a game together.
"We have not played our best cricket throughout this tournament. We did not have a game where our batting and bowling clicked at the same time."
Asked about the team combination and using Dale Steyn sparingly in the tournament, Amla backed captain Faf du Plessis and coach Russell Domingo's decisions.
"Before coming to this tournament, the captain and coach talked about picking the right team according to the venue. In India, pitches have been vastly different. In Mumbai, there was smaller field, so quick bowlers come into the picture that's why Dale played the first one against England but after that Nagpur were a slow wicket and slow seemed to be more effective.
"I can understand why captain David Wiese was picked because he has experience of playing on slow wickets. They have been consistent in picking right team for each venue," he said.