There's a lot of work to do: Jayawardene

Captain Mahela Jayawardene said that Sri Lanka need to improve their performance when they face England in a Super Eight match of the World Cup Wednesday.

"There's a lot of work to do because we can't start from where we left off against the West Indies," said Jayawardene, after leading his team to a 113-run win over the hosts here Sunday.

Sri Lanka have won one out of their two matches played so far in the second stage and will now face England in Antigua.

"It's a different venue, a different wicket and conditions, so we have to make sure we adjust to that."

The Sri Lankan captain also played down the 5-0 whitewash his team inflicted on England in the one-day series last summer.

"It is eight months since then," he said. "We've both played a lot of cricket and the conditions are different. We can't just go out there and think everything will be happy for us.

"To sustain the performances we have been putting out we need to work harder on all areas."

Sri Lanka is considered one of the few teams capable of posing a threat to defending champions Australia, and Jayawardene revealed a cautious optimism.

"We're doing a very good job. Under tough conditions, we've managed to build scores, bowl well up-front and field well. Those are positive things for us to take," Jayawardene said.

On his dream of lifting the World Cup in Barbados April 28, he said: "I won't think about that - if I dream about it that would be brilliant but if you think too far ahead you won't concentrate."

Wicketkeeper Kumar Sangakkara, however, said that Sri Lanka "could go far if they were hungry enough".

"If the guys are hungry enough and if they want it we can go far. The guys have realised that complacency and cruising is not the order of the day," said Sangakkara.

He said the win against the West Indies had boosted their confidence.

"It was a great show of character to come back from the loss to South Africa, batting first again and on the same wicket in what were not the best conditions early on," said Sangakkara.

"We've got variety and balance. We have three different kinds of fast bowlers, four different kinds of spinners and with the batsmen we have variety too.

"We have Sanath (Jayasuriya) at the top, the workers in the middle and guys who can finish off with a bang at the end," he said.

(IANS)

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