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| SA Smith Disappointed about Sri Lanka loss |
 SA Graeme Smith DisappointedSouth Africa skipper Graeme Smith has spoken out about his disappointment in their opening match of the Champions Trophy defeat against Sri Lanka, and put down the reason for not playing well to South Africa Smith himself managed a half-century but the rest of his side failed as they made 206-7 before the rain came to end a disappointing night all round. Smith lamented South Africa's below-par bowling display, and says that all-round they looked short of match practice. Tentative "The things we need to look at as a team are we were very tentative with the ball, especially for the first 20 overs," said Smith. "We bowled too many extras and we lacked the basics, which we didn't execute very well and I think not having played for three months - those were crucial aspects for us. "We were just unable to execute our game plan." The South African skipper paid tribute to Dilshan, who shared a record 158-run partnership with Kumar Sangakkara (54) - the highest for any wicket by a Sri Lankan pair against the Proteas. "Dilshan played really well up front which didn't really allow guys to settle. He's the type of player you know is going to go after you as a bowler. "I think you can have game plans to him that can work. But it's about executing them well and we just didn't do that." Exceptional Opposite number Sangakkara echoed those sentiments, saying: "He's been exceptional from the end of last year through to this year. "I think he's matured a lot and understood how good he really is. He's performed exceptionally well for us during this time." The captain also praised his side's all-round display, which included other good contributions from batsman Mahela Jayawardene (77) and bowlers Ajantha Mendis (three for 30), Angelo Mathews (two for 43) and Lasith Malinga (two for 43), insisting that they can improve further. He said: "As a side, I feel we are still firing at 75% maybe. So we have a lot of areas to improve, but the good thing is that we're still winning. "But the sky is the limit if we can work harder, make sure we keep to our basics and not get too carried away with wins like this." Sri Lanka 319-8 (T M Dilshan 106, D P M D Jayawardene 77, K C Sangakkara 54) v South Africa 206-7 (G C Smith 58) Sri Lanka beat South Africa by 55 runs (D/L Method)  Share Link:               Set as favorite Bookmark Email this Comments (0)  Write comment Newer news items:
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