We are not a player-specific team: Jayawardene

St George's, Grenada, Apr 13 (UNI) Buoyed by the team's six-wicket win over New Zealand in the crucial Super Eight match, Sri Lanka skipper Mahela Jayawardene today asserted that his side was not a player-specific one.

''We are not one-man (player) team, we have been playing as one unit in preparation to the World Cup,'' he said.

Jayawaradene's remark were in response to a query from a journalist who asked him whether he felt the absence of pacer Lasith Malinga.

''Yes, injury to Malinga was a blow but we have the wherewithal to fill the void. We are not a player-specific team, for the last one year we have been playing as one cohesive side and results are there for all to see,'' he added.

''We got used to the conditions quickly, and although we did not have Lasith Malinga, we've got a very good 15-man squad.

We do have quality performers like Murali and Vaas, and for the last 12-16 months, played as a team and adapted to whatever combination we play and try to compete.

''That has been very successful for us, obviously Lasith not being in the team, gave us a different combination - lost leading wicket-taker in the competition, but other bowlers backed Vaasy up pretty well, and that's how we play our cricket,'' he said.

Talking to media persons after his team's comprehensive win over the Kiwis, a thrilled Jayawardene said, ''For us we start afresh for every game, we analyse the conditions and try to adapt ourselves to that, we have good batting and bowling strength and are dependent on the all round show by the team rather by one or two individuals.'' About the opponents he said, ''It's always a challenge to play New Zealand and we've played each other a few times, but Chaminda Vaas started us off really well,'' and added ''the spinners kept it going in the middle overs, but we bowled well to keep them down to 220.'' ''Then, we batted sensibly by not losing too many early wickets.'' He opined ''The wicket got slower and slower, and I think 250 to 260 would have been a difficult total to chase.'' ''We knew they had two quality bowlers so we made sure we didn't give them early wickets. Our guys batted sensibly, I thought Sanath and Kumar made a very good partnership, which is good when you're chasing runs. We did lose a few wickets but we always had wickets in hand. Overall we batted really well, fielded really well and had a really good game.

''It is a Big day for us,'' he said proudly.

He was candid enough to admit that his side needed these two points and ''I never thought in terms of net run rate.'' ''We did take two points so didn't think about it (run rate). If we were in that situation probably would have thought about it. But for us it is important that we don't go out in the last game against Ireland needing a win to qualify. Every game is two points on offer.

One hiccup was against SA, so it was vital we won this game...as we did,'' he explained.

He was of the view that ''the more matches you play against quality opposition, your net run rate is bound to go down. We do have our Ireland game which is something that we might be able to look forward to. But don't want to go into those details. What we want is to qualify with the points.

UNI