New Delhi, Sep 9 (IANS) England men’s assistant coach Paul Collingwood has said his team “needs a special day” if they’re going to win an ongoing match against Sri Lanka at The Oval, admitting it will be “one hell of a Test win” from the position the hosts are in the contest.
Sri Lanka ended day three’s of the third Test at 94/1, and needed 125 runs on day four to earn a famous Test win over England, who were bowled out for 156 in their second innings in 34 overs of a shocking batting performance.
“We’re going to need a special day if we’re going to win this match. There will be belief in the dressing room. It will be one hell of a Test match to win from this position. This team is capable of doing some special things. We have to have that belief we can turn things around. Hopefully we can get on a roll. It’s an exciting opportunity.”
“We always look at the opportunity, rather than the failures. When you have that optimism, it’s amazing what can translate on to the cricket field. We have been in some deep holes at times but have found ways of getting out of them because of the talent in the dressing room,” Collingwood was quoted as saying by BBC Sport.
Despite earning a first-innings lead of 62 runs, England couldn’t build up on it and were reduced to 82/7, before a blistering 67 from wicketkeeper Jamie Smith helped them set a competitive total for Sri Lanka. Collingwood denied England’s batters were complacent in the second innings.
“I haven’t seen any of the criticism, but we all know it will be out there. If you don’t perform, you will get criticised. That’s fine. We’re not always going to get it right and today was one of those days we didn’t get it right.
“The guys is the dressing room will hold their hands up. We want to make sure we can have a clean sweep and the lads are very proud about playing for England. We’ve not felt there has been an complacency coming into this match,” he said.
Talking of Smith’s performance, Collingwood remarked, “It’s exciting when he comes in. He’s certainly an entertainer. You go back to the days of when Gilchrist would come in for Australia. It sucks the life out of you as the opposition when someone has the ability to do something like that. In his short Test career, he has shown some great skills.”
