Johannesburg, Oct. 7 (ANI): Sri Lankan captain Mahela Jayawardene has emphatically rejected suggestions that the Sri Lankan cricket board had deliberately ordered slow wickets for the tournament to suit their spin bowlers like Ajantha Mendis.
Jayawardene insisted that it was an ICC event and the same council would make decisions over the pitch, not the Board for Cricket Control in Sri Lanka (BCCSL) or the Sri Lankan team.
"This is an ICC (International Cricket Council) event and the ICC controls the pitch, not the Sri Lanka team or the Sri Lankan board," Sport24 quoted Jayawardene, as saying.
"Why would we have prepared a turning pitch against Pakistan when they have some of the best spinners in the game like (Saeed) Ajmal, (Shahid) Afridi and (Mohammad) Hafeez," he added.
According to the report, Sri Lanka, who were restricted to 139-4 on a slow turner after electing to bat, hit back to keep Pakistan down to 123-7 and won the thrilling semi-final on Thursday.
Jayawardene said the T20 final would be the biggest cricket match to be staged in the Premadasa stadium, after the tickets to the 35,000-capacity Premadasa stadium sold out weeks ago.
"This is definitely the biggest game we have staged. Its been a great couple of weeks for the entire country," he said.
"The expectations from our fans are the same as they were at the start of the tournament. They wanted us to reach the final even then. And we must now win it for them," he added. (ANI)
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