Jayawardene keeping his calm
Sri Lanka have set their sights on utilising their own style of unorthodox cricket to complete the ICC World T20 win.
Just over three months since their team bus was attacked by terrorists on the way to the Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore for day three of the second Test against Pakistan, Sri Lanka stand just two wins away from claiming a remarkable triumph.
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Tuesday's 48-run victory over New Zealand at Trent Bridge saw Sri Lanka advance to a semi-final with West Indies at The Oval on Friday, having lit up the competition with their innovative and enterprising style of cricket.
Their progress is all the more remarkable considering three members of this squad - captain Kumar Sangakkara. Mahela Jayawardene and Ajantha Mendis - received minor injuries from the attack.
Sangakkara insisted at the start of the tournament they had moved on from the incident, but victory on Friday and in Sunday's final at Lord's would represent a significant achievement so soon after their horrifying ordeal.
That prospect has hardly been considered yet, however, with Jayawardene remaining pragmatic as they prepare to play their first match of the tournament at The Oval.
"We set ourselves goals to get through - first round, then second round... now we're in the semis and we have two more goals - to get to the final and then win the final," he said.
"We need to concentrate on those two goals.
"People back home must be crazy about it, but they love their cricket and they are always behind us - I'm sure they are really focused on the semi now, but we just need to stay calm and get into the final."
Should Sri Lanka achieve that objective, they would do so by relying on the unorthodox spin pairing of Muttiah Muralitharan and Ajantha Mendis, who stands in fourth place in the list of leading wicket-takers for the tournament with 10 victims.
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Sling-shot fast bowler Lasith Malinga is joint second with 11 wickets while in opener Tillakaratne Dilshan they have the leading run-scorer of the competition with 221 runs.
They also have in 39-year-old Sanath Jayasuriya the player who has hit the most boundaries (10 fours and three sixes) to underline the value of improvisation and enterprise in Twenty20 cricket.
"I think our coaches try not to change (them) too much," explained Jayawardene. "They let players progress as they are and then try to fine-tune them later.
"When Ajantha came to the Academy he didn't have too much control but we set a plan for him to develop and within six months he found his range and he was fine.
"We fine-tune these guys only at the end, we just let them come through."
The next challenge for Sri Lanka is to perform at The Oval against a resurgent West Indies side having played all their previous matches in the tournament either at Lord's or Trent Bridge.
"When we came to England we knew we would be playing at three different venues," added Jayawardene. "We knew we'd have to adjust to different conditions.
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"We have changed our team accordingly so far, so we'll plan things out. We've seen how the wickets play there and what the par scores are so these guys will go and enjoy it.
"Murali will turn it on anything and Ajantha is confident and sticks to his plan. We have a really good bowling unit anywhere."
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