No looking back for us now: Jayawardane

St George's, Grenada, Apr 18 (UNI) A buoyed Mahela Jayawardane today virtually served notice to his rivals saying there is no looking back for Sri Lanka in this World Cup now.

Talking to media persons after his team's crushing victory over Ireland, Sri Lanka skipper said, ''We have played good cricket till now, we have come here with certain plans which we have able to achieve and from now on, there is going to be no looking back for us.'' He praised Ireland saying they played good cricket in the World Cup.

''They played nine matches and had enough experience but today I am not going to take away any thing from my boys who gave a super display in all departments of the game.'' Asked how his team had prepared for this match after losing to Australia in the previous tie, Mahela said, ''We knew we had to come here and get back into things and I think the boys played really well. The attitude was good and we just have to continue this now.'' ''We have thoroughly enjoyed this tournament up to now. We have achieved our goals so far in getting into the semi-finals and we are going to give it our best shot,'' he said.

''The semi-final (against New Zealand) is something we will look forward to. When we left Sri Lanka, there were a lot of expectations but we knew we had to take one game at a time. We knew we had the talent but executing that is the hardest thing so we have come through fine now. There is no looking back now -- we are just looking forward to the rest of the World Cup,'' the skipper said.

Mahela said his team was fully prepared to play on bouncy track in Jamaica.

''We have adjusted ourselves well, we got into it in Port of Spain, we did well in Antigua and even in Guyana. Here in Gernada also we had no problem ''We have a decent bowling attack and the bowlers are capable of bowling on all sorts of tracks. This is World Cup, conditions are same for every body.'' He said resting Vass and Murli against Australia was no tactical move.

''We just did not want to take risk. Even today Dihara Fernando and Malinga did not play because we thought it was better not to take chance and we do have a good bench strength.'' The skipper was of the view that ''it's a good headache to have with players competing for places. It's great to see guys putting their hands up and performing. It is a much worse headache when the guys are not doing well.'' About his own form, Mahela said, ''I am hitting the ball pretty well. For me it's about spending more time out there in the middle, concentrating hard and I am enjoying every moment. We just need to continue this.'' About Murli he said, ''Well he is a class apart, he has always delivered when we needed breakthrough. He can bowl on any track at any place, he is a valuable asset to the side.'' Man of match Farveez Maharoof was thrilled with his four wicket haul saying, ''I had a good day and I just wanted to keep bowling in the right areas. It meant a lot to me because I had been out with injury and then I have struggled to come back into the side. It was a big day for me so I just thought I would go out and give it my best and it worked out.'' The fast bowler said, ''I just want to keep hitting the right areas. On this track if you bowl in the right areas, it is quite hard to score runs.'' Veteran Sanath Jayarsuriya lavished praise on his team mates saying it was a great team display.

''Up front Maharoof, Vaasy, all the fast bowlers, bowled very well and then later on Murali came on and finished the job. It was a very good performance by the bowlers.

''Maharoof is a good all-rounder. Whenever we want runs later on in the innings he can come in and do that for us. As a bowler, he is coming on very well and that is a good sign for us.'' He said his team would just have to keep the basics right in the semifinal.

''They say there will be a bit more seam and bounce (in Jamaica) but that is OK because we have the fast bowlers to bowl and also the batsmen to bat. We will just do our basics right and hopefully we'll do what we have to do,'' he concluded.

UNI