'South Africa going to be bigger challenge mentally,' says Jayawardene

Cape Town, Nov 28 : Sri Lanka had a disappointing outing against Pakistan in the United Arab Emirates, but the team needs to put the series behind and look ahead to South Africa, batsman Mahela Jayawardene has said.

“The UAE tour was frustrating because we had our opportunities, but didn’t convert them – especially in the fourth and fifth ODIs. In the fifth match we didn’t hold onto our chances, while Pakistan had a couple of good partnerships and finished it off. We needed to be consistent with the momentum,” Jayawardene wrote in an article for the Daily Times.

“South Africa is going to be a bigger challenge mentally. We have to put this Pakistan series behind us. We cannot ride on what happened in the Middle East, take that extra baggage on board and think everything will turn around in South Africa. We need to play to our strengths and take positives from the Pakistan series,” he added.

Pakistan had won the three-Test series 1-0 and secured the five-match ODI series with a 4-1 win.