Coach Geoff Marsh advised Lankans to relax

Some simple advice from Sri Lanka coach Geoff Marsh did the trick for his team in the second One-day match of the series against Pakistan on Monday. "Relax and enjoy the game was my message to the boys," Marsh said yesterday, and Sri Lanka went on to win by 25 runs at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium, levelling the series 1-1. "I asked them to play more positively right from the first ball. I am happy that my boys played with confidence and posted a competitive score. I think we need to score more runs to win matches." Marsh, one of Australia's finest opening batsmen in his player days, added: "I told them to believe in themselves. I reminded them that they are a team that played in the World Cup final not so long ago and is one of the best one-day teams going around in the world. Back on track "It was just a matter of getting the train back on the tracks. We were off the tracks a little bit and we needed to get our heads down. We were also playing a very good side. "The Pakistan spinners bowled very well to us and we had to just get our heads down and work through the process of getting ourselves into a very competitive score." Marsh revealed he and batting coach Marvan Atapattu focused on some technical adjustments with the top order. When asked about the role of bowler Lasith Malinga, who produced a devastating opening spell including two wickets in his first over, Marsh said:"Malinga will be important to any side. He is that sort of a bowler who can come on and take quick wickets. "Having his presence around the team has been fantastic. Having bowlers with more experience has also helped. All our bowlers really bowled well on Monday night. Pakistan is a very good one-day side but our boys hung in there and continued to try and take wickets, which is what we have to do to win matches." Marsh has now urged his players to build some winning momentum. Two bad innings "The boys have been really up the whole tour, even in the Test series, because we believe that we finished the last Test match really well," he said. "We would probably have won the third Test had it not rained in the morning session of the last day. "It is two bad innings that cost us the Test series. The boys have kept their spirits up, though the first one-dayer was a probably a downer, but we had a good shout about it afterwards and we have bounced back."