T20 World Cup Group: Sri Lanka captain Wanindu Hasaranga was a disappointed man after his side lost to Bangladesh by two wickets in their Men’s T20 World Cup Group D clash at the Grand Prairie Stadium and blamed his batters for doing their job well in their matches so far.Despite Pathum Nissanka’s 47, Sri Lanka were restricted to 124 on a slow pitch. Though Nuwan Thushara took 4-28, Sri Lanka were unable to prevent a tight win for Bangladesh, which means their Super Eight hopes are in huge jeopardy.
“Our batters batted really well in the first 8-10 overs. After that in the middle overs I think we batted badly. We all know our bowling attack is our strength. Specially if batters put up 150-160, our bowling attack can win games. Last two games the batters didn’t do the job.”
“It’s tough as first two games we’ve lost. We bowled with four main bowlers. I think our four genuine bowlers did their job but unfortunately we had to make four overs with our allrounders,” said Hasaranga after the match ended.
Sri Lanka not getting off the mark in the T20 World Cup so far has come as a surprise considering they landed in the USA on May 20. In the post-match press conference, team manager Mahinda Halangode said Sri Laka never really got a big chance to adjust to the conditions due to consistent rain at their base camp in North Carolina.
“We were in North Carolina and in a place called Morrisville. But unfortunately, we couldn’t practice actually in the entire period because it rained and the wickets there actually were not up to standard, which meant we found it a bit difficult.”
“I won’t say that this defeat is because of that, but definitely when you look at the wickets in the US, I think you can see that there are low scores. So, the batsmen definitely have to adapt to the conditions and actually get a decent total so that the bowlers can hold and try to win the game,” he said.
Halangode said they tried to shift to another city like Dallas or Florida for training, but couldn’t make the move due to things beyond their control. “We actually tried to do it but unfortunately all those grounds were not available.
“We did contact the US cricket association as they were the ones who helped us to find a place in North Carolina because all the other places were fully booked. We were also trying to play a series with the US team. Unfortunately, Bangladesh had already got an opportunity of playing against them and because of that we had to go to North Carolina.”
Coming to the match, Thushara felt if Sri Lanka had 20 more runs to defend, things would have been different. “The pitch was a difficult one and it was hard for the batters. We were just 20 runs short. If we could have scored those 20 extra runs, we could have won this match.”
“But we did our best for 120 too as we wanted to win this match somehow. We played till the last ball thinking that we could win this match. I think the (wickets in) India were very different, those had higher scores and it was hard to bowl there. So, I think it was easier for me to put what I learnt there (in IPL 2024) to this match, as in how to handle the pressure and things like that.”