PALLEKELE: Stand-in one-day captain Chamara Kapugedera said that Sri Lanka has forgotten the winning formula and they needed just one win to get back on track.
“That winning formula has been forgotten. I have seen that happen to many teams. When a team is losing, even if they get close to winning, they just can’t go beyond that hurdle,” said Kapugedera after Sri Lanka had lost the third one-day international to India at the Pallekele International Stadium by six wickets to concede a winning 3-0 lead to the visitors. That loss was Sri Lanka’s 15th in 19 ODIs for the 2017 calendar year.
“We’ll have to win just one match and go from there. We also talk a lot about how we get this on track but I think in the last two games, we have bowled well. There was a big improvement in our bowling. On the other hand, our batsmen also need to lift their game. If we (batsmen) can go for a fair total, I think we can win,” said Kapugedera.
So far in the series Sri Lanka has run up totals of 216, 236-8 and 217-9 in the first three ODIs which have been insufficient to contain the strong Indian batting line-up.
Kapugedera said that it was the responsibility of the players to go out in the middle take on the responsibility and perform.
“There is no problem with the coaches or the supporting staff they have given us everything. They can’t go out there and play. It’s up to us (players) how we go out there and perform then only we can win,” said Kapugedera.
“There are weak points. That’s why we’re losing. Somehow, we’ll have to find those weak points and make those necessary adjustments before the next game.”
Kapugedera said that senior players getting injured was an issue which had also affected team performances.
“We’ve lost many bowlers. That also has an impact. As a leading cricketing nation, we can’t depend on just 15 players. We need to find more and more players. I think, there is a good crop of players in the younger age level. When they come up and play a little more cricket, we can have a good team in the future,” Kapugedera said.
Answering questions to the agitation caused by spectators on the team’s current performances, Kapugedera replied, “I don’t know of what people think but as far as I am concerned, there’s no problem in the team. We’re a one unit and no problems whatsoever. All what we have to do now is to perform and win matches, nothing else.”
For a team that is preparing for the 2019 World Cup Kapugedera agreed that losing in the manner they have against India was a big drawback.
“We just can’t go home and put our heads down and dream. There are matches to come and we need to get ready for them. The team should be supported when it’s down as well as when it performs, mentally and in every other aspect. What I can say is for our supporters to please keep supporting us because we are not that far away from winning. Everyone is playing to win and nobody likes to lose,” he said.
At the commencement of the current series Sri Lanka needed to win at least two of the five matches to automatically qualify for the 2019 World Cup. Now with only two matches left in the series the task of achieving that has become quite a difficult task.
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