Sri Lanka captain Thisara Perera whilst praising the type of wickets prepared for the Hero Nidahas T20 tri-series blamed poor execution of his batsmen for their six-wicket defeat at the hands of India in the return match played at the R Premadasa Stadium on Monday.
“The failure of the middle order to contribute runs was the biggest reason for the defeat,” said Perera at the post-match press conference. “We lost two or three wickets in quick succession. We should have stuck around during that period, and if we did that, we could have got around 180 easily. The bowlers need at least 175 to defend on this pitch. We didn’t bat well enough.
“We need to have 175 or 180 on the board, because from the first or second over, the ball is wet. It’s hard to grip, so we need those runs. In the first six overs we couldn’t bowl well. That’s not an excuse but we should be prepared for that,” Perera said.
Perera defended the move to play an extra bowler in place of a batsman for the Indian game when Sri Lanka replaced suspended captain Dinesh Chandimal and gave vice-captain and fast bowler Suranga Lakmal his first match of the series. Lakmal however didn’t fare too well with the ball bowling two overs for 19 runs.
“With this rain we definitely needed another main bowler. Our game didn’t go to plan - that’s the main reason we lost. If we had got 175 or 180, we would have been more competitive. In the previous matches we did really well. Our batting was great. It’s in this match only that we collapsed. We had chased 173 and then hit 214, so our batting is really good. We need to fix the little issues and think about the coming matches,” said Perera.
“In the previous two matches we didn’t need the batsmen coming in at No. 7 or 8. So we thought the batsmen we had was enough. Actually if we look at our first match, we did pretty well. Dasun (Shanaka) and I finished the match. Other than in the last few matches our batting line-up is very good. But today (Monday) we couldn’t bat well - including myself.
“I have to bear the blame as well. I batted well at the start and could have continued. But what I tried to do was to hit a boundary. I think we could have batted better around Kusal Mendis. He batted really well. The main reason for the loss is we couldn’t execute our batting plans. Sad to say this was not a good score to defend on this wicket. It was a really good wicket to bat. We were 30-25 runs behind,” he said.
Sri Lanka are now left with a “must win” situation in their final league game against Bangladesh on Friday to qualify for a place in the final.
Man of the Match Shardul Thakur whose career best figures of 4 for 27 triggered a Sri Lanka middle order collapse said, “I have told one thing before: I love challenges.
I am taking it as a challenge. If other senior bowlers are missing from the team, then I have to step up. I have done this previously for other teams that I have played for. I have come in place of Zaheer Khan, Dhawal Kulkarni and Ajit Agarkar while playing for Mumbai. I had to step up in that role. When senior bowlers are rested, I have to step up and fill that role to lead the pace attack.”
Battered for 27 runs in one over in the first match, Thakur came back with a vengeance to bowl India to victory in the return game with the best figures in the ongoing tournament so far.
TODAY: India play their final league match against Bangladesh.
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