by Dhammika Ratnaweera
Sri Lanka cricket head coach Chandika Hathurusinghe said winning the match against Afghanistan on Tuesday was a big boost for the Sri Lanka team.
He also pointed out that he is not happy with the Cardiff pitch as low scoring pitch is not suitable for one day matches. Unlike the pitch in Cardiff grounds pitches in other venues are favourable for batsmen who aim to score high. We have already witnessed such high scores in better pitches.
Whenever a team loses a match, it is natural that they come under pressure. Although some batsmen were heavily criticised on social media,Hathurusinghe said he does not think the players are upset by such comments as they are very dedicated and more concern over making necessary improvements to go forward.
“Anyway we never pre-plan without observing the pitch and it depends on the wickets.” added Hathurusinghe. It was worth replacing Nuwan Pradeep for Jeewan Medis.
Sri Lanka’s tight win at Cardiff Wales Stadium was only their second ODI win out of 11 matches played, a run that included eight straight defeats.
Hathurusingha said: “This victory gives us lot of confidence as we haven’t had much success recently. I’m sure you will see a better team, a better approach from our team after this win. We were desperate to win”
Sri Lanka’s next match is on Friday (7th ) against Pakistan at Bristol County Ground.
Hathurusingha admitted that his batsmen struggled to cope up with the bowler-friendly conditions.
But he could not understand their mid-innings collapse where they lost four wickets for five runs in 11 balls.
He said: “It’s very hard to explain. We were in a very good position at one stage. I think the pitch is such, it’s quite difficult to get a good start. When a batsman is at crease, it looked easy to bat on, but we lost one wicket and then we lost three wickets in one over.
“There were a lot of sloppy shots that were the cause of some of the dismissals. We were lacking confidence with the unexpected failure in middle-order batsmen. However, they came back to the game.”
Hathurusingha paid tribute to Sri Lanka’s two match-winning bowlers, Nuwan Pradeep, who returned to the side to take career-best ODI figures of four for 31, and veteran Lasith Malinga, who produced two trademark yorkers to clean up Afghanistan’s tail.
He said: “That’s what you expect from Lasith. He’s a world-class performer and steps up when it matters.
“Nuwan had bowled really well in the two practice games as well and he single-handedly kept us in the game.”
“Kusal Perera, Sri Lanka’s match-winner with the bat is an amazing player”, Hathurusingha added. “We have given him full licence to bat the way he wants to bat. We know that when he comes off, most of the time it is a match-win”.
Hathurusingha does not believe there is much that he can do to inspire his side between now and their next match, but he believes the players are desperate to improve.
He said: “When you play for your country there is a lot of pride at stake. They were all upsetting, I’m sure about that. They really want to perform well for the country.”
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