Mathews slams batsmen for ‘bad decisions’ in Asia Cup 2018 opener
Sri Lanka captain Angelo Mathews slammed the whole team for their bad show against Bangladesh in the Asia Cup 2018 opener on Saturday in Dubai.
Mathews was disappointed with the effort and was critical of his batsman after Sri Lanka were bowled out for 124 from 35.2 overs in their chase of 262, thus, losing the match by a huge margin of 137 runs.
Bangladesh lost two quick wickets and Tamim Iqbal due to an injury but Mushfiqur Rahim and Mohammad Mithun got together and forged a 131-run partnership for the third wicket under pressure. The latter scored 63 off 68 balls and played a perfect innings along with Mushfiqur, who made his highest ODI score of 144 off 150 balls to rescue Bangladesh from a difficult situation.
"It was a pretty bad effort from the whole team. After having them 3 wickets down for 3 runs (2 wickets), we let them off the hook by dropping catches. And Mushy (Mushfiqur) batted very well.
We made lot of bad decision while batting. It was a good wicket to bat to. I had to use Lasith to get the wickets in the middle overs," Mathews said at the post-match interview.
Chasing 262, Sri Lanka were never in the game as they kept losing wickets at regular intervals and were eventually dismissed for 124 in the 36th over.
Sri Lanka's start to the chase was disastrous and that is what cost them. Kusal Mendis misread the pace of a Mustafizur Rahman delivery in the second over and played across the line, only to be hit on the pads and get adjudged lbw.
In the following over Mashrafe Mortaza got rid of the other opener in Upul Tharanga with a peach of a deliver that pitched on off-stump and moved in to knock Tharanga's stumps over.
Mortaza then got rid of Dhananjaya de Silva in his next over to leave Sri Lanka struggling at 32/3 in the fifth over.
The Lankans continued to lose wickets at regular intervals. When Mehidy Hasan got rid of Thisara Perera to reduce the former World Cup champions to 69/7 in the 19th over, the match was as good as over.
Speaking about their batting, Mathews said that they made loads of mistakes and that cost them the match.
"I thought 260 was a chaseable total. We made a lot of mistakes while batting. The decision making by the whole batting unit was poor. We need a good start when we are chasing 260.
We lost too many wickets and no one got going today. In the first 10 overs, after losing wickets, batsmen had to do the repair job. Unfortunately we could not get going today," said a disappointed Mathews before signing off.
Sri Lanka will next play Afghanistan on Monday and a loss there will knock them out of the tournament.
Source: India Today
