Sri Lankan Skipper Dinesh Chandimal confessed that the hosts’ bowling was well below par during the team’s loss against Bangladesh in the 3rd T20I of the Nidahas Trophy.
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Speaking at the post-match media briefing, Chandimal expressed disappointment at the team’s inability to execute their plans with the ball, saying “Our bowling was below par today, and we didn’t execute well as a bowling unit so that cost us.”
Bangladesh’s 50 came off just 25 deliveries in the game as the Sri Lankan bowlers were carted to all parts during the powerplay by Liton Das and Tamim Iqbal. Crucially, Sri Lanka opted for off-spinner Akila Dananjaya and he was taken for 24 in two overs, providing Bangladesh just the impetus they neede to chase down the mammoth score.
Speaking on the plan to bowl Dananjaya Chandimal said,
“It didn’t work today, he’s the number one bowler we have. I mean as a spinner, he’s our wicket taking bowler. Unfortunately, he could not do that today. It’s only a couple of games (that he has failed). He bowled really well in Bangladesh. These things happen, I’m sure he will come back strong.”
Sri Lanka would have hoped to pick up a couple of early wickets but failure to do so meant that the likes of Mushfiqur Rahim and Mahmudullah Riyad were not left with too much to do during the latter part of the innings. In fact, at no point in the innings did Bangladesh’s run-rate dip below the 10 runs an over mark, giving every new batter who came to the crease some leeway to get in.
“In T20s, no matter what total you get, you need to get an early wicket. That’s crucial in any short format game. So, we were looking for a couple of early wickets so we can peg them back but as a bowling unit we couldn’t make that breakthrough early on and that cost us”
Chandimal went on to say that the pitch itself was “too good” for the batters and was different to what we were accustomed to seeing at the R Premadasa, which is known to be a low-scoring ground. As such, perhaps there was very little the bowlers could have done, particularly in the face of some good batting from Bangladesh.
“When you compare the pitches, especially for this series, we have got some really good pitches. In the past there was some spin but we didn’t see that on this surface. It was a really good pitch for the batters. We can’t point fingers at anyone, we got a good total but we made a few errors with the ball and I’m sure the bowlers will be able to execute their plans better in the next game. Our bowlers tried really hard and fought really hard but unfortunately in some situations we were unable to execute our plans well enough and that cost us in the end. These things happen in cricket. Scoring 200 doesn’t ensure you a win. Credit to Bangladesh, they played some really good cricket and handled the situation really well.”
Despite being disappointed at the loss, skipper Chandimal acknowledged that there were some positives to be taken from the game, in the batting department and that credit should be given to the visitors for their performance.
“We can’t win every game. As a team our goal is to always be competitive, because when you are competitive you have more chances of winning games. Although we lost today, we played good cricket, but on the day Bangladesh played better cricket than us.”
