Senior batter from the Sri Lankan squad, Dhananjaya de Silva expressed that the Sri Lankan camp had not spent any time dwelling on the results of the New Zealand vs Ireland and Australia vs Afghanistan games as they prepare for what could be their last match of the T20 World Cup.
For Sri Lanka to go through to the semi-finals of the World Cup, they do have to rely on one of either Australia or New Zealand getting beaten in their last Super 12s games on the 4th of November and then beating England themselves on the 5th of November at the SCG.
However, de Silva, speaking to ThePapare.com following Sri Lanka’s last training session before the game against England, said that the team had not spent any time on discussing what could happen with the games involving New Zealand and Australia, but are focused on playing some good cricket against England.
“Something positive I think is that we still haven’t really spoken about those results. They don’t really matter to our plans and it’s not something we can control either. What we can control is how we train and prepare for our game and I think the guys have done that.”
The Sri Lankan camp looked positive on the eve of the game, despite the possibility of being knocked out even before it starts but will be disappointed if they finish up without a win against any of the top nations.
At the 2021 T20 World Cup, the team impressed with some dominant performances in the qualifying round, but couldn’t get over the line against the likes of Australia, South Africa and England, despite pushing each of those three teams hard.
At this year’s tournament, they suffered a shock loss to Namibia to start things off but have since then comfortably beaten the lower-ranked side in UAE, Netherlands, Ireland and Afghanistan. The real struggles have once again come against the bigger sides, with Australia overpowering them at the end after they managed to keep up for the most part of the game, while against New Zealand, a dropped catch off Glen Phillips saw the team completely lose focus and ultimately lose by a big margin once again. SO the game against England will be critical, even if Sri Lanka don’t have a chance of going through as it will give them a chance to end things on a high and also secure automatic qualification for the 2024.
