The International Cricket Council (ICC) rates the Sri Lankan cricket team very highly. The Sri Lankans turn up for ICC events firmly focused at the job at hand and perform exceptionally well.
Not many teams can boast of four ICC finals in the last seven years. But yet, the trophy keeps eluding the Sri Lankans.
Why Sri Lanka keep losing the finals is a tough question to answer and on Friday, addressing the media, fast bowler and vice-captain of Sri Lanka’s T-20 side Lasith Malinga gave some input when he suggested that perhaps the players tried too hard rather than doing the basics right.
“I have played all those four finals. I haven’t won a World Cup, so I wouldn’t know what you have to do right to win,” Malinga said responding to a question posed by Sunday Island.
“When you play a final you are always under pressure. You start to think of various things leading up to a final. What happens is that if you try too hard you can get things wrong. My experience has been that I tend to try too hard and that sometimes it backfired. But the important thing is that now that we have played in several finals, we are experienced enough to soak up that pressure and face to the challenge,” Malinga further said.
Sri Lanka entered the finals at the last T-20 as firm favourites with momentum behind them and playing in home conditions. However, they lost the final to the West Indies as Malinga leaked 54 runs in his four overs. “The last World T-20 final is the most disappointing of them all. We lost the game because of me. I deeply regret that episode,” Malinga added.
Although Sri Lanka go into the World T-20 in Bangladesh as the number one ranked team, Malinga said that any team can win a T-20 contest and this format was lot more unpredictable than 50 overs cricket.
“In T-20s any team can chase 160 or 170. I believe that the team that makes less mistakes has a chance to win in T-20s,” he opined.
“The first two games are very important for us and from thereon I feel our spinners will play a major role in the competition. If we are able to win the first two games, then we will be on top and it will help us.”
Malinga was Man of the Match in the Asia Cup final with a five wicket haul, but said that he hasn’t found his rhythm yet. “Fortunately, I was able to take wickets during the Asia Cup. But T-20 is a different format. You don’t have that much of time to think. In a matter of a couple of overs, things can change. You can’t have a lot of hope in T-20 competitions. But I am looking forward to do my best.”
