Sri Lanka Skipper Kusal Janith Perera said that lack of experience among the players was the prime reason for their first One Day International (ODI) series defeat against Bangladesh in Dhaka on Tuesday.
“It was a very disappointing team performance during both matches. On both occasions the middle-order collapsed and the lack of experience cost us the series,” Perera said after the game.
The dashing wicket-keeper batsman hoped that the players would come out with an improved performance and redeem some prestige in the third match on Friday.
“We need to have a serious talk before the third game. They have to back and believe in their strength and play fearless cricket,” he elaborated.
“I think all our batsmen have to bat with their full strength. They have to believe in their strength otherwise they can’t come out victorious.”
“The bowlers did a reasonably good job to restrict the opponents to below 250 runs in the second game. We need to win the third match at least to get some confidence,” Perera added.
Meanwhile, Bangladesh Captain Tamim Iqbal commended his team for a good performance but said that his players could perform even better.”
“I think we haven’t played our perfect game yet and hope to play a perfect game in the third match on Friday,” he stated.
“We lost a lot of wickets in the middle and 200 runs were looking difficult but Mahmudullah and Mushy played very well but most credit should go to the bowlers.”
“We got a reasonable total but I think the bowling was special in this game. Taskin Ahmed was asked to come on short notice as a replacement and Mehidy bowled well throughout the match.”
“Our bowling and fielding was great in this second game but we haven't nailed the perfect performance yet.”
“We have to step-up our fielding and there were catches that we didn't take. Those will change games and if we take those catches then I'll be a happy captain,” he added.
Man-of-the-Match Mushfique Rahim said he was pleased to contribute towards the team from the front but in the meantime was disappointed for not batting the full 50 overs.
“Contributing from the front was great but I was disappointed for not playing the last 11 balls of the innings,” he said after the match.
“Mahmudullah batted well and a couple of guys chipped in and the bowling effort was special in this second game.”
“There are areas we can improve. We need to be fearless but there's a fine line between fearless and selective cricket.”
“Hopefully our batsmen will take a few notes from this game and come back better in the next match because this isn't the easiest pitch to bat on,” he added.
(D.R)
