Sri Lankan promising player Kamindu Mendis believes the team will bounce back to win the third Zimbabwe ODI to take the series and all players are in good confidence to do that. The 23-year-old left-hander Mendis further said skipper Dasun Shanaka played a very good innings to complete his maiden century. It’s not easy to play that type of innings under pressure. After three top-order wickets fell in a quick session. I decided to stay at the wicket and go for the target while making a good partnership.
Dasun Shanaka and Kamindu Mendis a made 118-run fifth-wicket stand and Mendis was out at 35th over after reaching his maiden ODI fifty.”
“I was out at 35th over. If I stay another 6-7 overs we should have had a chance to win this game. However we were very close to the target and we should correct our mistakes and come back strongly in the next game”, added Mendis. “We should have got all positives from the last two games and are going to win this final game to take the series”.
Menids further said I had a chance to bat at number three position. “It’s not new to me. I already bat number three at my club as well as number three at Sri Lanka ‘A’ side and this is a good opportunity to show my skills in this position. I always tried to keep my fitness and now it’s a big improvement. The players should realize to keep their fitness and that’s their responsibility and all players have to work hard for that”, said Mendis.
Meanwhile, Sri Lankan skipper Dasun Shanaka said after the losing Zimbabwe game; “when I went to the middle, myself and Kamindu didn’t look at the scoreboard. The ball was coming on nicely in the first half of the game and then it was skidding. Actually, we didn’t bowl well at the start while our top order didn’t click as we expected. Hopefully, both will fire in the next deciding game,” added skipper Shanaka.
Zimbabwe captain and Man of the Match Craig Ervine: said “It was quite nice to bat, it was coming on nicely. I thought there was a little bit more in it for the spinners and especially in the first game we were bowled a little bit short and wide, However, this time the seamers did well to get those early wickets for us. We were under a bit of pressure to win this game, but hats off to the boys for coming out and showing that, you know, desperate to pull off the win.” added Ervine.
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