New York [USA], June 4 (ANI): Sri Lanka captain Wanindu Hasaranga explained the rationale behind his decision to bat in their T20 World Cup campaign opener against South Africa.
It was a low-scoring affair between the strong contenders for the top two spots in Group D. Sri Lanka won the toss and opted to bat on a surface whose nature they were unaware of.
The Nassau County International Cricket Stadium turned out to be a tricky two-faced surface. South Africa pacers ran rampant and forced Sri Lanka to bundle out on 77.
Surprised by the nature of the surface, Hasaraga explained the reasoning behind his decision to bat was based on the team’s current strength – bowling.
“Yeah, especially in this big tournament. These wickets are very hard, especially in T20s, and their bowlers bowled really well and our bowlers have bowled well as well. Still, we did a lot of mistakes,” the Sri Lanka skipper said in the post-match press conference.
“Our strength is bowling, so we thought that we could win the toss, put some score on the board, and pressure them. Because we know our bowling, we have won the past few T20 matches as we decided to ball secondly. So that was a decision made as a team with our current strength,” he added.
Sri Lanka gave South Africa a run for their money after their pacers enjoyed movement from the surface.
The Lions managed to reduce the Proteas to 23/2 while defending their paltry total. But South Africa eventually managed to crawl their way to a six-wicket win.
Hasaranga heaped praise on the bowlers’ efforts as they managed to drag the game to the 17th over.
“But we saw that how was the pressure that we gave them even we balled secondly. We kept bowling for 16 overs for them to reach the score of 70. So, I see there is nothing wrong with the decision that we made, but the target we set was not right. Even though the wicket was that hard, we were having a big target as a team till the end, and I think we identified it later. That’s what happened there,” he said.
On a surface that was offering enough help to the pacers, Dushmantha Chameera could have bolstered Sri Lanka’s bowling set-up. But the Asian side decided to back Nuwan Tushara instead of Chameera.
Hasaranga revealed the factor behind the decision and said, “We went with Nuwan Tushara because he had played a few games in the IPL and Dushmantha didn’t play matches in the IPL. Dushmantha didn’t play matches since last week, so that’s why we went with Nuwan Tushara – and he had five wickets in his last T20 international. So, we went with him. But still, you know, we saw the difference, you know, bounce and low bounce in the wickets still when we are bowling.”
Sri Lanka will look to win their first game of the tournament in their next match against Bangladesh on Saturday in Dallas. (ANI)
