Sri Lanka's 83-run win over the Netherlands came a bit too late as far as their Super 8 qualification is concerned in T20 World Cup 2024. They were already knocked out with losses at the hands of South Africa and Bangladesh and this was only a consolation victory for them. Their skipper Wanindu Hasaranga also felt the same as he stated that the team didn't help itself by losing their first two matches especially with some poor batting.
They were skittled for just 77 runs against South Africa while Bangladesh restricted them to 124 runs in their second game. Sri Lanka's game against Nepal was washed out and that virtually ended their hopes of making it to Super 8. Meanwhile, spinner Maheesh Theekshana had called their schedule 'unfair' on them after the first group game itself pointing out that Sri Lanka were one of the only two teams to play all of their group matches at four different venues.
Wanindu Hasaranga and his men faced South Africa in New York and then went to Dallas for the Bangladesh clash before travelling to Florida and St Lucia for the last two matches against Nepal and Netherlands respectively. However, Hasaranga is not ready to blame the tough pitches and the scheduling as the reason for their poor show. He feels that the team didn't adapt well despite landing in the USA 10 days before the tournament.
"When you lose a match you can blame pitches and other things, but as professional cricketers, that's not a good thing. Even the other team has to play on the same pitch, and it's our job to change the way we play. We're representing a country and have to take that responsibility. We didn't make those changes and adapt, and that was our main flaw," he said after the team's campaign ended.
"We have to thank the cricket board for bringing us here 10 days early and organising a training camp for us," he said. "That was a big thing. It was important to get used to conditions, weather, and the time zone here. But then when we moved from one region in the USA to another, the pitches were not the same. Even though in some countries pitches are more similar from place to place, that's not the case in the USA. We adjusted as well as we could, but we unfortunately got New York for the first match, and it didn't go well for us. In the second match we went to Dallas and didn't adjust well to that pitch. As a team and as a captain we have to take the responsibility for that," the skipper added.
As of now, Sri Lanka do not have any series scheduled in July while they will be touring England next in August for three Test matches. They are also slated to tour India but the schedule of the same is yet to be released.
