Need to improve batting in the middle overs, says Dimuth Karunaratne
Sri Lanka skipper Dimuth Karunaratne admitted the fact that their batting has been not been up to the mark in the first two games of the ongoing World Cup and they need to work on it to improve their overall performance.
On Tuesday, Sri Lanka came out on top in a topsy-turvy affair at the Sophia Gardens as they successfully defended 187 to claim a narrow win against Afghanistan.
Put in to bat, Sri Lanka got off to a brilliant start, racing to 79/0 off the first 10 overs. Despite the fantastic start, the Sri Lankans were all out for 201. A collapse of 7/36 meant Sri Lanka went from 144/1 to 180/8.
This was the second successive match where Sri Lanka have had a disastrous middle-order collapse, after losing 5/14 in their opening match against New Zealand.
The game had one significant rain delay, which resulted in the match being reduced to 41 overs a side, but Sri Lanka were bowled out for the second time in two matches before completing their allotted overs.
"We had a good start after a long time but suddenly, we lost a couple of wickets and were on the back foot. That's the negative part but otherwise, the bowling and fielding was really good," said Karunaratne after the match.
"Only thing we need to work on is to improve our batting in the middle overs. Wickets were the key, if the openers get going, then 187 isn't easy to defend," he added.
Meanwhile, Afghanistan captain Gulbadin Naib also called on his batters to come out with an improved performance in the remaining matches.
Chasing a revised DLS target of 187, Afghanistan never got going and it became extremely difficult for them as they were reduced to 57/5 in the face of some accurate bowling from Sri Lanka.
When Pradeep got Naib for 23, the game swung back towards Sri Lanka, and despite the best efforts of Najibullah (43), Afghanistan finished 34 runs short of their target.
Nuwan Pradeep was the chief destroyer for Sri Lanka, finishing with figures of 4/31 in his nine overs.
"We need improvement in the batting department, need to learn to stitch small partnerships, especially against such quality bowling. At the start of the day, it was cloudy and I expected it to be the same throughout. We could have batted better, played straighter and watched the ball better," said Naib.
Sri Lanka will next face Pakistan while Afghanistan will lock horns with New Zealand.
