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Batted very poorly, Sri Lanka need to come back strong — Thirimanne

Sri Lanka were bowled out for 136 and lost by 10 wickets to New Zealand in their opening World Cup match

Lahiru Thirimanne

Lahiru Thirimanne believes Sri Lanka must promptly get over the embarrassing defeat to New Zealand in their first match of the World Cup and learn from their mistakes on a green track in Cardiff.

New Zealand’s pace attack were without injured Tim Southee but exploited helpful conditions to bowl out Sri Lanka for 136 at Cardiff Wales Stadium.

[ Watch: Highlights – Sri Lanka v New Zealand, Cricket World Cup, 2019 ]

Thirimanne admitted batting was tough in bowler-friendly conditions in Cardiff, where Sri Lanka will face Afghanistan in their next match.

“It was tough conditions, to be honest, but we batted very poorly,” he said. “We could have easily got to 250 and had a good fight, but we couldn’t manage to do that. We have another game in this ground so we know what to expect and we should be able to adapt to conditions quicker.

“We are playing in England, so sometimes you have to expect the ball to move around and for it to be tough. That’s how cricket goes sometimes. The best thing we can do is put this game behind us but we need to learn from it.”

Lahiru Thirimanne

Thirimanne bore the brunt of early seam and swing, and was trapped lbw by a Matt Henry in-swinger off the second ball of the game.

The 29-year-old, without a one-day cap in nearly two years, is capable of run-getting in these conditions as was proven by his warm-up half-century against a tough Australian attack earlier this week.

As Sri Lanka navigate their way through eight further World Cup matches, skipper Dimuth Karunaratne provided a perfect example of circumspection at the crease, and Thirimanne encouraged his team-mates to model their batting approach after their captain who has returned to the side in good form after a four-year absence from ODIs.

“Dimuth is the example to follow,” Thirimanne said. “It’s not easy as an opener. I know it’s very difficult to bat in these conditions but he fought very hard. We knew that New Zealand have a very good bowling attack.

“They capitalised on conditions really well. The mood is very good, because we knew this wasn’t our day. We can’t let our heads get down and walk away. We have to come back strongly.”

© ICC

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7 Comments

  1. A flat-track bully, with a Test Batting Average of 23 after 60 odd, Test innings is not qualified to make this statement. A front-line batter that offer 101 straight-forward chances to score a 50 would always make life difficult for his fellow batters. It is only in SL players are picked based on the performances made in matches played in front of the selectors’ eyes only, these are the results one gets with such kind of idiotic selections being done. Selector with little intelligence would always consider entire careers of those players particularly the school. How successful they are as youngsters has to be seriously taken into account. Only an idiot would drop a player like Chandimal having seen his many a fighting qualities from his debut matches both ODIs &Tests against India & SA respectively. The two other fighters that could easily deliver when the Team needs, who should have been brought in for the WC, are RoshenS & AselaG. These players, together with bowlers MalindP&SachithraS have proven more than enough to be permanent members of both Test&ODIs. They should be given their due respect for their skills & what they have already done for the Country to get best out of them. If you are a batter at National level, you should be always in a position to offer straight bat, giving full face. Interestingly, that is the only thing most of the batters picked for the WC cannot do.

  2. Mr Tirimanne so come back quickly before its too late just look at the way Bangladesh batted against South African attack that’s Professional batting, that’s the way to bat hope you guys have not gone on a just participating tour

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