Sri Lanka captain Angelo Mathews thought defeat in all disciplines handed them a humiliating 137-run defeat against Bangladesh in the ACC Asia Cup tournament opener at Dubai International Stadium on Saturday.
Bangladesh, who decided to bat first after winning the toss, were taken on the back foot by Lanka pacer Lasith Malinga as he dismissed Liton Das and Shakib Al Hasan in the first over of the game. In the next over Bangladesh’s trouble were amplified when Tamim Iqbal was taken out from the field due to a fatal injury. But Sri Lanka failed to take advantage as Mushfiqur Rahim and Mohammad Mithun, who scored 144 and 63 runs respectively, guided Bangladesh to a competitive total of 261 runs. The lost momentum saw Sri Lanka batsmen bamboozled and their innings, which never got on, was folded for a meagre 124 runs.
Lankan skipper Matthews rued their lacklustre performance after the match.
“Batting was the main reason behind the defeat. Lasith had started brilliantly taking early wickets but we gave away the momentum. We also dropped few important catches. But Lasith was brilliant today (Saturday). Chasing 260 was very much possible to chase, the wicket was fine but we took very bad decisions while batting and gave away the game,” said Matthews to the media on Saturday.
It was a really bad performance by the batting unit. The batters let the whole team down: Angelo Mathews #AsiaCup #SLvBAN pic.twitter.com/lw4ycP4hfY
— Cricbuzz (@cricbuzz) September 16, 2018
He also praised Mushfiqur’s batting and Tamim Iqbal courage to come out to bat with a broken hand. Tamim’s decision to resumed with a broken wrist boosted Mushfiqur and he made a fiery finish adding 32 off 15 in last part of the innings.
“He (Tamim) showed great courage and Mushi (Mushfiqur) batted really well. Tamim got down to bat when Mushfiqur was win the crease and this got them 20 to 30 runs on the board. But still I think the target was possible to chase which we failed,” said the losing skipper.
Losing Sri Lanka are in a do or die situation going into their second and final group game, against Afghanistan on Monday at Abu Dhabi.
“We are of course under pressure now having just one life line. Next game is a do or die for us. We need to prepare fast for that as we got a single day to practice and travel to Abu Dhabi and play the game. We need to rectify our mistakes from this game (against Bangladesh) and focus on the next game,” said the Sri Lanka all-rounder.
Bangladesh start the Asia Cup with a bang! https://t.co/ilHIsnnbuG #BANvSL #AsiaCup2018 pic.twitter.com/a6qS39QtAk
— ESPNcricinfo (@ESPNcricinfo) September 15, 2018
