Angelo Mathews called their performance against Pakistan ‘pathetic’. (Source: Reuters)
Sri Lankan captain Angelo Mathews called their performance against Pakistan ‘pathetic’ and said that it would have been a different story if they had held the three catches.
Sri Lanka dropped three catches, all off the bowling of Lasith Malinga, allowing Pakistan to book an ICC Champions Trophy 2017 semifinal seat by three wickets.
Mathews said that their performance was again pathetic. “Looking at today’s performance, I thought we were pathetic once again. If we had held those catches, it would have been a different story today, especially at very crucial times,” he said.
He however said that his side has worked hard despite getting knocked out in the Group stage. He said, “Yes, we dropped three catches, but there has been a genuine effort from the boys and from the support staff. We’ve expressed a lot about our fielding and we put a lot of energy on our fielding. So, yes, there has been a genuine effort.”
With lack of other batting options, Sri Lanka were forced to pick Dhananjaya de Silva. “We had to play the extra batsman on this,” he said. “We had to play the seventh batter because we knew there was some grass on the wicket. When you lose a game, you can always say it was poor batting, it was poor fielding, and it was poor bowling, but I thought it was kind of a funny wicket today. Yes, we were 30, 40 runs short obviously, but I’m really proud of the guys, the way they came out and tried to defend that. Unfortunately, the fielding let us down.”
Praising Malinga, Mathews said, “He’s been a great servant for Sri Lanka cricket. He’s been fantastic. We saw the effort that he put in today as well. It was unfortunate that we dropped his catches. He would have been a different bowler but still he came out and gave his heart. He is a champion.”