Angelo Mathews calls Cardiff wicket funny, was tough to bat in the second innings too

After a stupendous win against favourites India, Sri Lanka succumbed to a nail-biting 3-wicket loss against fellow Asians Pakistan. It was a game which swung like a pendulum but in the end, Pakistan held their nerves and romped home courtesy a 75-run unbroken 8th wicket stand between Sarfaraz Ahmed and Mohammad Amir.

It was a tough loss for the Islanders, who were in commanding positions at least twice during the course of the game. They dropped catches at crucial junctures of the game which ultimately led to their downfall. At 161 for 3, Sri Lanka were in a position to get at least 275 runs on the board but they lost 4 wickets in 22 balls to lose their way in the middle.

‘We were 30-40 runs short’

Angelo Mathews accepted that they were 30-4o runs short. He was proud of the way his bowlers first batted well to get the total to 236 and then bowled exceptionally well to make a game out of it.

“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 — you know, 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. We had that in our bags, but unfortunately, the fielding let us down.

“I should mention the bowlers’ effort. They batted really well as well, and they came out and bowled really well as well. Unfortunately, they couldn’t win us the game, but really proud of the bowlers, the way they bowled and batted today,” said Mathews at the post-match presentation.

‘Picked Dhananjaya as we wanted 7 batters’

Injuries were never kind to Sri Lanka in this tournament. First, their skipper wasn’t fit to play the first game, and then Chamara Kapugedera was ruled out of the tournament following an injury. After playing a crucial knock of 47 against India, it was Kusal Perera’s turn to be ruled out of the tournament. Sri Lanka called Dhananjaya de Silva to replace Perera and picked him to play this game straight away. Mathews defended the move saying that they had to play 7 batsmen in this game and they did not have any batsmen in their squad as Upul Tharanga was suspended.

“We had to play the extra batsman on this. We had to play the seventh batter because we knew there was some grass on the wicket. We’re not sure of the toss, whether you win it or not. And also, if we are bowling well, bowling first, we had the four seamers, and if we are batting first, we had to have that seven batters.

Unfortunately, it didn’t go our way. Yes, it wasn’t easy for Dhananjaya to just walk into these conditions and start scoring runs, we understand that, but we didn’t have any batsmen left in the camp because Upul Tharanga was obviously suspended, so we were left with very minimal options for us.”

Mathews thought that the toss in this game was crucial but despite losing it, his team got a good position before losing their way in the middle.

“You can see the toss was also crucial because there was a little bit of dampness in the wicket. There was a little bit of green grass on the wicket. But it was a funny wicket. Even batting second wasn’t that easy. It was stopping a little bit for the seamers.

So, yes, we obviously didn’t have enough runs on the board, but I thought — well, the toss wasn’t a very crucial factor today, but, you know, considering the fact that we lost a few early wickets and we consolidated, and we got ourselves to a very good place and lost our way in the middle once again.”

Sri Lanka fought really hard but Pakistan were a better side on the day.