JOIN US Under-pressure batsmen are afraid to play their natural game and that’s affecting our performance, felt Sri Lanka’s stand-in skipper Lasith Malinga after the hosts crashed to their fourth successive defeat in the five-match ODI series here on Thursday.
Lanka, chasing India’s mammoth 375 for five, could muster only 207 all out in 42.4 overs marking another low in this series.
“We didn’t bowl well in this game,” Malinga began. “With the batsmen, we only had one experienced batsman – Angelo (Mathews). Others are young players, but they need time. They are still learning, I feel. But still, we have to perform because we are playing in the national team. They tried their best. I feel they don’t have much confidence to play their natural games, because the last couple of matches we lost and everyone wants to get runs. That’s why they really concentrated on trying to get runs, I feel. They aren’t playing natural game. Everyone is waiting for a win.
“In the last couple of matches we lost and they didn’t get many runs, they feel they have to score every single match. That’s why we can’t get their maximum in this period. I think maybe in the next couple of months they will work hard and get good mentality. I hope, for (the sake of) Sri Lankan cricket, they perform well,” he elaborated.
This has been Lanka’s biggest defeat in a long time. They lost the three-Test series 3-0 and now they stare at the 5-0 whitewash of ODIs as well. Malinga, however, sought some time for the team to find its feet.
“I think, personally, if we are playing at the international level, it’s when you get experience at international level that you understand how to handle difficult situations. A lot of our players are inexperienced at international level, though they get their places because they perform at domestic level. I think if we gave some chances to the young players here, we will get players who can play for a long time. If we can give them experience that goes to the 2019 World Cup, then you will have players who would have played 30-50 ODIs.”