Sri Lanka made a stunning comeback in the ongoing ICC T20 World Cup 2022 against the UAE after suffering a shocking defeat against Namibia in their tournament opener on October 16.
Sri Lanka produced a brilliant performance in their second group match to hand a crushing defeat of 79 runs to the UAE to keep their hopes alive for a Super 12 berth in the ongoing T20 World Cup 2022.
Now, the Asia Cup champions will have to win their last group match with a significant margin against the Group A table-topper Netherlands on Thursday (October 20) to book their place in the Super 12 stage.
After defeating the UAE in the important match, Sri Lanka skipper Dasun Shanaka stressed that the Asia Cup 2022 triumph is now history, so they must now focus on producing a match-winning performance in their must-win clash against the Netherlands.
Shanaka said: “I think Asia Cup champions is history, so it’s just a title for us. There is no pressure at all. We just need to concentrate on our own performances and what we need to do to make sure that we get into that second round after the next game.”
He added, “We know our strength. First game we didn’t execute in that match, so we got beaten by Namibia. But we are a far better team than the team we performed in the first game.”
The Sri Lankan skipper admitted that he and the big-hitting Bhanuka Rajapaksa must step up and contribute big runs in the tournament while hailing Pathum Nissanka (74), Wanindu Hasaranga (3/8), and Dushmantha Chameera’s (3/15) performance against the UAE.
He signed off by saying, “I think we need to have myself (score runs) and Bhanu needs to kick on in this tournament, as well. Pathum Nissanka, really played throughout, and it was an outstanding inning. And Wanindu and Dushmantha and even Maheesh Theekshana, we know how good they are when it comes to these kinds of games. They were performing well. You saw from the time they started their careers.”
(With PTI Inputs)
