DUBAI, Sunday: Eight months ago in January Sri Lanka suffered their heaviest ODI defeat at the hands of Bangladesh by 163 runs at Dhaka and went onto win the Tri-Nation Series.
Sri Lanka were then led by Dinesh Chandimal who unfortunately had to miss the ongoing Asia Cup with a hand injury.
Today Angelo Mathews will be hoping for a similar turnaround from his beleaguered team when they take on high riding Afghanistan in Abu Dhabi in a contest the Lankan skipper termed as a “do or die” game for them.
On Sunday in their Asia Cup curtain-raiser Sri Lanka suffered a humiliating 137 runs defeat at the hands of Bangladesh and the five times champions face an early exit from the tournament unless they beat Afghanistan by a big margin.
“We are definitely under pressure. We have got one life-line. It is a do or die game for us. Looking forward for it and it is a quick turnaround. We have got one day training and next day we are travelling to Abu Dhabi,” said Mathews.
“We have to click in all three departments. We cannot let go off one department as it could hurt us badly.” Sri Lanka were badly let down in their fielding and batting departments that contributed to their loss to Bangladesh. Sri Lanka batting coach Thilan Samaraweera put down the batting failure to “lack of options and clarity when under pressure”.
