We failed to make a good first impression, says Dasun Shanaka

The way we batted in the opening match of the Asia Cup against Afghanistan was not a good first impression and we h.ave to work hard to win the next games”, said Sri Lankan skipper Dasun Shanaka after the losing first game in Dubai on Saturday.

“How can we survive, the first over claimed back-to-back wickets of Kusal Mendis and Charith Asalanka in two balls. During the power play, we lost three wickets and big pressure built-up to make the innings. if we continue this poor batting performance we would not have much luck on our side to win matches. We never expected this type of defeat from Afghanistan. They bowled well from the beginning but had to capitalise on that and adjust to the conditions. We should have built up a good total”, said Shanaka who was dismissed for a first-bowl duck.

“There is a dew factor during the second session but that was also not a huge effect the main thing was we couldn’t build up a good total and our bowlers couldn’t do anything after a low total. We knew we had two debut fast bowlers Dilshan Madushanka and Matheesha Pathirana but were not able to create enough pressure after making a low total. Conditions will vary from venue to venue, challenge will be to adapt, said Dasun.

“Anyone can say we haven’t experience about playing this wicket in Dubai. We had experienced players but they should have come up to win the matches.

We used Danushka Gunathilaka as the number 4 batsman and Pathum Nissanka and Kusal Mendis as openers. Dhanushka started club cricket after leaving College as a middle order batter but he later was promoted to opener.He has ability to play in the middle order and we had to maintain left and right hand combination and this type of decision was taken to set the batting order Shanaka said.

“A disappointed Dasun Shanaka also said about the poor umpiring decision by the third umpire to dismiss Pathum Nissanka. An improved decision can be achieved through better technology. We have to use this facility to make the correct decision. This error caused us an unexpected loss. But there are no excuses, at the end of the day, we were not good enough to beat them. They played better cricket.”

Meanwhile, Afghanistan skipper Mohammed Nabi said early wickets were taken by paceman Fazalhaq Farooqi put pressure on the opponent. He took three wickets and earn the man of the match award while our bowlers did a decent job. Their fielding and batting lived upto expectations. The young wicket keeper and opener Rahmanullah Gurbaz and Hazthatullah Zazai laid a good foundation. Especially, Gurbaz and Naveen Ul Haq had good experience having played with Sri Lankan cricketers at the Lanka Premier League (LPL) last two editions and it was a good exposure for them.”

Meanwhile, Daily News learnt that Afghanistan had three weeks of training sessions at Àbu Dhabi three months before and that paved the way to focus on this Asia Cup.

The Àbu dhabi-based Sri Lankan senior journalist Amith Pussella said Afghanistan got three weeks of training at Àbu Dhabi while Sri Lankans played in the SLC T20 invitational tournament. We have to gain good exposure from Asia Cup to focus on T20 world cup.

Meanwhile, Sri Lankan head coach Chris Silverwood said after the first match this match is good eye opener. My team definitely will come back in next match against Bangladesh on September 1 and there is enough period to adjust. The junior have to come up with experience while we have still chance to enter super four stage. Sri Lanka is looking to make few changes for the next game.