Rex Clementine in Bombay
The last time Sri Lanka and India faced off in an ODI, the Asia Cup final at RPS, the game was an anti-climax as Sri Lanka were shot out for 50. Head Coach Chris Silverwood believes that last month’s thrashing will serve as a motivation for his team ahead of today’s World Cup fixture against the hosts here in Bombay.
“I hope that the defeat in the Asia Cup would give more motivation to the boys to come out and obviously fight, show plenty of spirit and get stuck in to the Indian side,” Silverwood says.
Sri Lanka were in with a chance to book a berth in the semi-finals after they had beaten England, but their loss to Afghanistan early this week in Pune has brought their campaign back to square one.
“All of us were very disappointed the other night after that result. That’s not to take anything away from Afghanistan. I thought they played superb cricket on the night and showed that they are a progressing team and they’re very capable of beating people.”
One of the reasons why Sri Lanka have had a poor World Cup is that their middle order has failed to fire. After six games Charith Asalanka has scored one half-century while Dhananjaya de Silva has none after the same number of outings.
“We know they have bags of experience in their locker and we’ve seen both of them score runs at various points. So, I mean, it’s like any game of cricket, not everybody will perform all the time, but what we do need is people to put their hands up, and at times it’ll be their time to do that as well.”
“When we do get a good start it’s making sure that we finish innings off strong and obviously push on to big scores, and then taking wickets in the middle phase is something that we’re constantly working on. It’s not easy on good wickets but we have to find a way and we have to find a way of taking those wickets. Otherwise, you’re allowing other people to get big scores, making our lives difficult.”
With a semi-final spot looking bleak, now the other important thing for Sri Lanka is to ensure that they finish top eight to ensure a spot in the Champions Trophy in 2025.
“We know we have to finish in the top seven or eight, depending on where Pakistan, the host nation are. So that’s something that we’re very aware of and something that we’re aiming to do. It’s not just the World Cup. Obviously, we want to perform to our best ability in this tournament, but we have to make sure as we do so we obviously qualify for the next tournament as well,” Silverwood concluded.