It was a really good total, but these things happen in cricket, says Dinesh Chandimal
Sri Lankan skipper Dinesh Chandimal was adamant that his side put up a good total in the Nidahas Trophy loss to Bangladesh, who he credited for putting up a strong chase to win the match. Chandimal lauded the efforts of Mushfiqur Rahim as he said that it was one of the best innings he’d seen.
The Tri-nation tournament between sub-continent neighbours India, Bangladesh and hosts Sri Lanka has turned out to be an interesting affair for cricket fans all around the world. India lost to the hosts in the opening match, credit to a fine Kusal Perera innings but bounced back in their next match with a comfortable win against Bangladesh. Sri Lanka, however, succumbed to a surprising defeat in a high-scoring encounter against Bangladesh as the visitors chased down a target of 215 with two balls to spare.
This left all the three teams in the tournament with a win from two matches after round one. Chandimal did not put too much thought into the loss against Bangladesh as he felt that stuff like this is part of the T20 game.
"It was a really good total, but these things happen in cricket. Even if you score more than 200 runs, you can't just assume that you're going to win. Cricket is a funny game and things can change. Credit goes to Bangladesh. They were outstanding tonight and handled situations better than us.
"It was a good game of cricket. We put up a very good total, but it was actually too good of a wicket for the batters. As a bowling unit I think we were below par today and we didn't execute our plans well," the 28-year-old Sri Lankan captain told journalists after the loss.
After Sri Lanka posted their second highest total at home in a T20 International, the 35,000 capacity crowd at the R.Premadasa stadium in Colombo might have assumed that it was a sure-win for the home team. But Bangladesh managed to pull off the fourth highest successful run chase in the history of T20I cricket and the highest in the country of Sri Lanka, with major credit being bestowed on Mushfiqur Rahim’s knock of 72 off 35 deliveries.
"It was a really good knock. We all know that they have played some outstanding cricket in the recent past. But this was one of the best Mushfiqur innings I have seen," Chandimal said.
