We misread the pitch – Asalanka on Sri Lanka's defeat

"In a T20 game you cannot make too many mistakes because it's a fast format" ■"Bangladesh played better cricket than us on the day"

- By Sa'adi Thawfeeq

WHITE-BALL Captain Charith Asalanka admitted that he misread the R. Premadasa International Cricket Stadium pitch, which led to Sri Lanka losing the third and decisive T20 International to Bangladesh by 8 wickets and with it the three-match series for the first time.

"We misread the pitch that is why I decided to bat first but it turned out to be good for the side batting second. The coach and I thought the wicket will become slow later during the day but it didn’t happen that way," said Asalanka at the post-match press conference.

“Whether to bat first or field is a collective decision taken by the team. We don’t delve too much into history but look at what is ahead of us. What we look at is the weather condition, the pitch etc. We know how much water has been sprayed into the pitch because we are playing in our home conditions, but sometimes the decisions we make can go wrong like today.”

“Mahedi’s (Hasan) bowling put us out of the game. Mahedi bowled really well. It looked like a spin track but our batsmen also made a few bad decisions which cost us the game. In a T20 game you cannot make too many mistakes because it’s a fast format. If we want to be a good team we will have to minimise our mistakes.”

I bowled one over and Kamindu (Mendis) also. He told me that the pitch had improved. We tried to spin but it didn’t work out. These things can happen. In the batting Tanzid (Hasan) played an exceptional innings on this track and he counter punched really well.”