India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni blamed the team’s inability to defend a decent total to the dew factor and said the side might request the organisers for an early start of the remaining matches.
“It was always going to be difficult to defend a total like 280-285. Dew became a huge factor. We knew we had to pick early wickets. After the first 10 overs there was nothing for the bowlers,” Dhoni rued after Sri Lanka cruised to a five-wicket win with two overs to spare.
“We can make a request for an early start but if you have to play at the same time, you have to come up with something else,” Dhoni said.
Elaborating the point, Dhoni said he could not blame his bowlers for not being able to defend a 279-run total because it was difficult to grip the wet ball.
“It was difficult for the spinners to grip the ball. The ball kept slipping out. There was no yorkers, no reverse-swing and no spin for my bowlers,” he said.
His Sri Lankan counterpart Kumar Sangakkara was all smiles after the win and he profusely praised centurion Thilan Samaraweera and Thissara Perera whose unbeaten 15-ball 36 took the game away from India.
“All credit to Sammy for batting through, and Perera played superbly too. When we started out in the morning, it was like ‘here we go again’, but (Chanaka) Welegedara did well to bring us back in. Suraj Randiv bowled well, and I think our fielding was much better. The attitude of the players was brilliant, we were out there to win,” Sangakkara said.
Sri Lanka, meanwhile, were dealt another blow today with Sangakkara announcing that Muthumudalige Pushpakumara would be returning home because of a shoulder injury.
Samarweera thanked his teammates for the win and said his second ODI century was all the more memorable since it came for a winning cause.
“I knew it was a matter of having partnerships. At the top, I had one with Sangakkara and the Perera played a great knock down the order.
“My plan was to hang around till the 44th over and then take it from there. In the batting powerplay, I knew we can get 50-60 runs from 30 balls,” said the right-hander.
