14 November,2014 08:03 AM IST | | PTI
Battered and bruised after their embarrassing defeat to India, Sri Lanka skipper Angelo Mathews said they need to tune up in all three departments of the game
Kolkata: Battered and bruised after their embarrassing defeat to India, Sri Lanka skipper Angelo Mathews said they need to tune up in all three departments of the game.
Dismayed at the way they have surrendered 0-4 lead to India in the five-ODI series, an aghast Mathews said: "Everything seems to be going wrong for us. It was depressing and disappointing performance from the whole team."
"It's embarrassing we are not being competitive enough in the past four games. They beat us convincingly. We need to fix our problems as soon as possible." Mathews said this has been the worst cricket that the Lankans were playing in last eight-ten months. "We have not played this bad.
We have competed against top teams. We need to be more competitive to win against India." Hitting out at their butterfingered fielders, Mathews said dropping Rohit for four proved to be their downfall. "Once again we're pretty poor on the field as well. We
let go Rohit and it cost us the game. You can't let go a brilliant player like Rohit.
"But nothing can be taken away from his brilliant knock. But we could have had more plans and executed properly." Further he pointed out that conceding 282 runs in the last 25 overs was unacceptable. "You try and need to bluff. You can't really bowl the same line and length for three or more overs on these tracks.
300 was a cakewalk on this wicket. "We lost our way while bowling after the 25th over. In the second 25th over they scored close to 290 runs... That's not acceptable. Our bowlers did not have any answers for their batters," a helpless Mathews replied.
Terming 405 a humongous target, he said: "We have not got 300 in this series so far. It has been a concern for us. We need to look at ways where we can score 300 plus to give our bowlers some chance and while bowling at least we have to restrict them for 350 to give us a good chance.
"It (pitch) was brilliant for batting. If we had wickets in hand we could have got to 350. But unfortunately our openers have not been able to bat for at least five overs in this series. That is a concern as well."
Mathews said competing against India in their own backyard was tough. "I think intensity has been really good. It has picked up
a little bit in the past two games. But the pressure I think... It is tough to play against a team like India in India."
