Sri Lanka secured their place in the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2023 by breezing past Zimbabwe in their Super Six encounter and their unbeaten record of this tournament give a big boost.
Sri Lanka skipper Dasun Shanaka said “Coming for the qualifiers is always tough, but still, we go through the process and we knew that with the team we have got that we were going to qualify for the World Cup.
Credit to the other teams they played really well in the tournament, some of the teams gave us some anxious moments, but still we are a better side.
Shanaka said “ This bunch of players, they have got their own skills and they utilise the conditions over here really well and that is what is important. Knowing the strength of our bowling and batting, which is the key to our success, we stick to our basics really well, whatever the conditions and situation is.
Qualifying for the World Cup is a big achievement but still we know what we have done in the past in World Cups especially, we won the 1996 World Cup and were the 2007 and 2011 runners-up. and we have been playing amazing cricket in the World Cup so it’s a much-needed thing for Sri Lanka to be in that big league. Actually there is pressure here but still the pressure begins on the big stage. So I think that World Cup ahead is the main focus and target for us, we are waiting to deliver there as well.”added Dasun .
Meanwhile Maheesh Theekshana the mystery spinner who had 4 for 25 was named Man of the Match and his back to back wickets including Sean Williams was the touring point of the game. Theekshana said “We had a good plan but I think after the first ten overs we hadn’t executed our plans well so sometimes you had to do it for the team. So I came back and had a chat with skipper Dasun and said ‘We need to change something in the field and got a wicket. Because we lost Lahira [Kumara] I knew I had to bowl in the power play as well, but Dilshan came into the side and got the first three wickets and he got us the momentum.
Sikandar [Raza] and Sean [Williams] were batting brilliantly in that period of time. So when I came back, I knew I had to get a wicket and get it settled down. I executed my plans well then and bowled in better areas.”added Maheesh Theekshana the dedicated spinner who also has IPL experience.
Meanwhile Craig Ervine, Zimbabwe captain said “It was always going to be challenging batting first. But I just thought there were a couple of soft dismissals in the first 10 overs, but obviously losing three wickets put us on the back foot early.
Actually Maheesh Theekshana is a veteran for Sri Lanka and he has done it on numerous occasions. I thought that partnership between Sean Williams and Sikandar Raza got us slowly back into the game. And then he came on and basically just destroyed us and the middle order and unfortunately, we couldn’t recover from those collapses in the middle.”added Craig Ervine.
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