Former Sri Lankan skipper feels India are most dangerous when under pressure and says momentum with the Lankans
India take on Sri Lanka in a must-win match and former Lankan skipper Angelo Mathews feels Indian team are the most dangerous when their backs are to the wall and will come hard at team Sri Lanka in the Super 4 match at the Dubai International Stadium on Tuesday.
But Mathews also believes Sri Lanka have the momentum going in to the clash after two consecutive big chase against Bangladesh and Afghanistan and will be confident to take on team India. He added that toss definitely plays a big role in Dubai, but having said that a score of 180 can be defended if fielders take their chances. Lastly, he said Virat Kohli’s early wicket will be the key for Sri Lanka as he feels the king is getting back to his best.
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#asiacup2022 #indiasrilanka #sports #cricket
India take on Sri Lanka in a must-win match and former Lankan skipper Angelo Mathews feels Indian team are the most dangerous when their backs are to the wall and will come hard at team Sri Lanka in the Super 4 match at the Dubai International Stadium on Tuesday.
But Mathews also believes Sri Lanka have the momentum going in to the clash after two consecutive big chase against Bangladesh and Afghanistan and will be confident to take on team India. He added that toss definitely plays a big role in Dubai, but having said that a score of 180 can be defended if fielders take their chances. Lastly, he said Virat Kohli’s early wicket will be the key for Sri Lanka as he feels the king is getting back to his best.
See more videos at https://gulfnews.com/videos
Read more Gulf News stories here: https://bit.ly/2HLJ2km
#asiacup2022 #indiasrilanka #sports #cricket
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NewsTranscript
00:00Assalam-o-Alaikum, good evening, namaskar, satsriyakaal to all the gorgeous people of the world, and especially Sri Lanka.
00:08Well, Sri Lanka has come back in the tournament with a bang.
00:11Angelo Matthews had said in the last interview that if Sri Lanka play aggressive brand of cricket, and if they are able to chase, well, they can get ahead.
00:21And that's what they did by beating, rather, I would not like to use the word revenge in cricket, but probably taking one back from Afghanistan
00:28and taking that crucial two points. Anji, welcome to the show once again.
00:33Thanks, Dhanesh.
00:35So, tell us about that match which Sri Lanka won like a thriller two days ago.
00:42Yeah, it was a fantastic effort by the boys. I thought they played some really good cricket.
00:49And especially after that heavy loss, they came back really hard. They had to regroup, which they have done.
01:00And also, I thought that confidence will take them a long way in this tournament.
01:09If we can beat the big guns, we are really up on the money and we can play really good cricket, we will have a great chance of winning the Asian Cup.
01:23But again, this confidence, it's just history. We've got to, once again, go out there and show what we did.
01:38I mean, what we have in store and then try and beat the Indians. If we can beat the Indians, I mean, we have a really good chance of reaching the finals.
01:46Before I come to that match where they beat Afghanistan, in the knockout game against Bangladesh also, they showed character.
01:55In fact, they were done and out when they lost the captain. But the fast bowler came and hit some few boundaries and made them win.
02:02Absolutely. I was really happy when Asit Fernando, the debutant, walked in. We all know that he could hold his bat.
02:15And he got those two fours, which was invaluable for the team. I mean, I would say Bangladeshis took him lightly, but he got those two shots executed really well.
02:34And then, fortunately for us, we were able to get over the line. But I thought that was also a fantastic effort by the entire unit, especially chasing.
02:46Chasing makes it a little bit easier in Sharjah, but you have to bat really well, once again. I mean, maybe, I'm not sure whether the dew was there or not, but in Sharjah, you never know what kind of a total is good enough batting first.
03:03So, I think it's a really good option, chasing in Sharjah. And also, we saw even yesterday when Pakistan chased against India, the wickets are really nice.
03:16Probably coming on a bit better than the first half. But again, if you win the toss, I would bat second in the next game as well.
03:28All right. Now, the match against Afghanistan. Afghanistan were going very hard with Gulbaz taking the bowlers on. And then we saw that fight back of Sri Lanka, where they kept them to a minimum total, I would say, a total which was chaseable.
03:43So, you have to give credit to the bowlers, right, Anji?
03:47Absolutely. I mean, I thought we pulled back really well in the last four to five overs. They were really batting well. They were on target for a 200 probably, close to a 200.
04:02But they lost their way. I thought we bowled extremely well. We executed the plans. We had clear plans. And it was a fantastic effort by the bowlers, which gave the batsmen confidence to go out there and take on the bowlers.
04:19And when they batted, they started off well with the openers, giving them a good start, which always makes a difference with Patil Nisankar scoring 35, Kusal 36 and Quickfire 36. Let's accept that 19 ball, 36. It gives you that impetus and a heavy start.
04:39Absolutely. I mean, that's what we want. We want impact players scoring off a few balls. I mean, Kusal has been batting extremely well. Kusal has been carrying that form into the series as well, from the domestic tournament to the Asia Cup.
04:58And he's shown his class, apart from that first game. I thought he came back really well with the other two innings, which really made an impact to the team. And Patil also held on one end brilliantly, which, I mean, that is his role.
05:15Obviously, he can't go with a 200 or 150 strike rate. But what he can do is hit the gaps, run hard. And I thought the batters, the openers gave a really solid start, where Charita Salang, unfortunately, hasn't been in good form.
05:34But Dhanushka Gunatilega came in and batted really well. He got a 30-odd within no time. And that really gave us the platform to kind of launch from there. And we all know that we have the players to finish off games. And we are batting deep as well.
05:53So, all in all, it was a fantastic effort. But not forgetting Bhanu Parajapaksa's cameo. That really took away the game from Afghanistan. Because the turning point for me was taking the Afghan three spinners over 30 runs. Because they hardly go at 30 runs.
06:14They are world-class bowlers. But our guys took them for more than 30, which means the other bowlers will also go for runs. Because the spinners have been bowling exceptionally well, whatever the conditions. So, I thought that was the turning point where Rashid Khan got only one wicket and going for more than 35 runs was a crucial part in our game.
06:42That was going to be my next question. That Sri Lankan attacked Rashid Khan. I remember Kusal hitting for two sixes in his very first over and put him on the back foot.
06:50Absolutely. So, Kusal is one player who will pick the length very quickly. And if you are slightly short, for another batter, it may be not very short. But for Kusal.
07:04Because he is also a wicket-keeper. And he picks the length really quickly. And he has got super hands. So, those were not very bad balls from Rashid Khan. Which he took 17 of his overs.
07:21I thought he played some really good shots. Rashid was just off his line. But the length was not that short where Kusal mainly picked it really well and early. And he hit it for a couple of sixes.
07:35At that time, the batters got a lot of confidence with those two shots where we all know that Rashid Khan is a champion bowler. And not many people take him on.
07:46So, a lot of teams will obviously want to just nudge him around, you know, six, seven over. And then if most of them get 25 in his four overs, most of the teams will be happy.
08:01But I thought it was an exceptional performance by the batters.
08:04Now, the big game against India. As you said, the big boys, Sri Lanka, will take confidence with two wins back-to-back. How do you see this game going about tomorrow?
08:15Yeah, absolutely. So, we all know Indians are playing really good cricket. You know, they have got some top batters, good experienced bowlers.
08:27And it's not going to be an easy game. But we shouldn't be putting a lot of pressure on ourselves. We just have to go out there and just play with freedom and like how they did play in the last two games.
08:39Because those two games were crucial for us. And also, we were under extreme pressure. But I thought the boys responded really well. They came out, you know, firing all guns.
08:52And that's what you have to do. We know that India is a heavyweight. And obviously, you don't have to concentrate on India too much because then you kind of lose your concentration on what you have to do.
09:06So, you just worry about your skill, your execution and then just go out there and try and execute it perfectly.
09:16Well, Angelo Matthews says, don't worry about the opposition, how heavyweight they are. Worry about your skills and go and execute on the field. We will have to wait and watch that.
09:24But Angelo, India are coming on the back of a defeat and Sri Lanka on the back of two wins. Confidence definitely of Sri Lanka must be high. But you see India coming strong and harder at Sri Lanka to survive in the tournament?
09:40Yeah, I mean, that's when they play their best cricket, obviously. When they lose one or two games, that's when they really come hard at the opposition. And we've got to be aware that they will come really hard at us.
09:58And as I said, that's why I said not to worry about what kind of cricket that they are going to play, because we know that they'll be very aggressive with bat and ball. And we just have to worry about facing that one ball at a time and bowling that one ball at a time.
10:18And it's for the 20 overs, if we concentrate hard on what we have to do, the job at hand, I think we will give a really good fight for the Indians. And once again, the batters are in really good nick. I mean, one or two can obviously fail.
10:38But, you know, whoever who gets going has to just finish off the game or if we bat first, we've got to try and put up that challenging store rather than obviously the conditions will matter. But we've got to put up that challenging, which I feel by looking at the last six, seven, I mean, last few games, 170, 170 plus is kind of a challenging score.
11:07So you never know what happens if you get those runs on the board. I mean, if you go to score 200, 210, thinking that India are heavyweights and we never know what kind of runs will be enough, then you will lose the plot. So you've got to try and plan out for 170, 180 maximum and then bowl really well, tight lines, squeeze them in. That's how we play. And we can put a lot of pressure on them.
11:37Here is a question for you, Angelo. You know, what has happened in Dubai so far from the last World Cup? Teams chasing have won almost every game, bearing the Hong Kong games. So you're talking about the big boys or the teams which have been playing have won chasing.
11:51You mentioned a point that you don't target 200. Now, whether it was Afghanistan in the match against Sri Lanka or India against Pakistan, they started heavy and they were going bang, bang. And when you go a little hard, there is bound that you take risks and you lose wickets.
12:06And in that, 200 becomes 170 and 180. But it's not been defendable in the last two games. We've seen that, Angelo.
12:12Yeah. So it's all about how we play on the day. And it can go either way. So if you have that attitude, you can go either way. So if you go really hard in the first six overs, you tend to lose a couple of wickets because you go really hard at a strike rate of about 200.
12:34And then you tend to lose wickets because you take a lot of risk. So I'm not saying you don't have to take a lot of risk. Obviously, there are roles, like different roles for different batters. And then you obviously have to sort of get 45 to 55 runs in that first six overs. And then it's how you bet in the middle part.
12:58So I'm not saying you only have to slog to get 170 or 180. You can run hard. You can hit the gaps. And then your boundary comes in. You can use the pace. When you feel like it, you can take them on and hit it over the park. So it's about smart betting. It's not about how much you want. Because sometimes you lose this plot when you think about 200 or 250 runs.
13:24But when you think about 170 runs, sometimes you end up with 200 runs. Whereas sometimes the other way around, you think about 200, 210 runs because Indians are heavyweight. And obviously, they've got some fantastic power hitters in their lineup. But you lose the plot because you try to get more runs. And then you end up 30, 40 runs short.
13:52Whereas you plan for 170, 175. And then you might end up getting 190, 200. So it's about how you play in the middle part. And then if you have big bets from the 16th to the 20th over, then you can really capitalize and make it double. So I think it's all about being smart. It's all about being tactically smart, how you want to go about it.
14:20You mentioned an important point that you need to run hard. And we saw what Virat Kohli did yesterday. The way he was running as if he's a youngster. He's 33, 34 years old. But he was probably the difference between India scoring 140 on 150 and Beijing 180. So that's what I think is a clear indication for both the teams that if you want to play smart cricket like you mentioned, you will get the odd boundary, take your singles into doubles, doubles into triple. That's what Angelo says, correct?
14:47Yeah. So if you look at Virat, how he played. So he started off really well. But when you lose a couple of wickets on the other end, you kind of shift gears because you want to make sure that you get to a decent total.
15:03And then as a senior player, you know that if you get 170, 180, you're giving your bowlers a chance. Whereas the rate that you're going and if you suddenly lose a couple of wickets, and then if you still want to go hard from the very first ball when the new batter is coming in, you might lose a couple more. And then you will not even score 150.
15:29So that's where the experience came in of Virat, where he ran really well. He hit those gaps. He got the other batter to get going, have a look at the wicket as well, and then take it on. So that's how you play in the middle. So you really have to concentrate on running hard, hitting the gaps. And then when you want to, you can always go over the top.