JOIN US“We need to work on our bowling. See, today we did not get wickets upfront when it was necessary. We could not bowl yorkers towards the end as Lankans made some easy runs,” Dhoni said in his post-match press conference.
Indians could not get capitalise on the opening created after getting rid of Upul Tharaga and debutant Lahiru Thirumane when Lanka were on 77.
After Kumar Sangakkara and Thilan Samaraweera pieced together 122 runs for the third wicket, men in blue managed to reduce the Islanders to 226 for five, and when new face Thissara Perera arrived at the crease they needed 54 runs off 39 balls.
However, experienced Zaheer Khan and Ashish Nehra could not rein in the free-hitting Perera and Samaraweera as the Lankan duo rattled up the required runs with two overs to spare, cashing in on a number of full tosses and half-volleys the Indian bowlers offered.
“We are working on the aspects at nets and we are certainly improving. There were reverse swing as early as from the seventh over, but we just could not use it properly today. Hopefully, things will fall in place soon for us. ” he added.
Meanwhile, Sri Lanka’s joy of winning their second consecutive match got somewhat drenched as Mudumudalige Pushpakumara and Chamara Silva joined the casualty list. “Pushpakumara suffered a shoulder injury while fielding and Silva got his finger injured yesterday,” Kumar Sangakkara said.