Mathews: We keep making the same mistakes

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Cricket365
November 10, 2014

Sri Lanka captain Angelo Mathews dismissed the idea that lack of preparation saw them lose the ODI series to India, saying they had failed to play their own style of cricket and kept making the same mistakes.

Mathews' side lost the third ODI by six wickets after failing to post a big enough target, and this saw them lose the series three nil with two games to go.

Though they were chucked into the series at the last minute, to fill in for the striking West Indies, he said they should have learned from their batting errors in the beginning.

Mathews said: "It was always going to be tough in India, whether you are prepared or not prepared. It is a challenging tour for any team, not only us. Not many teams have won against India in India.

"But we just wanted to play our brand of cricket, which we haven't played in the last three games.

"If we play our brand of cricket and stop worrying about winning or losing then I think we can head into the World Cup pretty high and confident.

"We can't repeat those mistakes time and again. We flopped in our batting. I thought the power-play was crucial, we lost four wickets for minimum runs.

"We keep doing the same mistakes and hope that we win, which we cannot do here. Especially against a quality team like India you got to stay positive. 300 is a minimum mark here on these wickets. 242 was nothing for the bowlers to bowl at."

He added that it was unfair to keep expecting the senior players to get the runs, with Mahela Jayawardene's century going in vain after he rescued the knock. Even Mathews, normally so reliable, only made 10 runs.

The skipper added: "Only Dilshan and Mahela showed some resistance and all the other batsmen just threw it away. Either just lack of concentration or just playing some silly shots.

"Going into the World Cup we need top guns to fire. And they are ones who have been performing for the last couple of years. The younger guys need to step up and grab their opportunities, we can't keep chopping and changing.

"They need to give their 100 per cent, we see the seniors give their 100 per cent. They are hungry for runs and the younger guys need to learn from them."