England can hurt us badly if we are complacent – Mathews

Angelo Mathews batting in the nets at Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru

Sri Lanka’s most experienced cricketer of the present World Cup squad, Angelo Mathews said that they have to bring their A game into play if they are to beat England in their Cricket World Cup match at Bengaluru today.

“Whether you play at home, in England or at any other neutral venue, it’s always a contest between us. We know the brand of cricket that England plays and it’s all about being positive with them,” said Mathews. “If you take a backward step, they are going to jump on to you and take the advantage. You have to fight fire with fire. We know that they are a high-quality and well-balanced team. They can hurt us badly if we are complacent.”

“Our initial target is to get to the semi-finals. We still have hopes. It’s not that our team has played badly, we have made mistakes we shouldn’t have. Obviously, mistakes do happen and the opposition has got the better out of us. For us, it’s pretty simple. We have to win most of our matches out of the next five to give ourselves a chance to get into the semi-finals, which is our initial target. It’s a good wicket, small outfield, and England are going to come really hard at us. But we are up for the challenge.”

Mathews who returns to the Sri Lanka ODI side after being left out of their last 20 matches said, “I feel for Matheesha (Pathirana). It’s never a good way to get injured and go home especially during a World Cup. I wish him a speedy recovery. He is going to be fantastic over the next 10 years for us.”

“As for me, it’s an honour to take part in my fourth 50-over World Cup. I worked hard after the 2019 World Cup to keep running for a place. Especially after the LPL, I was able to get back into the groove in terms of white ball cricket. I haven’t played a lot of white ball cricket over the last three years. I am hoping to use all my experience and give it all in this World Cup.”

“Being left out of the team is not under my control. What I can control is to keep pushing myself individually in terms of fitness, bowling, batting, everything. When the opportunity comes, I have to be ready. I just did that over the last month or so, I was training extremely hard at HPC (High Performance Centre) with the other boys. I was giving myself a chance to - if I get the opportunity, to be prepared. After the 15 was selected, I was not expecting to play in the World Cup. But it is what it is, the opportunity came.”