We didn’t bowl in good areas: Shanaka

• Lankan skipper sums up shocking defeat against Namibia

Sri Lanka skipper Dasun Shanaka summing up his team’s shock 55-run defeat to Namibia in the ICC T20 World Cup curtain-raiser match said that his bowlers especially the quicks didn’t bowl in good areas which enabled the opposition to recover from 93-6 and post a match-winning score of 163-7.

“I think there’s nothing to worry about. It’s the first game. The way we played was worrying. I think we are a better team than this, and especially when it comes to bowling. If you look at their bowling, they really bowled in good areas, where our bowlers didn’t do,” said Shanaka at the post-match press conference.

“With the short boundaries, they tried too much. I think if they stick to that hard length, wicket to wicket, like what the Namibian bowlers did really well, it would have been different.”

“After the sixth wicket fell, what we should have done is to get the next wicket. Our bowlers, they didn’t bowl to take the wickets. That’s the area we must think of as experienced cricketers. Each and every one has played a handful of games, that’s the area we should learn quickly, to take the wickets rather than giving balls to hit. We gave a lot of bad balls to hit boundaries.”

“We should learn quickly from that and come back in the next game. The other thing is batting. We can’t lose three wickets in powerplay, which makes it very tough to chase down anything over 150. I think credit to their players, the way they played. We’ve been here since 2 October, I think we’ve prepared really well, but our plans didn’t work. That’s the main reason we couldn’t cross that mark.”