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Angelo Mathews warmed up for the Champions Trophy with a brisk 95 against the Australians, but then picked up calf trouble – Getty Images
Angelo Mathews recognised that India is the strong favourite for the ICC Champions Trophy 2017 Group B game The Oval on Thursdayand also acknowledged that no one expected Sri Lanka to win the tournament. Playing on the ‘Sri Lanka are underdogs’ theme, he even joked that he wished Kumar Sangakkara would come out of retirement for the game.
“At the very first press conference, I said we are happy to walk in as the underdogs. I mean, no one really expects us to win the championship, which takes a lot of pressure out of the guys,” he stressed. “You’ve got to deal with the pressures. We always have pressures and you’ve just got to deal with it and be as a team. Yes, we are in the rebuilding phase for the past one or two years. We’ve had so many greats and they’ve retired. We are slowly rebuilding, but surely, we will come up with a good performance.”
Mathews was at a loss of words to explain the long period Sri Lanka has taken to cope with the retirements of Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene after the ICC Cricket World Cup 2015 – it has won only 13 of 39 One-Day Internationals since then.
The underdog tag takes the pressure off Sri Lanka, according to Angelo Mathews.
“It’s a very hard question to answer,” he said. “I mean, it only comes with experience, and the guys are learning every single day. If you look at most of the guys, they haven’t played a lot of international cricket. The more you play, the more you learn, and we’ve learnt right through our careers.
“It’s just that we’ve got to keep learning every single day, and everyone has to step up with their roles because we can’t just expect things to fall in line. We’ve got to make it happen, and we’ve got to make it happen soon.”
One way to do that, at least for the short-term, would be to abandon caution and play with complete freedom. It was an approach suggested by Sangakkara, and Mathews agreed.
“I think that is our brand of cricket, being aggressive and positive, thinking that there is no expectations,” said Mathews. “People will want India to come in and thrash us, and it’s just all the pressure is off us. We just have to go out there, just express ourselves. As Kumar has rightly said, coming from the legend himself, we’ve got to go out there and express ourselves and be aggressive.”
Talking about Sangakkara, the Sri Lankan champion has not only kept himself active in the English county circuit, but has also in excellent form of late. His last five scores for Surrey – which has The Oval as its home ground – are 124*, 114, 120, 200 and 84.
Mathews, only semi-jokingly, said he was very tempted to request Sangakkara to join the Sri Lankan ranks. “I always asked him that,” said Mathews. “Even a couple days ago, I was asking him ‘can you come and play for us in this game’. He’s been in absolute form. He’s been in form ever since he started playing, to be honest.
“Yes, he’s had a dream career, and it’s unfortunate that we don’t have him anymore, but he’s always willing to help us. He’s always having chats to us on how we should play on these conditions, especially. It’s his home ground. And he’s had a lot of chats to all the younger players, including myself. Yes, it’s unfortunate we don’t have him, but, yes, it’s very tempting to call him back again.”
AFP: Sri Lanka batman Chamara Kapugedera faces a nervous wait to discover if his Champions Trophy campaign is over after suffering an injury in practice on Wednesday.
Kapugedera sustained the undisclosed injury on the eve of Sri Lanka’s second match in the tournament against India at The Oval on Thursday.
Sri Lanka captain Angelo Mathews revealed Kapugedera has gone for a scan to determine the extent of the problem, with a potential replacement on stand-by to come into the squad.
“Yeah he just got injured at training, so we sent him for an MRI scan,” Mathews told a press conference at The Oval on Wednesday.
“We are waiting for the doctor’s report. If need be, we might have to bring in a replacement.”
Kapugedera’s injury is the latest blow to Sri Lanka after stand-in captain Upul Tharanga, deputising for the injured Mathews, was banned for the remaining two group matches as punishment for his team’s slow over rate against South Africa last weekend.
The 30-year-old middle order batsman, who made his international debut in 2006, was dismissed for nought against the South Africans as Sri Lanka lost their Group B opener by 96 runs.
AFP: London: India skipper Virat Kohli has urged his team to produce a repeat of their Pakistan demolition when they face Sri Lanka in the Champions Trophy on Thursday.
Kohli’s side made a memorable start to the tournament as the defending champions crushed arch-rivals Pakistan by 124 runs in Birmingham on Sunday.
It was the perfect response to reports of a rift between India captain Kohli and the team’s coach Anil Kumble.
Kohli knows momentum can change quickly in one-day competitions, especially against a desperate Sri Lanka team looking to bounce back from defeat to South Africa in their opener.
But Kohli hopes the confidence boost from beating Pakistan will help India secure another victory in their second Group B match.
“Every game in this tournament is big, but we have a side with a few youngsters coming in and gradually getting towards strengthening their careers for India,” he said.
“So I think from that, from the team’s point of view, it’s a massive win for us.
“Just the way we played and the confidence we showed throughout the game was something that was very pleasing to see as a captain.
“Even though we lost the toss, guys were raring and ready to go, willing to take up the pressure.
“That gave all of us the confidence to start striking the ball well, but initially the openers gave us a good start as well.
“As I said, it’s a clinical performance from us, from the team’s point of view, yes, it is indeed a very big win.”
