India Are A Top Team And We Knew They Would Attack Us: Chamika Karunaratne

Sri Lanka speedster Chamika Karunaratne produced an excellent cameo in the first ODI against Sri Lanka in Colombo on Sunday. Chamika Karunaratne arrived when Sri Lanka were in danger of failing to bat out their 50 overs. But his 35-ball 43, with a boundary and two sixes, gave the hosts 262 to defend. But Karunatne expected India to play the way they did.

India came out all guns blazing as Prithvi Shaw took Sri Lanka’s bowling unit to the cleaners before departing for 43 off 24 balls. Shikhar Dhawan, the captain, was a mere spectator as Prithvi Shaw and Ishan Kishan took Sri Lanka’s bowling attack to the cleaners. But the 35-year old stayed till the end to ensure India pick up an easy win. He stayed unbeaten at 86 off 95 balls, while Suryakumar Yadav scored an entertaining 31 on his ODI debut.

Chamika Karunaratne, who bowled only two overs, revealed they tried to get wickets instead of drying up the runs by using bouncers and varying up their pace. The right-arm seamer believes that Sri Lanka needed to take more wickets in the powerplay as that would have helped them to control the game.

“We tried to get wickets rather than bowl dot balls. We tried to use our bouncers and our pace. They are a top team and we knew they would attack us. If we’d taken wickets we would have been able to pull them back. We were able to get one in the powerplay, and if we’d had another one or two in the powerplay we would have been able to change the game a little bit,” Karunaratne said as quoted by Indian Express.

A lot of our batsmen got good starts, but a lot of us weren’t able to continue: Chamika Karunaratne

Chamika Karunaratne also lamented the batsmen not converting their starts into big scores, revealing that captain Dasun Shanaka advised him to go for the big shots after the 45th over. The 25-year old feels that if the batters had made significant scores, they would have been able to cross 300. But Karunaratne remains confident of Sri Lanka going past 300 in the upcoming games.

“A lot of our batsmen got good starts, but a lot of us weren’t able to continue. We were trying to play longer innings, even when I was batting with Dasun Shanaka in the 42nd or 43rd over I asked him if I should go for some big shots, but he told me to wait until the 45th over. If more of our batsmen had been able to bat longer, we could have attacked earlier and gone for a bigger score. We do have the ability to get to 300 or 350, and hopefully, that will happen in the next games,” he added.

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