Angelo Mathews blames poor pitch and middle order collapse for their defeat against Australia

Angelo Mathews, the present captain of the Sri Lankan team said that the loss of the three major wickets between the 30th and 33rd overs was the main cause of their defeat against Australia in the first ODI of the series. The Sri Lankan and Australian players also mentioned that the pitch was drier than expected and Mathews believes that the state of the pitch was one of the main reasons behind Australia’s three-wicket win.

Mathews, who was out for a duck in the game, said that the scenario of the match changed after Kusal Mendis, Dhananjaya de Silva and his own wicket were taken by the Aussies. As quoted by ESPNCricinfo, the captain said, "We were going pretty well at one point. But straight after Kusal Mendis got out, I got out, and then Dhananjaya got out. I thought that was a bit of a turning point. We needed a partnership with Dinesh Chandimal. Either me or Dhananjaya had to set it up for Thisara Perera and Milinda Siriwardana to go out there in the 43rd or 44th over and get those quick runs. It wasn't easy to get quick runs. The boundaries were 80 or 85 yards away. We needed to be scrappy, but unfortunately we were short 20 or 30 runs.”

Sri Lanka started well in the beginning of the match with a decent scoring rate but the game witnessed a turning point during the middle of their innings. During those overs, the Sri Lankan captain lost his wicket, which was James Faulkner’s second in his double-wicket maiden. The team did have a healthy score of 124 for 2, but a middle order batting collapse saw the Lankans end up with a score of 227 from their 50 overs.

The chief destroyers for Australia were Faulkner, who picked up four wickets, whereas Mitchell Starc took three wickets which included Dhananjaya de Silva. Dinesh Chandimal was the highest contributor for the Sri Lankans with an unbeaten score of 80 in 118 balls.

The Sri Lankan captain further spoke about the dry conditions that both teams had to play under, "It was a bit too dry I thought. With this kind of (recent dry) weather, we knew that it was going to turn.

“(But) if the curator leaves a bit of grass (for the next match on Wednesday) maybe it will not stop and turn. It depends on the curator. It usually turns a little bit here, so it will be a dry sort of a wicket but you never know what the curator will come up with."

After their victory, the Australian opener Aaron Finch stated the next match between the two sides would be interesting. He also added that his side has enough confidence after this victory and the Aussies are ready to play in any condition now.