Dhananjaya de Silva says his match-winning 40 not out off 34 balls yesterday helped deliver Sri Lanka’s first T20I victory in six matches.
De Silva said “This is what I’m meant to do for the team. In the previous match as well, what I’d been told was to bat 20 overs from one side. I wasn’t able to do that in the previous game. Today was my day and I did that. If I can bat at a run-a-ball until the final overs, letting others attack around me, I can raise my strike rate towards the finish as well. That was the coach, captain and selectors’ plan.”
de Silva said the surface for this match was the slowest of the tour.
Despite de Silva’s innings, Sri Lanka’s chase was far from straightforward.
The match required a six from the bat of Chamika Karunaratne in the 19th over to swing the game Sri Lanka’s way again.
de Silva, though, said he trusted his lower-order team-mates.
