Sri Lanka fail to meet expectations, vow to come back stronger

Sri Lanka’s tournament is over after four defeats in four group games, sending Chamari Athapaththu’s side home from the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup at the earliest possible opportunity.
Before the World Cup, it was hoped that Sri Lanka could build on an excellent 18 months in which they beat many of the world’s best teams and triumphed in the Asia Cup.

But performances failed to match those expectations, with head coach Rumesh Rathnayake saying that the pressure to perform had too much of a negative impact on the squad.

“What happened was winning the Asia Cup was a fabulous thing for the team and the country,” he said after Saturday’s loss to New Zealand.

“But come to the tournament, in hindsight, I can say that we did not keep to the expectations. The reason is that we took it too much upon ourselves.

“No excuse at all, but it's just that the expectations were so much, I believe the team could not handle it in the way in which I thought it could have happened. So those are the things which we have to sort of mend and we have to work on a better sound mindset in the future.”

Sri Lanka started their campaign poorly against Pakistan and were subsequently well-beaten by Australia, India and New Zealand in an admittedly tough Group A.

And Rathnayake said that by the time the team were able to respond to what had gone wrong, it was too late.

“In this (World Cup) everybody expected us to be, not the top dog but the top underdog, so to speak – the team which would beat the best teams. And we were in this group where we had some very strong teams and we wanted to win those games.

“But I think the expectation, as much as the world had that expectation, it got to the team as well, and I didn't realize. I mean, life is such that you don't realize it until things happen. And that was the thing which sort of went into the minds of the players also.

“So, in the last 48 to 72 hours, we were trying to work it out, I mean what went wrong. So that's a work in progress and that's the thing which we have to work for the future so that this will not happen again.”

Captain Athapaththu will be personally disappointed with her return to the tournament. The 34-year-old is the fifth-highest all-rounder in the game, ranks in the top ten in the world for batting alone, and was one of the form players on the planet coming into the World Cup.

But,while she was impactful with the ball, it took the Sri Lanka skipper until the final game to fire with the bat, scoring a classy 35 against the White Ferns.

And Athapaththu said after her team’s final game that it is the batters who shoulder much of the responsibility for the team’s poor returns.

“We (as a batting unit) didn't play our best cricket throughout this tournament. We improved a little bit today, but we needed another 20-25 runs. The bowlers did their best.

“I told the team to play fearless and positive cricket. We had nothing to lose and tried to execute, but it was not enough for the win.

“We played really good cricket in the last 12 months, but we have not played our best cricket at this competition. Expectations are very high, sometimes, it is pressure on the players. As cricketers, we have to keep it simple. Play it one game at a time.

“We lost our first game and then our mindset was going down. We kept trying (to turn it around) but it did not work.”

Even as the team’s on-field fortunes continued to go downhill, the support from the Sri Lankan fans in the United Arab Emirates remained strong.

And coach Rathnayake stressed how grateful the team were for their support.

“I mean we are very thankful that they come and support us, he said. “I've been with the men and the support for the men is immense, when it's a Sri Lankan support. And in the recent past I've seen that coming very close (for the Women’s team) and almost matching the support.

“We are very, very thankful, we are very honoured that they come and support us. Even when losing, as you said, that's very important and we appreciate it and we are very sorry that we couldn't keep to our expectations.”