Match Against Afghanistan a Must-Win for Sri Lanka: Malinga
The 35-year-old right-arm fast bowler cautioned his teammates against taking Afghanistan lightly.
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A 10-wicket thrashing from New Zealand still fresh in their minds, veteran Sri Lanka pacer Lasith Malinga on Monday, 3 June, said their second World Cup match against Afghanistan is a "must-win" game for the Islanders.
Both Sri Lanka and Afghanistan suffered defeats in their tournament openers and will square off against each other here on Tuesday, 4 June.
While Sri Lanka suffered a 10-wicket loss to New Zealand, Afghanistan were beaten by seven wickets by defending champions Australia.
Sri Lanka collapsed to 136 within 30 overs against the Black Caps and Malinga said the batsmen need to take more responsibility against the ever-improving Afghans.
"At the moment, we are concerned with our own skill and how we're going to play. That's what we are most concerned about. Whoever is batting or bowling, he has to have a perfect game," he said.
"The most important thing we need is patience, patience is very important. We know these conditions, we can have someone get 60, 70 runs and still some balls can move.
"We have to analyse the conditions. Whoever is the batsman, he has to finish the game. Whoever takes responsibility, bowler or batsman, whoever is the best tomorrow will win," Malinga added.
‘Afghanistan Have Good Experience Players’
The 35-year-old right-arm fast bowler, however, cautioned his teammates against taking Afghanistan lightly.
"Afghanistan have good experience players because most of the players play in franchise cricket” said Malinga.
"I think they have more experience, especially handling pressure, and that's the big challenge for us. I believe if we do our best, we can see good finishing at the end of the day," he added.
After winning the World Cup way back in 1996, Sri Lanka finished second-best in 2007 and 2011.
The worrying factor for Sri Lanka is that they had only won two of their last 16 ODIs coming into the tournament.
But Malinga still believes Sri Lanka has the ability to go far in the tournament, provided they can pick up a confidence-boosting win against Afghanistan on Tuesday.
"I think for our first match back against New Zealand, we know how tough these conditions are and we tried our best but it didn't go our way," he said.
"Whoever is doing best first half innings, they can carry on the winning way. We have talent but not much experience in these conditions and people to have to realise what the team expects in this situation," Malinga concluded.