'Not our best cricket': Athapaththu on 5-0 loss, eyes World Cup prep

Despite a 5-0 series loss to India, Sri Lanka captain Chamari Athapaththu is positive about young players' form. She admitted the team needs to improve its batting and power-hitting ahead of the upcoming T20 World Cup.

Athapaththu on Series Performance

After a 5-0 clean sweep against India, Chamari Athapaththu, Sri Lanka captain, believes they're not playing their best cricket, needing improvement in power-hitting and batting. However, after this series defeat, she's positive about youngsters performing well and said the team is focusing on trusting their skills and playing freely ahead of the T20 World Cup. "Actually, we are not playing our best cricket in this tournament. So definitely we have to improve a couple of areas, especially the power-hitting area and the batting. But we have good positive things in this tournament. We carry forward like some of the youngsters playing really good cricket in the middle. So these are the positive things, and looking forward to playing our best cricket in the next few months," Chamari Athapaththu said after the match.

Dressing Room Talk and World Cup Focus

Chamari also felt that senior players on the team, including her, are playing good cricket but not their best. "Actually, a few seniors with me like Inoka, Nilakshi, and Hasini, so they are playing good cricket, but I feel we are not playing our best cricket, especially as seniors. And the youngsters doing really good, and some of the youngsters would take that opportunity, and they are playing their best cricket in the middle. So we have to think lot of things before the World Cup. So we need to improve a couple of areas, and I hope we can play our best cricket in the World Cup. (talk in the changeroom) So we talked about positive things in the dressing room because we played really good cricket 6-7 months ago. So our coach is really good. He always told to the team, play with your potential, trust your skill and play your game freely. That's the most important thing. These are the positive things we talked about in the dressing room. Actually, some of the batters executed the right time in the middle. So we gave good fight for India but unfortunately we lost the games," she added.

Match Recap: India Secures Clean Sweep

In the match, India won by 15 runs. Chasing a target of 176, Indian bowlers restricted the visitors to 160 in their 20 overs. Sri Lanka batted better, but it was not enough. Athapaththu went early, but the impressive Imesha Dulani and Hasini Perera added 79 for the 2nd wicket and kept their side in the hunt. However, late wickets in the innings restricted Sri Lanka to 16 runs short.

Indian skipper Harmanpreet Kaur's brilliant fifty, along with a fiery cameo from Arundhati Reddy in the last over, powered India to 175/7. Reddy and Sneh Rana added a vital 33 runs off 14 balls for the 8th wicket to help India reach a fighting total. Reddy slammed 20 runs off Malki Madara in the last over. Reddy's innings in the back end made the difference for both sides in the match. (ANI)

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