"Everything went wrong" - Maheesh Theekshana on Sri Lanka's forgettable campaign in T20 World Cup 2024
Sri Lankan spinner Maheesh Theekshana expressed his disappointment as things have not gone his side's way at the T20 World Cup 2024. However, the finger spinner revealed that they will try their best to qualify for the Super 8 stage with one game remaining.
Sri Lanka lost their first two games to South Africa and Bangladesh, with their batting unit failing to click. The Island nation hoped to keep themselves alive with a win over Nepal on Wednesday but the match was washed out due to rain.
Speaking at a presser after Wednesday's no result, Theekshana felt Sri Lanka weren't up to the mark in the first two matches and suggested that they don't deserve to proceed to the next stage. He said:
"Everything went wrong this year. We didn't bat well and we didn't assess the conditions really well and our plans, everything went wrong. And I think as a team right now, it's not going to be easy for the next game but still, I think when we look at the last two games that we played, we didn't play well. We didn't play the best cricket that we had.
"So, I think we didn't earn the spot - the way we played in the first two games. I don't think we earned the spot for the Super 8 but still, we have one game left, so we'll try to do our best."
While South Africa have already qualified for Super 8 from Group C, the race for the second spot is likely to be between Bangladesh and the Netherlands. Both Bangladesh and Netherlands have won and lost a game each.
"We were in a good position when we came to this tournament" - Maheesh Theekshana
Theekshana expressed dissatisfaction with Sri Lanka's performances, claiming they came into the tournament with high hopes. He explained:
"We had high hopes about this World Cup. I am not satisfied with the performance of our team. We had a good mentality, bowlers were practised well, batsmen were also practised well in the last tournament. We were in a good position when we came to this tournament. I think we have done a lot of mistakes as a team, so we couldn’t enter the Super Eight."
Sri Lanka's final match is against the Netherlands in Saint Lucia on June 17.