What’s the story?
Sri Lanka captain, Angelo Mathews, revealed that the inspirational practice session with former Sri Lankan skipper Kumar Sangakkara was the key to beat in India in the ICC Champions Trophy 2017 group stage encounter.
Sangakkara spent some time with young Sri Lankan batting line-up on the eve of the match and provided invaluable advises and tips to Kusal Mendis and other batsmen.
"Yeah, he (Mendis) met Kumar Sangakkara to get a few batting tips, and he's the king, and we all look up to him. We all get advice from him, all the batters. He taught us a lot of good things on how to play on these tracks. Yesterday the guys met him and took a lot of advice and went out there and implemented it," Mathews said.
In case you didn’t know...
Sri Lanka beat India in their Champions Trophy clash by 7 wickets in a record-breaking chase of 322 runs at the Oval.
The heart of the matter
Angelo Mathews has credited his former skipper for the historic win and went on to say that his inputs helped all the batsmen immensely. He thanked the Sri Lankan legend for helping the team bounce back in style after the crushing defeat they suffered against South Africa in their previous match.
The run-chase against India was Sri Lanka’s joint highest in the ODIs and this has helped them keep their hopes of reaching the semi-finals alive.
Extra cover: ICC Champions Trophy 2017: Qualification scenario for each team
What’s next?
Sri Lanka next take on another fellow Asian nation, Pakistan, in what will be a potential quarter-final, as the winner will confirm their spot as one of the last four teams. The match is scheduled to take place on June 12, which will also be the last CT 2017 group stage match.
Author’s take
The Sri Lankan batsmen played wonderfully and seemed to have put the tips from their batting idol to perfect use. The win has most certainly boosted the team’s confidence and they will now go in their last group stage match high on confidence.
On the other hand, the loss against Lankans is a wake-up call for India and hopefully they will bounce back hard in the upcoming match against South Africa, a day before Pakistan and Sri Lanka lock horns.
Also read: ICC Champions Trophy 2017: 5 things that went wrong for India against Sri Lanka
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