Sri Lanka will take confidence from their recent series win over Bangladesh when the two sides collide in their Group D match of the ICC Twenty20 World Cup at the Grand Prairie Stadium in Dallas, Texas today.
The island nation featured in a full-fledged three-match T20I series against Bangladesh in March, where they came out on top with a 2-1 series win over the hosts.
鈥業t鈥檚 all about the process, I think, and how we鈥檙e going to approach the game from the ball. That鈥檚 also what I said earlier: that our boys are confident because we had a good series against Bangladesh recently. So, we can take that confidence and move forward,鈥� Sri Lanka batting coach Thilina Kandamby said in the pre-match press conference on Thursday.
The 2014 champions made a frustrating start to the competition as they suffered a crushing six-wicket defeat to South Africa in New York, where they were bowled out for 77, their lowest total in this format of the game. Earlier, they also lost to the Netherlands by 20 runs in their warm-up match.
However, Kandamby wished that his charges would be able to make a turnaround against Bangladesh by rectifying the mistakes that they made against the Proteas.
鈥榃e had a good chat yesterday [Wednesday] with the boys, and they have realised the mistakes that they have made. Also, I think they are experienced enough to come back in this game [against Bangladesh].
鈥榃e have spoken about it鈥攁 lot of things, how we are going to play up. If the A game is not happening, how do we transfer our mental approach to the B game? So, we have spoken about it. I think boys are pretty much up for it.鈥�
A defeat against Bangladesh would also make their task hard of qualifying for the Super-Eight of the competition, but the coach believed that a win over the Tigers could change everything.
鈥業t鈥檚 a matter of one game, actually; we didn鈥檛 bat well, and we accept that. But the way our bowlers and the fielders fought back, defending such a small total in New York, which is fantastic.鈥�
To date, both Bangladesh and Sri Lanka have faced each other 16 times in this format, among which Bangladesh have won five, while Sri Lanka came out winning in the rest.