Angelo Mathews Ecstatic After Sri Lanka Qualified for World Cup 2019
May 29, 2019 at 7:18 PM
England defeating West Indies in the first One-Day International on Tuesday (September 19) came as a much-needed relief for Sri Lanka, as it ended their long wait for an automatic spot in the 2019 World Cup.
In a year where the Islanders have visited some disastrous results including a shocking series loss against Zimbabwe at home, the World Cup qualification will be a big boost for their battered morale.
With the World Cup spot now sealed, former Sri Lanka skipper Angelo Mathews has expressed his delight that he will be able to play one more World Cup.
“It is a pleasing to note that I will be playing another World Cup. I have played the 2011 tournament where we reached the finals and captained the 2015 edition and enjoyed both experiences,” Mathews told Cricbuzz.
Mathews further vented his disappointment over depending on other results to seal the spot. Sri Lanka needed to win two of the five games against India, but lost all of them.
“The sad part is that we had to wait till someone else won or someone else lost as we couldn’t do it on our own. But it’s pretty pleasing to qualify. We have worked very hard, and now we need to get our preparation right for the event in 2019,” Mathews said.
The all-rounder further said his teammates are now working hard to get back to winning ways after a tough couple of months where they had lost all the matches against India at home which proceeded by ODI series loss against Zimbabwe and group-stage exit in Champions Trophy.
“We have had a bad couple of months. We need to take responsibility. Whatever said and done, we didn’t play the cricket we wanted. We started training today (on Tuesday), and we are working extremely hard. We just need to work harder to get to the desired results,” Mathews said.
“What we require at the moment is just one win under our belt to get the momentum back. The confidence levels have been low after the last couple of series. One win can turn things around. I am pretty sure that we can turn things around if we play to our potential,” concluded Mathews.