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Perera promises for a good show in T20Is
By Aditya Pratap - Dec 19, 2017 2:21 pm
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Sri Lankan skipper Thisara Perera is confident to hit back hard in the T20 International series against India after a modest show throughout this tour.

The visitors lost both, Test and ODI, series so far and their only bright moment came in the first One-Day International match at Dharamshala, where Indian batting line-up was shattered horribly. However, Rohit Sharma and co. made a strong comeback in the next game before claiming the series in Vishakhapatnam.

“It was a bad ODI series but we have to take good things from the first match. There were a lot of positives. We have to flush out the negatives. It’s a new series and we hope to start well,” Perera quoted before the T20I series opener.

“We have good talents, death bowlers, power hitters. We will do our best tomorrow. I’ve to give more confidence to the young players. I don’t think they have pressure, they have to give 100 percent. Personally, I know they have a good mindset and they can come very strongly.”

In the ODI series decider, Sri Lanka went off to a good start but soon found momentum shifting towards India. The duo of Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal was the wrecker in chief to dismiss them cheaply on 215 after being on 135/1.

Perera further added “We got a good start but then we didn’t execute our plans, that’s the main reason why we lost. It won’t happen again and again. It was a one-off game.”

Virat Kohli has been rested for this series, who punished Lankan bowlers badly in the Test series. Talking about the same, the Sri Lankan skipper commented “We don’t think about just one player. We are concentrating on playing our game. I want to play my natural game.”

The southpaw concluded while mentioning dew in the pre-match talk. ” With a 7 pm start, both teams will have to deal with dew. We have to look for a good start and build pressure. The main target is to get 150-plus.”

The first game will undergo tomorrow at Cuttack’s Barabati International stadium.