We are confident of overcoming Netherlands says Charith Asalanka

We have an experienced batting line up and most of them have played more than 40 ODI matches and want to come back hard said Sri Lankan middle-order batsman Charith Asalanka in an exclusive interview before the Netherlands game which will begin today at Ekana Stadium in Lucknow commencing at 10 a.m.

We batted really well in first two games while last Australia game we had good start and later struggled, which was disappointing. No one can say we have a young team and it is a blend of youth and experience. We have made plans to win the game against Netherlands, said Asalanka.

Altough, Netherlands beat South Africa, we overcame them twice in the world cup qualifying tournament and in the practice game at Guwahati and we are confident of beating them. Most important is to adjust to the ground conditions said Charith Asalanka.

We know bowlers have big role to do in this world cup especially on this batting friendly Indian wickets.We all know our bowling is hampered due to injuries to key players and want to do well in our next matches. I always practise my bowling and had a good spell against Pakistan (four wickets haul ) at Asia Cup match Any time I am ready to bowl if the situation demands said Charith Asalanka.

Netherlands match is a day game and we know dew factor at night and pacemen can swing the ball at night but as professional players we have to play any match according to the situation said Charith.

Meanwhile batting specialist coach and Assistant coach Naved Nawaz said We have made plans to play against Netherlands and we never think about their victory against more fancied South Africa.Its only one game and it can happen in a tournament like World Cup .

We have not finalised the team and will do it after observing the wicket. Kusal Janith Perera who was struck by the ball while batting in the last game is fit to play today.

Two experienced players Angelo Mathews and Dushmantha Chameera joined the squad yesterday but both of them are travel reserves and not in squad and wait and see who will replace injured player and that will be decided after confirmation of Technical committee and we never asked to get any player.

Kusal Mendis was the deputy skipper for a long time and he has experience to handle the team . We had middle order collapse and hope Dhananjaya de Silva will regain his form said Naveed .

Meanwhile Netherlands all rounder Teja Nidamanuru said ,we’re very happy to win against South Africa. I think we’ve been playing some good cricket, but we haven’t been playing it for long enough. We’ve been playing in patches losing wickets and not bowling well. But we came up with a fine effort to beat South Africa. We’ve competed against Sri Lanka multiple times in the qualifiers, and obviously we fell short in our batting, and we’ve worked extremely hard on that, at training camps in Alor and Bangalore, before the tournament and at home. So, we’re here to play well and win. I wouldn’t call it an upset if I’m honest, said Theja Nidamanuru the 29 year old all rounder who was born in Andhra Pradesh, India before settling down in Netherlands.

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