Sri Lanka beat England by nine runs in T20

Sri Lanka beat England by nine runs in a T20 international on Tuesday at The Oval. Sri Lankan allrounder Thisara Perera starred in the team victory. Perera made a rapid 49 with bat and then captured the important wicket of England captain Eoin Morgan.

Scorecard - Sri Lanka Vs England

Man of the Match: Thisara Perera: I am proud of my batting performance. This is a very good batting surface. I am working hard in my practice session especially to the deliveries bowled wide. Morgan was a very important wicket as we all know what he is capable of. This is a good win for us and we can take the confidence into the ODIs.

Lasith Malinga: The last couple of years, the Sri Lankan captain used me in pressure situations for which I had a lot of practice. I enjoy bowling in pressure situations. I used to ask the ball during such situations. They used me as a wicket taking bowler and I have used all my variations. Depending on the situation I either block runs or look for wickets. I used all my variations for Alex Hales who was looking their best batsmen. We promoted Thisara for death overs as he can hit the ball hard. He delivered even during the World Cup Final.

Eoin Morgan: We were outplayed in all the 3 departments. We bowled well in the 15 overs and fielded okay but let things slip away in the death overs. The World T20 was a different case. Here there is no excuses as it is perfect fielding conditions. We dropped 3 catches and it is inexcusable. There were lot of runs going to thirdman region which I am not quite sure. Probably they didn't get enough bat on it. This is something we need to address in future. The guys did hold things well. We didn't manage to get a partnership going with Hales. I could have come early but looking at our batting line up, there was license for everyone go after the bowling. Malinga is a world-class bowler and we left too much at death. Looking forward for the ODIs.

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