Captain Dimuth Karunaratne suggested a different approach to strokeplay and shot selection, after Sri Lanka sunk to a heavy 10-wicket defeat at the hands of New Zealand in Saturday’s World Cup fixture at Sophia Gardens in Cardiff, Wales.

Karunaratne top-scored with 52 not out in a final total of 136 all out, which the Black Caps promptly surpassed with 203 deliveries to spare.

Wicketkeeper-batsman Kusal Perera and all-rounder Jeevan Mendis were among several Sri Lankan batsman to fall to ill-disciplined shots.

‘That was never going to be enough in these conditions. We needed to get partnerships. It was a good toss to win, sadly I lost it. It was seaming and swinging in the morning, so they had the advantage,’ said Karunaratne.

The New Zealanders benefitted from the star performances of seamers Lockie Ferguson and Matt Henry, who snared three wickets apiece. Henry was named Player of the Match on the back of figures of three for 29.

‘They also had the bowlers to use it. Everyone comes out to watch entertaining cricket, so hopefully we will get good batting wickets later on. I’m not sure the batters are low on confidence, batted well in practice games, trained hard. We need to think about our game and approach. We’re trying to play our shots early, need to give ourselves a chance to get set and then score runs,’ added Karunaratne.

Sri Lanka’s next match will be against Afghanistan at the same venue on Tuesday.

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