Mathews admits side's struggles against Scotland are 'a bit of an eye-opener'

Sri Lanka captain Angelo Mathews said his side's struggles against Scotland had been "a bit of an eye-opener," when they clashed in Group C of the ICC U/19 Cricket World Cup on Sunday.

The hosts were widely expected to win comfortably and that certainly looked on the cards when they reduced the Associate side to 30-5 thanks to some incisive new ball bowling.

But Scotland rallied to post a competitive 186 thanks to captain Kasaim Farid's 76, reduced Sri Lanka to 98-5 in reply, and had chances to seal a famous win before the home side eventually won by four wickets.

"We are not very happy," said Mathews as he reflected on his side's performance at the R.Premadasa Stadium.

"We started off well but threw it away and we cannot afford to do that in our next games.

"We need to click as a batting team, we need to come good and we need to perform well in the future. This has been a bit of an eye-opener for us," he added.

Mathews highlighted two areas of Sri Lanka's game that gave him cause for concern against Scotland.

"We need to improve in our batting and our spin bowling," he said. "The top order needs to concentrate more and stick around as normally they are very free.

"We lost a couple of early wickets, there were no good partnerships and then two good partnerships (at the end) gave us the break," Mathews added.

For Farid, who was named man of the match for his innings, it was a case of what might have been.

His side had the chance of a major scalp on the opening day of the tournament but the extras they conceded proved costly.

They conceded 38 of them, including 11 no-balls and 22 wides. One of those no-balls saw Sachithra Serasinghe, on 30, spoon a simple catch to midwicket and he went on to score a crucial 64 that steadied the home side's nerves at a vital stage.

"Everyone tried hard and you cannot take anything away from the boys for that," he said.

"But in a one-day game 30-plus extras are always going to take you down.

"We will keep working with the white ball but in Scotland we do not play much white ball cricket. We are still young and we are learning but everyone tried hard."

As for his innings, Farid added: "I am not too fussed because it is the captain's job to stick in and show some character.

"I still felt we were a bit short (of a defendable total) but we got into a good position then the extras got the better of us."

Scotland's next match is against India on Wednesday while the hosts are next in action on Tuesday, against Namibia with both matches being played at the R.Premadasa Stadium.