Sri Lanka opener Kusal Perera on Wednesday denied that he copied legendary batsman Sanath Jayasuriya’s swashbuckling approach and said that he was just happy being himself.
Kusal, who is often compared to Jayasuriya for his style of batting which includes employing the bottom-handed batting grip, played a match-winning knock of 64 runs from 44 deliveries to help the Lankans pip the Tigers by a mere two runs in the first of two Twenty20 internationals in Chittagong on Wednesday.
‘I am Kusal and not Sanath so don’t compare myself to him,’ Kusal told reporters at Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium after the game.
‘All the guys talk about Sanath and me. But I am not going to copy him because you can’t copy him always. He is a legend.
‘I am always attacking so naturally I am going to attack every ball. If they are bowling to my strengths then I will always attack,’ he said.
The left-hander added that the visitors knew the Tigers will hit them hard but said that the Lankans never contemplated losing the match at any point of the game.
Bangladesh fought neck-and-neck against the Islanders only to lose the match in the last delivery by two runs.
‘All the T20 sides are really good, especially Bangladesh as they like the T20 format,’ said Kusal.
‘We had a small discussion. [The umpires] checked the no-ball. We went away after they told us that they checked the no-ball,’ he said referring to the final delivery of the game which was bowled by Thisara Perera.
Perera bowled a waist-high full toss to Anamul Haque who could not connect properly and skied a caught-and-bowled opportunity which was safely gathered by the bowler.
‘Well it’s a team game and we can’t forget the fast bowler in the last ball. [Perera] bowled two balls, two boundaries and we had to ask him something before the last ball. That’s how the game goes,’ said Kusal, pointing to the lengthy discussion which took place between several Sri Lankan players before the final delivery was bowled.
‘We don’t want to think about the losing side,’ he said adding that they were 10 to 15 runs short.
‘We were 10 to 15 runs short. But it was a defendable target,’ added the left-hander.
-With New Age input
