Mathews admits ‘we let the country down’ 

Star Sri Lanka all-rounder Angelo Mathews admitted that “we’ve let the entire nation down” as the former champions suffered a first-round exit at the T20 World Cup.

Sri Lanka, the champions of 2014, played their final Group D game on Sunday against the Netherlands after losing to Bangladesh and South Africa.

Their only point came from a washed-out no-result against Nepal.

“I think, first of all, we’ve let the entire nation down, and we are sorry because we’ve also let ourselves down,” said former skipper Mathews.

“We never expected this. We came across many unnecessary challenges, but, unfortunately, we didn’t make the second round.”

Mathews played a key role in his country’s 2014 World Cup victory, scoring 40 runs in the semi-final against West Indies and taking 1-25 in the six-wicket win over India in the final at Dhaka.

Sri Lanka will have pride at stake when they meet the Dutch on Sunday, and a victory will at least help them climb off the foot of the table.

However, Mathews, who will be playing in his 90th T20 international, insists his team won’t under-estimate the Netherlands, having seen Nepal lose by just one run to South Africa on Friday.

“We can’t take any given team lightly. Unfortunately, our Nepal game was washed out, but it is what it is,” he said.

“We have just one more game in the tournament, and we’ll play for our pride. We haven’t done justice to ourselves, especially how we played in the first two games.

“We are heartbroken and are hurting so much within ourselves.”