Bristol: Sri Lanka were forced to split points for the second successive time in the ongoing World Cup after their match against Bangladesh was called off without a ball being bowled due to persistent rain here Tuesday.
Both the teams came into the match with one win from three matches and now each will get a point for the washout. Sri Lanka now have four points from as many games, while Bangladesh have three points from four games. After two defeats, Bangladesh were looking for resurgence against Sri Lanka and now they will be wary of their semifinal chances. “For all the teams, coming to the ground and not playing is disappointing and frustrating,” said Bangladesh skipper Mashrafe Mortaza. “This is how the tournament is going, we got our chances against New Zealand, we couldn’t get going in the England match, but it was frustrating today.” The result will leave Sri Lanka frustrated too as it is the second instant of a wash-out for the Island nation. “The last few games have been washed out, so these kind of tournaments aren’t easy. It is a bad time for us,” Sri Lanka skipper Dimuth Karunaratne said. “It isn’t easy, we have to switch on and off all the time. These kind of things can happen but we have to get used to it. We can keep practicing and train harder for the Australia game. Definitely in every match we need to play for a win,” he added. This is the third match to be abandoned in the ongoing World Cup, the most in the history of the tournament, exceeding the two games at the 1992 edition in Australia and New Zealand and the 2003 event which was co-hosted by South Africa, Zimbabwe and Kenya. The 10-team showpiece event doesn’t have any reserve days. (PTI)
