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ICC CHAMPIONS TROPHY

June 8, 2017

Angelo Mathews

The Oval, London

Sri Lanka won by 7 wickets

Q. Angelo, given what the team has gone through in the last couple of months, how important is this win for you?
ANGELO MATHEWS: Yeah, it was a very important game for us. You know, no one really expected us to win. That took us -- you know, that took a lot of pressure off ourselves, and we just went out there, expressed ourselves, and you can see what we can do when we play with a lot of freedom.

Q. Angelo, you've been calling yourself the underdogs, and even now you said that nobody expects you to win. So now that you've won, how are the expectations changed? Especially for the team.
ANGELO MATHEWS: We don't want to think too far ahead. We just want to take one game at a time. Now it's done, and we look forward to the next game. It will be the same plans, go out there, no expectations. Go out there, play with a lot of freedom.

You know, if we play good cricket, I'm certain that we can beat any team.

Q. Angelo, Graham Ford has received some harsh criticism over the last couple of weeks. How much do you feel for him?
ANGELO MATHEWS: Yeah, it's always the coach and the captain. Today, once again, Kusal-Perera's call was also crucial. As a captain, I had to send him, and it would have been a few bullets fired at me if it hadn't gone too well. But that's what we are there for, to take crucial decisions at crucial times, and it doesn't matter if it fails.

But, yeah, I mean, there is a lot of responsibility on the coach and the captain. So we do our very best out there, and we get the boys to do their very best, and we get the boys to try really hard, and that's what we look for.

Q. Angelo, there seemed to be a conscious effort of sweeping Jadeja or playing him a lot more squarer. How much was that discussed leading up to the game about playing Jadeja, and how much was he discussed?
ANGELO MATHEWS: Not really. I mean, it wasn't a plan as such. It's just our own strengths. I mean, if you see Kusal Perera, he always sweeps. Kusal Mendis always sweeps. We had to spin well on this wicket. We had to put a lot of pressure on Jadeja as well.

Even though it was a good wicket to bat on, it still held on a little bit, and I thought that the start we got really set us a good platform for the middle order players to go out there and express ourselves.

Q. Angelo, a couple of run outs today. I think that's four now for Sri Lanka. Is that something that you have to address maybe, the running between the wickets? On the other side, though, they weren't able to take many wickets at all, their bowlers. So is that something that's very satisfying for you?
ANGELO MATHEWS: Sorry, what was your second question?

Q. Just the fact that their bowlers were hardly able to crack your batting. Has that been a positive you take?
ANGELO MATHEWS: Yeah, run outs certainly -- we definitely need to address. I mean, those are suicidal. We can't afford going forward losing our best players, just throwing our wickets away. But it went really well today for us.

Yeah, it was very hard to get away with their bowlers. We all know that they've got a brilliant attack. You know, Bumrah, Bhuvneshwar, all bowled really well, but it's just that we batted really well. Nothing to take away from the batters. It's a top effort by the batters.

Q. Angelo, your thoughts on Mendis and Danushka Gunathilaka when they set innings up for you, just took the attack. Your thoughts on those two?
ANGELO MATHEWS: Yeah, I mean, mind you, to walk into a game knowing that he wasn't even in the 15 and Kapugedera got injured yesterday, and he had to step in and to open the batting against a very strong opposition, was fantastic the way he batted. It was very pleasing the way he batted.

You know, Kusal Mendis and Danushka played with a lot of freedom, and that really set us a platform. As I said before, for us, it would make it so much easier for myself and Kusal Perera and the middle order batters.

Don't forget Asela, that little cameo, really won us the game. It was a fantastic batting effort.

Q. Angelo, when the top eight teams are playing, nobody takes anyone else lightly, but do you think with this win you might get some more respect from the opposition?
ANGELO MATHEWS: Well, it doesn't matter if the opposition respects us. We are out to do a job, and we don't really think about what the opposition thinks. I mean, no one really expected us to win today as well, but we knew underneath that we had the talent and we had another opportunity to beat a fantastic team, which we did.

Q. Your batters pulled out a most memorable victory, but what would you like to say about your bowlers?
ANGELO MATHEWS: When you're against Dhoni and Kedar Jadhav and all these guys, they are fantastic. It's not easy to bowl to Dhoni. He took us apart in the end, but I thought bowlers were fantastic. I thought to restrict them for 321 on that wicket -- you know, 300-plus, 310, 320 is very much gettable on these tracks. Even though the wicket had a lot of grass, it played out really well.

Q. Probably Kusal Mendis was sent to meet Kumar Sangakkara a couple days ago. What was the thought behind it, and how has it benefited young Mendis?
ANGELO MATHEWS: Yeah, he met Kumar Sangakkara to get a few batting tips, and he's the king, and we all look up to him. We all get advice from him, all the batters. He taught us a lot of good things on how to play on these tracks.

Yesterday the guys met him and took a lot of advice and went out there and implemented it.

Q. Angelo, you talked about the support for India yesterday, and you think that they're everywhere. So today they're probably starting to make noise at about 10:00. How did it feel to actually quiet them or shut them up?
ANGELO MATHEWS: It was like playing a World Cup Final. It was so noisy and a great atmosphere. We all know that all the Indians travel, and they're right behind their team. I must thank all the Sri Lankan supporters that came out here. Even though it was little numbers, it was fantastic support for us. We really thank all of them.

Q. Just a similar thing going on that line. There was a little Papare band that seemed to get louder and louder amongst all the banger. How aware are you of that, and how heartening was that?
ANGELO MATHEWS: That's our trademark, Papare. They come all over wherever we play. The Sri Lankan people like to have fun. It was very pleasing for us to give them a win because we had some terrible times in the recent past, especially with losing a lot of lives for floods, and we are very grateful that we could give them a smile.

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