“He is outstanding”: Dasun Shanaka lauds Man of the Match Pathum Nissanka for his innings vs UAE in T20 World Cup 2022

Dasun Shanaka had a lot of praise for Pathum Nissanka, who won Man of the Match for his excellent half-century against UAE.

After losing the first match against Namibia, the Sri Lankan team made an excellent comeback in the match against UAE. It was a do-or-die match for them, and they were ruthless in their approach. Sri Lanka defeated UAE by a huge margin of 79 runs.

UAE opted to bowl first, and their bowlers did a fairly decent job. They managed to restrict Sri Lanka for a score of 152-8, where spinner Karthik Meiyappan took an excellent hat-trick. Sri Lankan opener Pathum Nissanka was excellent, and he scored 74 runs in just 60 balls with the help of 2 sixes and 6 boundaries.

In reply, the UAE batters failed miserably, and they got all out for just 73 runs. Dushmantha Chameera and Wanindu Hasaranga took 3 wickets each, whereas Maheesh Theekshana had a couple of scalps.

Dasun Shanaka lauds Man of the Match Pathum Nissanka

Sri Lankan captain Dasun Shanaka attended the post-match conference after the game where he thanked the crowd for their support throughout the match. He said that they were disappointed with the batting effort as they were looking to score around 180-90 runs.

Shanka added that their only target was to win the match, and he knew that once the bowlers get going, it won’t be easy for the UAE batters to counter them.

“I thank the crowd for coming all the way from Melbourne. We were disappointed with 150, we could have ended up with 180-90, the tone was set up front but myself and Danu didn’t click in the middle. We focus on the win only, so once Chameera and Hasaranga got going it wasn’t going to be easy for them,” Dasun Shanaka said at the post-match conference.

Shanaka had a lot of praise for the youngster Pathum Nissanka, who also won the Man of the Match award for his excellent performance in the match. He called Nissanka an outstanding cricketer and appreciated his focus as well.

“Nissanka’s focus is to bat through the innings, he is outstanding, that is his focus and I am pleased for him,” Shanaka added.