Sports
Silly mistakes cost us medal, says Dassanayake
National cricket team coach Pubudu Dassanayake said silly mistakes at some crucial stages of their 17th Asian Games quarter-final match against Afghanistan cost Nepal a medal.Cricket was expected to return home with a medal after it kept cruising in the Games winning Group ‘B’ with crushing victories and set the last eight game against an experimental Afghanistan side. Another victory would have pitted them against familiar foes Hong Kong in the semis with medal chances fairly strengthening.
However, in a chase of modest 120 runs, Nepal were squeezed out for 111 runs with Afghanistan cruising to a silver following a defeat of Hong Kong in the semis. “There was a huge opportunity for us to claim a medal but unfortunately that didn’t happen. We were going along quite nicely against Afghanistan but we made some silly mistakes,” said Dassanayake. The coach added that it was a learning experience for his team and he was happy to see his guys putting a fight despite having a limited time to prepare.