After getting back to back victories Sri Lanka cricket team is poised to record their third win against Afghanistan to make semi final of the world cup and in their match at Maharashtra Cricket Association (MCA) Stadium in Pune today (30) from 2pm onwards.

This will be very important game to continue the momentum to go forward and Sri Lanka team is confident said Sri Lanka teams most experienced player Angelo Matthew yesterday. We are not underestimating any team but we have a good chance as already we have played more matches against Afghanistan recently and know about them very well. However in this world cup Afghan team has proved their potential to beat top teams before the Sri Lanka match.

I had a good game in my first world cup game against England at Bangalore. I bowled and got an early breakthrough taking Dawid Malans wicket .We had two pacemen Kasun Rajitha and Dilshan Madushanka who were among the wickets and bowled well That was the reason we started with that pace duo against England and as a third bowler I started to bowl and got an early breakthrough. when I was not in the world cup I used train hard to build up my talent as well as kept my fitness. I had a chat with Chaminda Vass the fast bowling legend and got some tips and that is my success in bowling. I always had an idea to play franchise tournament and focused on that I used to get hard training. I knew when I get a ball I have to put pressure and I did that against England and got successful results taking two important wickets of Malan and Moein Ali.when I start to bowl I normally do more variations during my over. Line and length, bowling outswinger, inswinger all this type of balls I use my experience to do variations to put pressure and that always brings success said Mathews. I never think about my bowling position. Skipper Kusal Mendis trusted me and he had a plan and I was bowling according to the team s needs said former skipper Mathews.

We all believe as a team we can still have a chance to enter semi final. and want can do well in next four matches Afghanistan, India, Bangladesh and New Zealand he said.

Here in India I think wickets are very good for batsmen. The day who will perform well they can win but we want to focus on our performance. I couldn’t bat in my last game. I practice hard during my batting we all think same way. We know every batsmen can score heavily in every match but one or two battesr have to play long innings and others have to play with them Kusal Mendis,Charith Asalanka, Pathum Nissanka, Sadeera Samarawickrama, Dilshan Madushanka Dunith Wellalage are young players and they maintain good form and have to build up skills to focus on next world cup If we will do that we will make a good team. What ever decision in future I have to maintain fitness and already proved my fitness by playing matches said Angelo.

Meanwhile Sri Lanka also looking to name their final eleven after yesterday training session and most probably opener Dimuth Karunaratne the experienced player will get chance to play for Kusal Janith Perera who is not in good form as an opener. Rest of the team players have good chance to play today’s game.

Meanwhile Afghanistan team also hope to make challenge against Sri Lanka today after having two good wins and they also have an idea to enter semi final. Afghanistan skipper Hasthamatullah Shahidi said we have good plans. We played before in Chennai but here in Pune different conditions.

I think we have good all round players but match going to be very tough. We played more matches against Sri Lanka, India, Pakistan and Bangladesh recently and we work hard to play game today but always very pressure to play against Sri Lanka. We were struggling against Sri Lanka recently and tried to correct our mistakes to come up today’s game. We had good preparation from last two years to focus on this world cup and our coach Jonathan Trott give good support to us. I believe on the day who perform well can win and want to play positive said Afghanistan skipper.