World Cup 2019 | Angelo Mathews faces backlash on social media as poor run against New Zealand continues

Sri Lanka put up an unimpressive batting performance against New Zealand in their ICC Cricket World Cup 2019 match at the Sophia Gardens in Cardiff on Saturday. 

After being put into bat first by Kiwi skipper Kane Williamson, the Lankans started off their innings in style as Lahiru Thirimanne hit the first ball of Matt Henry for a four. Nonetheless, Henry got his revenge on the very next delivery when he trapped Thirimanne right in front of the wicket. The Kiwi speedster once again made a huge impact when he removed Kusal Perera and Kusal Mendis off his successive deliveries to leave Sri Lanka in a spot of bother at 46/3. 

The onus was then on the captain Dimuth Karunaratne to anchor the innings single-handedly as the 1996 champions kept losing wickets at regular intervals. However, what turned out to be a huge setback for the Islanders was that one of their most experienced campaigners, Angelo Mathews who had come down the order at number 6, never got going as his stay in the middle only lasted for nine deliveries and he went back to the pavilion without troubling the scorers. Mathews tried to defend a length delivery outside off stump by Colin de Grandhomme but got an outside edge and the ball went straight into the gloves of Tom Latham who made no mistake behind the stumps. 

This was the veteran player's 14th ODI duck and the most astonishing thing about this is that six of them have come against New Zealand.

The former Sri Lankan skipper's struggle in the middle which ended with his dismissal did not go down well on social media.

The 'Voice of Indian Cricket' Harsha Bhogle wrote that he was surprised to see the most accomplished Sri Lankan batsman, Angelo Mathews, going further down the order.

Here's what the other cricket fans had to say about the all-rounder.

READ: World Cup 2019 | Matt Henry Makes A Superb Comeback After Being Hit For A Boundary Off His Very First Delivery; Another Instance Of Eventful Consecutive Balls Follows

Sri Lanka were bundled out for 136 in the 30th over. Skipper Dimuth Karunaratne top-scored with the bat by an unbeaten 84-ball 52 which included four boundaries.

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