Didn't realise I had taken a hat-trick, my concentration was on death bowling: Perera

Sri Lanka pace bowler Thisara Perera said he did not realise that he had taken a hat-trick till his teammates informed him about it, as his entire concentration was on bowling in the death overs during the second T20 International against India here. Although Sri Lanka lost the second game against India by 69 runs here last night to concede the advantage, Perera stole the show by becoming the first Sri Lankan bowler to take a hat-trick in T20 Internationals. [caption id=“attachment_2624864” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Perera dismissed Hardik Pandya, Suresh Raina and Yuvraj Singh during his hat-trick in Ranchi. AP[/caption] “Actually, I didn’t know that it was a hat-trick. Because that time my concentration was about my death bowling,” Perera said at the post-match press conference here. “My teammates told me I got a hat-trick. Then I thought it was very good for me,” he said when asked when did he come to know about the feat. Perera first dismissed Hardik Pandya in the fourth ball of the final over and then sent back Suresh Raina in the next delivery. In the last ball of the over, he had Yuvraj Singh caught at long-on. By the time Perera’s hat-trick came it was a bit too late and thus, it did not help Sri Lanka’s cause. Perera said it was good to get his second hat-trick in international cricket. “This is my second one – the first hat-trick was in an ODI (against Pakistan),” he said. Defending his team’s decision to bowl first upon winning the toss, Perera said, “We thought dew factor could play role at the latter stage of the match. So we wanted to bowl first.” The 26-year-old admitted that his team failed to put up an impressive show. “You don’t lose a match because of one reason. India batted well and took the score to almost 200. And then we lost the momentum. In fact, they took away the match in the first six overs. We gave a little bit momentum to them in the first six overs, and after that they got everything. “We did not play the way we played in the first match at Pune. Only thing is that our bowlers did a good job in the last couple of overs that prevented the hosts from posting a 200-plus total,” he said. Applauding Dhawan’s aggressive knock, Perera said Lankan bowlers tried to trap him but failed. “The thing is our bowlers didn’t do the best. In the last match we had everything and this match I think our bowlers (were at) fault,” he said. Perera said Ranchi’s track was a batting wicket. “The wicket was like glass. It was very slow. But when we came out to bat, (Ravichandran) Ashwin bowled extremely well. I was impressed by the way he kept the pressure on us,” he said. PTI