<p class="title">Sri Lanka captain Dimuth Karunaratne feels the middle-order has to take more responsibility in the remaining games of the World Cup after suffering heavy collapses in their opening two matches.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Sri Lanka suffered a thumping 10-wicket loss to New Zealand in their opening match of World Cup before they managed to prevail over Afghanistan by 34 runs in their second outing.</p>.<p class="bodytext">However, the Sri Lankan middle-order failed to fire in both the games.</p>.<p class="bodytext">"If we make a good start to the innings then we can keep that momentum going. If you take the last couple of games, we couldn't capitalise on the starts we made.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Sri Lanka were bowled out for just 136 against the Black Caps despite Karunaratne's unbeaten 52, and then they crumbled from 144/1 to 201 all out against Afghanistan on the same pitch.</p>.<p class="bodytext">"We need those middle order contributions and I think that's the key for us as a batting line-up. Other than that, I think as a group we're doing really good," Karunaratne was quoted as saying by ICC media.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The match between Sri Lanka and Pakistan was called off without a ball being bowled because of persistent rain at the Bristol County Ground on Friday.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The no-result meant the points were shared between the teams, pushing Sri Lanka and Pakistan into third and fourth place, respectively, in the table.</p>.<p class="bodytext">"We all came here to play cricket so it's not good that we didn't get to play. We're really disappointed as a team but we'll look ahead to the next game.</p>.<p class="bodytext">"We won our last game against Afghanistan and while we may lose some matches along the way during the World Cup, we always give a lot of fight and that's all we want," said the skipper.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Sri Lanka, the 1996 champions, are now looking ahead to their clash against Bangladesh here on June 11.</p>.<p class="bodytext">"We want to compete with the other teams. We did really well against Afghanistan to get the win and I want us to take that confidence into the rest of the matches, starting with Bangladesh," said Karunaratne. PTI CM AH AH</p>
<p class="title">Sri Lanka captain Dimuth Karunaratne feels the middle-order has to take more responsibility in the remaining games of the World Cup after suffering heavy collapses in their opening two matches.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Sri Lanka suffered a thumping 10-wicket loss to New Zealand in their opening match of World Cup before they managed to prevail over Afghanistan by 34 runs in their second outing.</p>.<p class="bodytext">However, the Sri Lankan middle-order failed to fire in both the games.</p>.<p class="bodytext">"If we make a good start to the innings then we can keep that momentum going. If you take the last couple of games, we couldn't capitalise on the starts we made.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Sri Lanka were bowled out for just 136 against the Black Caps despite Karunaratne's unbeaten 52, and then they crumbled from 144/1 to 201 all out against Afghanistan on the same pitch.</p>.<p class="bodytext">"We need those middle order contributions and I think that's the key for us as a batting line-up. Other than that, I think as a group we're doing really good," Karunaratne was quoted as saying by ICC media.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The match between Sri Lanka and Pakistan was called off without a ball being bowled because of persistent rain at the Bristol County Ground on Friday.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The no-result meant the points were shared between the teams, pushing Sri Lanka and Pakistan into third and fourth place, respectively, in the table.</p>.<p class="bodytext">"We all came here to play cricket so it's not good that we didn't get to play. We're really disappointed as a team but we'll look ahead to the next game.</p>.<p class="bodytext">"We won our last game against Afghanistan and while we may lose some matches along the way during the World Cup, we always give a lot of fight and that's all we want," said the skipper.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Sri Lanka, the 1996 champions, are now looking ahead to their clash against Bangladesh here on June 11.</p>.<p class="bodytext">"We want to compete with the other teams. We did really well against Afghanistan to get the win and I want us to take that confidence into the rest of the matches, starting with Bangladesh," said Karunaratne. PTI CM AH AH</p>