Sri Lanka's experienced bowling unit key to victory, says Thisara Perera

Sri Lanka were far from perfect after yet another batting collapse against Afghanistan, but all-rounder Thisara Perera said the team always had faith in their "experienced bowling unit" to pull off the win.

Sri Lanka registered their first win of the World Cup against Afghanistan after facing a massive defeat at the hands of New Zealand in their tournament opener.

After being put into bat, Sri Lanka could only manage to put 201 on the scoreboard before Nuwan Pradeep (4/31) and Lasith Malinga (3/39) starred with the ball to bundle out Afghanistan for 152.

"We all believed in ourselves and we knew we have an experienced bowling unit, which is why we had five fast bowlers as we have that experience," Perera said after the victory.

"We had to take wickets otherwise we would have lost. So that's why we had to stick to our basic plans and not do anything extra."
"We know we have some issues as a batting unit and I think we have to try and improve going forward. Hopefully this win will give us confidence for rest of the tournament."
"We have the experience in these conditions and that helped. Only thing we need to work on is to improve our batting in the middle overs."