The World Cup 2014 winners lost two consecutive matches at the start of the tournament against South Africa and Bangladesh. With their early exit from the tournament, Sri Lanka’s former captain Angelo Mathews admitted that they put their nation down with their pathetic performance in the ongoing T20 World Cup. Sri Lanka were placed in Group D alongside South Africa, Bangladesh, Nepal, and the Netherlands and they were given the D2 seeding in that group, ahead of Bangladesh and Netherlands but failed to qualify for the Super Eight stage. Asian Lions were thrashed by the Proteas in their opening game, They were bundled out for just 75 runs and lost that match. In their second game, the Lankan boys were cruising to a good total after Pathum Nissanka’s innings in the powerplay but their middle order collapsed and scored just 124/9 in 20 overs. In response, Bangladesh finished the match in the 19th over and ended Sri Lanka’s chances for qualifying in the Super Eight. "I think first of all we've let the entire nation down and we are really sorry because we've also let ourselves down," said former skipper Mathews. "We never expected this. We came across a lot of challenges but those are not something to sort of worry about, but it's unfortunate that we didn't make the second round," he added. Mathews played a key role in the 2014 T20 World Cup campaign but failed to replicate the same performance in this year’s T20 World Cup. Skipper Wanindu Hasaranga shines against Netherlands Sri Lanka defeated the Netherlands in a dead rubber match by 83 runs at Daren Sammy National Cricket Stadium, Gros Islet, St Lucia on June 17, Monday. They finished their campaign with a victory. Sri Lanka’s captain Hasaranga cameo helped the team to cross the 200-run mark. He scored 20 runs off 6 balls with two sixes and finished his four over spell with 2/25 .