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Sri Lanka down but not out, insists Angelo Mathews

Sri Lanka captain Angelo Mathews said the defending World Twenty20 champions have not given up hope of reaching the knockout round.

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Mathews and Co. suffered a crushing defeat to West Indies in their Super 10 clash on Sunday, beaten by seven wickets.

Sri Lanka posted 122-9 and it was not enough to defend as the Windies - led by Andre Fletcher's unbeaten 84 - chased down the target in the 19th over.

The defeat left Sri Lanka with one win from two games, two points adrift of Group 1 leaders West Indies.

While Mathews (20) bemoaned the lack of input from the middle order, with himself??and Thisara Perera (40) the only players to reach double figures outside of the openers, he insisted his team remain in the hunt for the semi-finals.

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"It is definitely not all over for us. We just lost only one game and we have two more games to go. If we win those two, we will still be in [the hunt] for semi-finals. We're just looking to win those two games, not looking too far ahead," Mathews said.

"It's just that we are doing mistakes here and there which actually cost us the whole outcome of the game. Today, the middle order collapse was [the cause for] the downfall.

"If we had another 20-25 runs on that wicket it would have been a different story. Unfortunately we didn't, but we'll just shove it under the carpet.

"We have a very good break going into the next games. So we'll work hard on our fielding, because we were so sloppy on the field again. We'll work hard on all the departments and try and win the next two games."

Sri Lanka face England on Saturday, before ending the group stage with a showdown against South Africa two days later.

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