“I’m very happy for him,” Mendis said. “With the World Cup around the corner, it’s great to have many of our bowlers in such form. He’s been playing in franchise leagues for some time – he played well in South Africa [SA20] as well – I think that’s also why he was able to give his best for the team when we needed him.

“It was those three wickets [in his hat-trick] that the match turned in our favour. It reminded me of how Mali aiya [Lasith Malinga] bowled.”

“I agree that the whole match pivoted in that one over,” Shanto said. “He bowled a very good over. I think we have to credit the bowler. We were held back by that over. I felt that if we could have handled that over better, or generally held our own against the new ball, we could have had a different result.

“He got a bit of swing. He has that action. He wasn’t getting a lot of bounce due to his side-arm action. It was keeping low. This won’t happen all the time, but we have to tackle these things better in the future.

“We don’t usually get to play a bowling action like his. We played well against [Matheesha] Pathirana in the first two matches. I think the new ball swung a lot. We have to plan better, and accept such things in international cricket.”

“In the previous couple of T20s before this series I wasn’t really in the runs, so in the first game I was focusing on providing the team with what it needs,” Mendis said. “More than me scoring runs, I wanted to do what was best for the team, and I’m glad I was able to do that consistently over the series.

“It gets a little easier to bat here [in Sylhet] once you’re at the crease for a while, especially under lights. The boundaries are also close in, so you can score boundaries in any way that you’re comfortable. I’m happy with the way I performed in these conditions.”

“There were positives in this series. The way we fought back even after losing early wickets, in the first match and the third match. The way the bowlers made a comeback in this game.”