The Tigers lost the match by 37 runs chasing a mammoth Sri Lankan total of 302. The high point of Saturday's match was a spectacular rearguard action that saw Bangladesh posting an encouraging 265, their highest total against the Lankans, after yet another top-order failure.

"I'm not frustrated at all with the performance. I think we played so far the best match against Sri Lanka though we have won one match against them. Mind it this time we played against a full-strength Sri Lankan side," said Whatmore.

"It is encouraging for me that we recovered from 4-78 to post 265-9 in chase of a huge total. The way we finished the match was fantastic.

"The players made some mistakes especially the seam bowlers. If there were some twenty odd runs less in the Sri Lankan total then definitely the match could have been more exciting," said the Sri Lankan-born Australian in a post-match briefing at Mohali.

Whatmore however wanted consistency from his boys so that they could make their presence felt in the international stage.

"If the boys can continue their performance then everything will fall in place. So the important thing is to continue the progress and I believed that this team is improving well and are on the right track," said a confident Bangladesh coach.

Skipper Habibul Bashar, who made a forgettable ICC Champion-ship Trophy debut with a duck, told reporters that the way his team fought against the Lankans was a morale victory.

"It is difficult to chase three hundred runs in any condition. It was a very stiff target for us but the encouraging fact was that we never gave up the fight. Everybody looked confident in the middle which is very important for us. You should also understand one thing is that Sri Lanka has been playing very good cricket in recent times," said Bashar.

The 33-year-old said that the positive frame of mind would definitely auger well in the next two games.

"I think scoring 265 runs batting second in a day-night match was not a joke and I must say it is our morale victory. We want to carry on this form in the next two games. Our main objective is to qualify into the main stage. We didn't perform up to our potential in the Africa tour but the team looked very confident after this performance," added Bashar while defending his decision to field first.

"I still believe it was not a wrong decision. Actually our seamers especially the two new-ball bowlers couldn't exploit the condition. It could have been a different story if we had taken one or two early wickets." Bashar however expressed his satisfaction over the fielding effort.

"There had been a lot of criticism about our fielding for last few months but it was nice to see a mark of improvement. Apart from one dropped catch the ground fielding was very good, " said the Bangladesh captain.

The Bangladesh captain was also impressed with the batting of Sakib Al Hasan and Forhad Reza.

"The two newcomers showed that they have the potential to serve the national team for a long time," he added.