(Poornama Edirisooriya writes)
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| It's not the result we wanted |
Should I use the word "disappointed"?. Don't think I am wrong if I say Sri Lanka's world cup campaign was nothing short of disappointment to the end from the start, even before the start.
Sri Lanka had no chance to make themselves into the semifinals when they met England on Saturday. But they had the chance to finish their World Cup campaign high with a win which could be a consolation for their fans.
But, the haunted batting display by the middle and lower order batsmen made sure Sri Lanka finished with the lowest score at Sydney by the batting first team in this World Cup. After being 80/2 after the first 10 overs, Sri Lanka batters managed to score only 61 runs in the last 10 overs. In the bowling, Hasaranga and de Silva kept English batters quiet in the middle overs, hence the chase went down to the last 3 balls.
With the result, Sri Lanka finished the tournament as the 4th of Group 1, making sure of direct qualification for the WT20 2024. What happened to the Asia cup winners in this tournament?
Did they utilize the break after Asia Cup?
After the Asia Cup celebrations, players had a good break to
get ready for the World Cup. Until the training camp at Pallekele, I doubt
whether players individually utilized the break they got as they were busy with
television programs and interviews.
Injuries cost..
Going to the world cup, Sri Lankan fans were hopeful of something extraordinary in Australia. With the inclusion of Dushmantha Chameera and Lahiru Kumara strengthened their hopes. We were expected to see a good fast bowling combo between Chameera-Madushanka-Madushan-Kumara. Even before the first match of the world cup, young and impressive left-arm pacer Dilshan Madushanka got injured and missed the whole tournament. With that Sri Lanka started the tournament with a major blow.
After the UAE match, we lost both Dushmantha Chameera and
Pramod Madushan. Chameera seemed to put extra effort into that UAE match, and
Sri Lanka had to play their remaining matches with the leader of the pace
attack. Pramod Madushanka got injured and after a couple of matches, he
recovered. The like-for-like replacement of Madushanka, Binura Fernando was the
next candidate in Sri Lanka's injury list as he had to come back to Sri Lanka
in the mid-way of the Super 12s.
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| Losing the leader of the attack before Super 12a was a major setback |
Sri Lanka had to bring players from the motherland to replace injured ones. As a result of it Kasun Rajitha and Asitha Fernando were included in the squad and Stand-by player Ashen Bandara replaced the injured Danushka Gunathilake.
When a tournament like this is about to happen and while happening, all your squad must be fit enough to play all the way through. But Sri Lanka hasn't had that luxury this time also. The world cup left some serious matters to look at on the fitness of the players. Are these injuries say that Mickey Auther's fitness module was right?
No Runs from no 5-8
The writer adduced in the first article on World Cup that the Bhanuka-Dasun partnership is key for us and it's a plus point that they're getting runs and finishing games for us. Even though it was based on the Asia Cup campaign, the World cup was meant to be the 180-degree opposite of that. Sri Lanka didn't get runs from their number 5 to 8, Bhanuka-Shanaka-Wanindu-Chamika. Skipper Shanaka cluelessly gave away his wicket on most of the occasions which could've saved us from some defeats if it didn't happen.
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| Didn't get what we got from Bhanuka-Shanaka duo in the Asia Cup |
Finishing the inning with the bat was one major struggle of Sri Lanka in this tournament. Wanindu and Chamika's roles as finishers are questionable in the series as well.
Fielding was not upto the mark
Fielding made the difference between Sri Lanka and Pakistan in the Asia Cup final where Sri Lanka fielders were unbelievably good that day. In bigger boundaries, you always needed fielding to be in the top-notch but weren't. Ground fielding and Catching led us to put on the back foot whenever we wanted to take the control of the matches.
The writer's pick for the turning point of the series for Sri Lanka was a dropped catch where Nissanka dropped Glen Phillipps who was on 12. He went on to make a century to be the only New Zealander to find success with the bat that day. One lesson to be learned is you cannot win tournaments with such fielding displays
Did we use the right tactics and Team selection?
Shanaka had a brilliant Asia cup as the captain. But his world cup performance seemed old-fashioned. Didn't see the changes and reflections inside the boundary lines according to the match situations at all. Reading the situation and opposition seemed away from its perfection throughout the series. Personally feel he could be done more with his captaincy as well.
Apart from one match, Sri Lanka went with the attack of 2 seamers+ 2 spinners+ one fast bowling all-rounder. But some of the other teams changed their bowling attacks according to the ground condition and opposition and got the results they wanted. But Sri Lanka’s "sticking to the original plan" didn't work sometimes. Even in the last match if we went for an extra spinner instead of Karunaratne (he didn't bowl too), the result could've been different.
At the end of the day, Sri Lanka couldn't make themselves
into the semifinals due to their own mistakes. Now the aim should be qualifying
for the ODI world cup and gaining "World Cup Super League" points.
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