Dunith Wellalage show

by Rex Clementine

Sanity prevailed at last as Pakistan Cricket Board, the hosts of the Asia Cup, brought down the ticket prices and a near full house witnessed a nail-biter between Sri Lanka and India. Sri Lanka were ruing missed opportunities. Having done so well to bowl out the strong Indian side for 213, the batters should have chased this down, but everyone in cricket circles would agree that the batting unit lacked intelligence.

However, what a show it was by Dunith Wellalage. Any 20-year-old who gets Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma in successive overs must be special and that itself would earn him an IPL deal forget his five-wicket haul or batting exploits.

Wellalage is not the most talented kid around. But he makes the most of his limited skills very much like T.M. Dilshan. He kept improvising in such a way that he would rank alongside Sanath Jayasuriya and Lasith Malinga as Sri Lanka’s most successful white ball cricketer.

When Dhananjaya de Silva and Wellalage were out in the middle, India were running out of ideas and the 63-run stand for the seventh wicket brought the equation down to 52 in 75 balls. Then Dhananjaya gave India a sniff and Rohit seized on the opportunity.

As for Wellalage, he was better off farming the strike from the tail rather than allowing a run off the last ball. It all came back to hurt Sri Lanka.

People are comfortable that Sri Lanka will be better off during the World Cup when Hasaranga, Chameera and Madushanka return. Yes, the bowling will be formidable, but batters need to contribute as well and that’s been the problem.

Dimuth Karunaratne is in the side for one reason and that is to anchor the innings. He’s not impressing many people with his attempts to cute improvisations. He should leave it for the others and play the role that’s meant for him.

Hats off to the ground staff for the hard work they have put in and SLC’s Chief Curator Godfrey Dabare has done well to get the maximum out of hundred men who despite many challenges that weather presents have enabled us to see the tournament progress. They came in for special praise by Indian skipper Rohit Sharma as well. It seems that the Indian team will come up with a goodwill gesture towards the ground staff and SLC values their contributions too.

The volume of cricket that we have had and inclement weather that has persisted in the country hasn’t helped the curators to come up with belters filled with runs.

However, did we deliberately play the India game on Tuesday on an under prepared wicket? The reasoning is sound no doubt for if you prepare a belter, Rohit and Kohli will be hitting the ball out of Maligawatta. The best chance for Sri Lanka to beat the strong Indian outfit was a misbehaving wicket. But here’s the hitch.

When you go to the World Cup, you’ll be getting good batting surfaces and the bowlers will have a tough time adapting. Charith Asalanka taking four wickets was a bit too much to be real. We can create a few upsets at home, but let’s keep the bigger picture in mind.