Sri Lanka collect maximum points after Scottish scare

Leading up to Sri Lanka’s last group game against Scotland yesterday, they had already booked a berth in the second round of the World Cup qualifiers, but their final game was vital in the sense as they had to carry through maximum points.

After a sloppy batting display, the spinners did a terrific job to bowl out the Scottish for 163 in 29 overs with Maheesh Theekshana picking up three wickets. Leg-spinner Wanindu Hasaranga finished with two wickets as well as Sri Lanka completed an 82-run rout in Bulawayo but there’s a lot of work left to be done with their batting.

Throughout the competition, their batting had looked formidable with the team piling up gigantic totals. But that was after opening batsman Dimuth Karunaratne had played the anchor role.

But the moment Karunaratne was dismissed early, the old problems resurfaced. Karunaratne had been in spectacular form leading up to yesterday’s game. But against the Scots, he was dismissed early for seven dragging one onto the stumps, and from thereon wickets fell at regular intervals.

There were too many soft dismissals as several batters threw away their wickets and the form of captain Dasun Shanaka remains a huge concern. After four games he has managed a grand total of six runs and fell for a golden duck yesterday.

Pathum Nissanka and Charith Asalanka posted half-centuries and in the process completed 1000 runs in ODIs but the team would have wanted them to bat through the innings.

Sri Lanka were 228 for nine with 32 deliveries remaining in the innings and although the last pair of Lahiru Kumara and Maheesh Theekshana took the total to 245, they still failed to utilize the full quota of 50 overs.

Leggie Chris Greaves finished with four wickets as he ran through the middle order and at one point was on a hat-trick.

Bowling is Sri Lanka’s strongest area and after the quicks made early breakthroughs, the spin bowlers made life difficult for the Scotland batters.

Sri Lanka have a few headaches to sort out and the form of their middle order is a concern leading up to the business end of the tournament. If they want to replace any batter they would face issues as they are not carrying an additional batter in the squad.

But they will be glad to go through with four points in the bank and a very healthy Net Run Rate. In the next round they will meet Zimbabwe, West Indies and Netherlands and one win from those three games should be sufficient for them to go through provided they don’t lose the remaining two games by heavy margins.