Sri Lanka’s flawed ODI strategies 

by Rex Clementine 

Sri Lanka’s cricketers in New Zealand are kicking themselves having lost the Test series 2-0 and spoiling an excellent campaign in the World Test Championship where they beat some formidable teams.

In Christchurch they were beaten by the barest of margins in the last ball of the game while in Wellington their batting technique was flawed unable to handle the short ball. It was pathetic to see seasoned campaigners having chinks in their techniques tackling something so essential for a batsman to succeed leave alone at the highest level but even in school cricket. What’s the Batting Coach doing?

If they had hanged on for a few more overs on the penultimate day at the Basin Reserve, they could have got away with a draw as it rained on day five relentlessly.

Now the Sri Lankans have moved up north of New Zealand with Auckland hosting  the first match of the ODI series on Saturday.  Auckland’s Eden Park has been hosting Test cricket since 1930 and a popular rugby ground too. It was here the 2011 Rugby World Cup final was played.

This three match series is crucial for Sri Lanka as they need to win all games to automatically qualify for this year’s World Cup. Failing which they will have to play the qualifying round in Zimbabwe in June.

Beating New Zealand 3-0 seems a tall order for a team that failed to beat Afghanistan in their own backyard early this year.

The more realistic hope for them is to play the qualifiers and get on top of it and then go through to the World Cup.

The current selection panel has been backing too many all-rounders in the last two years. They tend to pack the playing eleven with some five all-rounders, an outdated practice in limited overs cricket. That itself tells you the story how outdated the selectors are. Dhananjaya de Silva obviously deserves his place in the side as he’s proved to be a crafty all-rounder and then there’s Dasun Shanaka, the captain. Wanindu Hasaranga makes it three all-rounders and that’s ample.

On top of these the selectors back Dunith Wellalage and Chamika Karunaratne too.

As a result of banking on too many all-rounders, captain Dasun Shanaka has to bat at number five and Wanindu Hasaranga at number six . That’s what happened in Sri Lanka’s last ODI at Trivandrum in January this year.

Numbers five and six are crucial roles in ODI cricket and should be performed by specialist batters. Dasun and Wanindu are finishers and ideally you’d want them at seven and eight.

The other two all-rounders the selectors have backed like Dunith and Chamika are neither contributing with the bat nor are capable of bowling their quota of overs economically.

The tactic has cost the national cricket team dearly and the sooner we get out of it is the better. But when you look at the squad for the New Zealand series, you tend to get the feeling that same old methods that have been disastrous over the last two years will be on show again.