Sports
Sri Lanka’s World Cup campaign in shambles
Rex Clementine in Hyderabad
Most fans back home are angry and disappointed at the start the Sri Lankan team has had in this World Cup campaign. In Delhi, they concede the most runs scored in a World Cup game in history and three days later in Hyderabad, they let the opposition to chase down the highest target in World Cup history. Our bowling is awful. Our cricket is pathetic. A team that set high standards in cricket two decades ago has become the laughing stock.
Let’s be realistic. Given the fact that you have just four players who had featured in World Cups before and your team had to qualify for the sport’s showpiece event, you have got to be happy if they beat Bangladesh, Afghanistan and Netherlands. Any other win has to be a bonus. The only upsets Sri Lanka could create was against South Africa and Pakistan on recent form.
However, now those two games are over, Sri Lanka is facing a tall order in the 2023 campaign.
This year, Sri Lanka suffered their worst ODI defeat in Trivandrum when they lost to India by 317 runs. This year, Sri Lanka suffered their worst ever Test defeat at home when Pakistan beat them by an innings and 222 runs. This year Sri Lanka were also bowled out for their lowest total at home – 50 – in the Asia Cup final.
There are too many lows this year and the list seems to be only growing. We need to address the issue now or face more embarrassment as we move on. There is every indication that Sri Lankan cricket is heading the same direction as West Indies cricket. Woe be the day if that happens.
Teams like India, New Zealand, England and Australia have taken their game to new levels whereas we are happy that we enjoyed a record winning streak, most of which came against associate nations like UAE, Scotland and Oman.
The fact that all these record defeats have happened under the same selection panel means there is an urgent need to get a new set of selectors who are firm but fair. The current panel made a hue and cry about fitness standards and made several players ineligible for selection. Once they got rid of half a dozen seniors, the rules changed. Now they play by a different set of rules, and you don’t become ineligible for selection if your fitness standards aren’t up to scratch.
There are serious questions about our High-Performance Center. Are we preparing players for the requirements of high intensity of international cricket?
How can your premier fast bowler send down 13 wides one day and 18 wides three days later? That too in a World Cup!
Our fielding that used to be the best in the region and on par with Australia and South Africa is crap at the moment. We end up paying princely sums to hire foreign coaches to improve fielding whereas someone like Upul Chandana, under whose watch the under-19 team has maintained high fielding standards, is wasting his time with development squads.
So much has been said about the standards of our domestic cricket. In 2017, we doubled the teams that play First Class cricket to 26 in order to please cricket’s voter base. A few years down the line we realized that it was a mistake and were keen to address the issue and a system was introduced to cut down the number of First-Class teams methodically. But that structure seems to have been thrown out of the window because you don’t want to antagonize your voter base.
Even our former captains who had championed the cause of domestic cricket and wanted teams to be cut down have been silenced with solid pay packages.
The injuries to our players are legendary. During the last T-20 World Cup in Australia, the team management promised to address the issue, but they have done precious little to overcome the problem. Our training methods and our rehabilitation need to be looked at.
Our wickets are horrible. In slow turners back home, we could give any team a run for their money, but we seem to forget that when we go for ICC events, we get belters. Having played on poor quality wickets, our bowlers are not up to the mark on flat decks and have no idea how to stop the run flow.
Forget international cricket. Even for Lanka Premier League we failed to produce decent wickets and they were played on lousy wickets. Some say that the national curator is picked not on merit but on how many votes he has. If that’s your yardstick, then good luck to your cricket.
If you don’t have any good curators, hire someone who is capable of producing good wickets from overseas for after all you have reached record profits and you are richer than the New Zealand Cricket Board.
These are some of the harsh realities that are facing our cricket. We need to address them, now. Unless we do that, our cricket is doomed. Now then, don’t shoot the messenger.
The first truly heavyweight clash of this expanded T20 World Cup format comes freighted with both history and subplots. A rematch of the 2010 World T20 final at Kensington Oval, the match pits Jos Buttler’s defending champions – who are aiming to become the first team to retain the trophy – against the Australian winning machine, victors at the 2021 edition and current world title-holders in Test and ODI cricket. And that’s before you throw in the Ashes for afters.
Already there is added pressure on England, after the rain in Bridgetown led to a share of the points in their opener against Scotland (and that having conceded 90 runs from 10 overs without taking a wicket in a tepid bowling display). Lose to their oldest rivals and it will leave their Super 8 prospects open to being waylaid by the perils of net run-rate calculations, or worse.
The Scotland match was the third abandonment in five suffered by England, after a rain-affected home series against Pakistan, which has clearly hampered their readiness for this campaign after almost six months without playing T20 together. It does not take much for a side to click in this format – and England looked in decent shape when they did get on the field against Pakistan – but Buttler will be anxious for things to go their way on Saturday, if only to avoid further questions referencing the team’s disastrous ODI World Cup defence last year.
Australia, under the laidback leadership of Mitchell Marsh would love nothing more than to add to the English sense of jeopardy – having helped bundle them out of the tournament in India on the way to taking the crown. Their head to head record is less impressive in T20 however, with England having won six of the last seven completed encounters, as well as that 2010 final.
Despite a wobble with the bat, Australia avoided mishap against Oman earlier in the week, the experience of David Warner and Marcus Stoinis shining through in difficult batting conditions. Surfaces in the Caribbean – not to mention those games staged in the USA – have already had teams scratching their heads; rather than the “slug-fest” England had prepared for, following a high-scoring tour of the Caribbean in December, it looks as if boxing smart may be the way to go.
Speaking of Warner, this could be the last time he faces up against England in national colours – and another match-winning contribution would likely reduce the chances of them meeting again in the knockouts. On the other side of the card is Jofra Archer, fresh from an emotional maiden outing at Kensington Oval and ready to take on Australia for the first time in any format since 2020. Can Mark Wood fire up England’s campaign, as he did during last summer’s Ashes? Will Pat Cummins be back to harass the old enemy once again? Seconds out, it’s almost time to rumble.
Cummins is set to return after being rested for the Oman game, which saw Mitchell Starc leave the field with cramp. Starc is understood to be fine and could keep his place – which would likely see Nathan Ellis miss out. Marsh is still not fit to bowl, with Australia likely to continue with the allrounder combination of Stoinis and Maxwell to give them cover.
Australia (probable XI): David Warner, Travis Head, Mitchell Marsh (capt), Glenn Maxwell, Marcus Stoinis, Josh Inglis (wk), Tim David, Pat Cummins, Nathan Ellis/Mitchell Starc, Adam Zampa, Josh Hazlewood
The one change England may consider is Reece Topley coming in for Wood, with the expectation that there will be some rotation among the seamers through the course of the tournament.
England (probable XI): Phil Salt, Jos Buttler (capt & wk), Will Jacks, Jonny Bairstow, Harry Brook, Liam Livingstone, Moeen Ali, Chris Jordan, Jofra Archer, Adil Rashid, Reece Topley/Mark Wood
[Cricinfo]
Once is coincidence, twice is a clue, and three times is proof.
To paraphrase Agatha Christie, that is the narrative around South Africa’s meeting with Netherlands at this T20 World Cup.
The Dutch beat South Africa at the 2022 tournament and ended their semi-final hopes in a match where South Africa appeared to be sleep walking, and then beat them again at the 2023 ODI World Cup, where they exposed South Africa’s vulnerability in the chase. If they to do the treble, not only will Netherlands take the lead in Group D, but they will offer conclusive evidence of the threat they pose to Full Members, especially South Africa.
Of course, it will take some doing after South Africa’s opening performance against Sri Lanka, where they reduced their opposition to their lowest T20I total and chased it down in fairly straightforward fashion thanks to the most stable middle-order of their white-ball era. In Aiden Markram, Tristan Stubbs, Heinrich Klaasen and David Miller, South Africa have bankers and big-hitters and, for this match, they also have the advantage of experience. They’ve already played at Eisenhower Park, and have first-hand knowledge that run-scoring doesn’t come easily;Klassen said they are prepared to use their “cricket brains” and play “smarter cricket”.
But the conditions could be good news for Netherlands, who are not naturally a line-up of big hitters and build their innings on a foundation of turning ones into twos. In other words, they tend to take a slightly more conservative approach to batting, which may work well here, but they’ll be wary of the uneven bounce of the surface and will have to come up with plans to counterattack especially against South Africa’s seamers. Their own bowlers were exemplary in Dallas and will look to build on that performance against a line-up that will likely be more proactive than Nepal’s, but who they have managed to keep quiet not once, but twice in the past. Third time’s the charm, they say.
Anrich Nortje’s stunning return to form against Sri Lanka means South Africa may not have to tinker with the bowling combination, and Gerald Coetzee and Tabraiz Shamsi may have to wait their turns to get a game. The batting line-up should be unchanged, with no space for Ryan Rickelton yet.
South Africa: Quinton de Kock (wk), Reeza Hendricks, Aiden Markam, Tristan Stubbs, Heinrich Klaasen (wk), David Miller, Marco Jansen, Keshav Maharaj, Kagiso Rabada, Ottneil Baartman, Anrich Nortje
Conditions in New York may tempt Netherlands to include an extra seamer and they have Kyle Klein in their squad. But it could come at the expense of a shortened batting line-up and they may not want to risk that.
Netherlands: Michael Levitt, Max O’Dowd, Vikramjit Singh, Sybrand Engelbrecht, Scott Edwards (capt, wk), Bas de Leede, Teja Nidamanuru, Logan van Beek, Tim Pringle, Paul van Meekeren, Vivian Kingma
[Cricinfo]
Nuwan Thushara’s last over brought Sri Lanka screaming back into the match,as he first bowled Rishad Hossain, and then nailed Taskin Ahmed in front of the stumps with a pinpoint swinging yorker. This left Bangladesh eight wickets down, with 12 runs still to get.
However, the experienced Mahmudullah was at the crease for Bangladesh, and despite some further nervy moments, pushed Bangladesh across the line off the last ball of the 19th over.
But this was a match chiefly decided by Bangladesh’s own outstanding bowling. Mustafizur Rahman was the best among them, using shorter lengths and his cutters efficiently, to claim figures of 3 for 17. Rishad Hossain’s three-for through the middle overs also kept Sri Lanka quiet.
Mustafizur was instrumental in Sri Lanka’s downward spiral through the middle overs, which culminated in a crash-and-burn end. Ultimately, their inability to find boundaries, or even rotate strike against good Bangladesh bowling resulted in their downfall. A score of 125 for 9 always seemed poor on a decent pitch, even if their bowlers made a match of it in the end.
Brief scores:
Bangladesh 125 for 8 in 19 overs (Towhid Hridoy 40, Litton Das 36; Dhanajaya de Silva 1-11, Nuwan Thushara 4-18, Wanidu Hasaranga 2-32, Matheesha Pathirana 1-27) beat Sri Lanka124 for 9 in 20 overs (Pathum Nissanka 47, Dhananjaya de Silva 21; Tanzim Hasan Sakib 1-24, Taskin Ahmed 2-25, Mustafizur Rahman 3-17, Rishad Hossain 3-22) by two wickets
[Cricinfo]
