The Sri Lankans seem to have finally shed their whining and settled down beautifully to focus and play as a TEAM and stop bothering about trivialities and excuses!
It was nice to see them playing the way we know they can and should. They bearded the British Lions in their own den. They slapped a 35-run surprise and exciting defeat.
Before going on to describe the game, the writer would like to compliment the experienced duo of Sri Lanka cricket Angelo 'The Angel' Mathews and Lasith ' The Slinga' Malinga for their match winning performances. And bringing all together was Captain Dimuth Karunaratne who made the right calls in filed setting and choices of whom to bowl when.
Two of the most experienced warriors in the game Mathews and Malinga pooled their experience to charter a course for a Sri Lankan victory and drink deep from its success. With the slowness of the wicket not allowing him to play his attacking strokes, Mathews did well to push the singles and twos and occasional boundary and his innings of 85 not out was a gem.
After Sri Lanka made 232, it looked as though the England batsmen would reach that victory target with not having to raise much sweat. But Malinga who felt bad that he was deprived of the captaincy, let the ball do the talking and when he had the free scoring Johnny Bairstow leg before with a stinging Yorker, it signaled the beginning of the end for the England batsmen.
The double Ms MATHEWS and MALINGA are the rocks on which Sri Lanka can lean on. Malinga who was struggling to find his lethal form of old, now seems to have got his wicket taking Yorker on target. He must bowl that delivery more often.
England at home playing on wickets and conditions that they are born and bred, could not hold back the rampaging Sri Lankan Lions who showed they have a more ferocious bite than the British Lion.
Before the game the consensus was that the Lankans would be no match to Eoin Morgan’s battlers who are well balanced in every aspect of the game and that if they were to bat first the Lankans would have a lot of leather chasing to do and England would be looking to go over the 400 run mark and then let Sri Lanka sink or swim.
The bookmakers had made England red hot favorites to lay their hands on the World Cup that has been eluding them from the time of its inception in 1975. And the bookmakers could not be faulted.
The Lankan think tanks are possessed with the belief that it is better to be chasing a score rather than have first hit. But this time they decided right to bat first and put pressure on England. England showed however strong they are in batting they are also human and can succumb to pressure and that is what exactly happened.
From the first ball it was evident that the wicket was on the slow side and would not be conducive to stroke making. When Sri Lanka lost both openers Dimuth Karunaratne and Kusal Janith for three, it did not augur well.
But the batsman who turned things round was that youngster from Moratuwa school St.Sebastian’s College Avishka Fernando. Having to skip the earlier games owing to injury, he made a roaring debut.
From what we saw, here is a right hander who is stylish with the correct technique and temperament and strokes not wild ones but from the copy book. He is nicely poised at the wicket with a balanced stance, sweet timing and he is not afraid to take on the best of bowlers.
Sri Lanka were in a bad way at 3 for 2 but Fernando took it on himself to make good those loses as he cut loose to hit the England pacemen for fours and sixes with a ‘not a bugger is worried’ attitude.
Fernando is immensely talented and what he requires is encouragement and consistency to join the game’s greats locally and internationally. We hope the selectors would give the youngster continuity.
It was he who inspired Kusal Mendis and Angelo Mathews by showing that there were no terrors in the wicket. Both Mendis and Mathews were in poor form and another failure would have made the selectors rethink their places in the team.
Mendis who is also talented picks the wrong ball to hit and gifts his wicket. His fielding, especially catching is putrid. Fielding coach Steve Rixon will have to do a lot of work with him and tell him to watch the ball until it settles in his hands and not take his eyes off it.
After their stunning victory over England, the Lankans must not allow complacency to set in. They will front up to South Africa today in Durham and they must take the field determined and believing that they are second to none.
The South Africans are also human and if put under pressure, the Proteas can crumble. If they win the toss they must not fear the awesome pace of Rabada, Nigidi and Pheluwakaya, but strike first, put up a formidable score and give the Lankan bowlers, especially Malinga to fire his missiles on the SA batsmen who are struggling to find form.
Now that the South Africans have been bundled out of the World Cup, they are bound to come out firing all cylinders in an endeavor to beat the Lankans and redeem lost prestige.
The early Sri Lankan batsmen look to sacrifice their wickets by trying to steal singles early in the innings. There is no hurry. They have 50 overs in which to make runs. To lose wickets to run outs is sacrilegious.
To move on and reach the first four and then take it from there and bring home the World Cup should be their target. They must stay positive, believe in themselves and the pieces will fall right.
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