Three takeaways from Sri Lanka's six-wicket defeat to Pakistan
By Shehan Daniel
The inexperience and under-preparedness of Sri Lanka’s bowlers showed, again. How much is enough for Sri Lanka’s bowlers to defend? 344 – Sri Lanka’s third highest score in a Cricket World Cup match – certainly wasn’t.
Having kept Pakistan to 138 for 2 in 25 overs, Sri Lanka’s bowlers wilted under the pressure of a calculated partnership between Mohammad Rizwan and Abdullah Shafique, unable to control the scoring or pick up wickets, much like they struggled to do against South Africa in their opening game, with Pakistan going on to complete the highest successful run chase in the tournament’s history on Tuesday.
A lack of experience at international level – Sri Lanka’s four frontline bowlers on Tuesday have collectively played just over 60 ODIs – and the team’s most recent matches, and successes, being on pitches completely different to what they have played on at the World Cup, have contributed to where Sri Lanka are with their bowling.
Having now been at the receiving end of two dubious World Cup records, of conceding the highest total against South Africa and now the highest successful run chase, and with the limited number of players available to them, Sri Lanka will need to find fixes and fast, or this could end up being a long and demoralizing tournament for this group of players.
50 is becoming a distant memory
Heading into the World Cup, all the talk, and potential changes to the Sri Lanka squad, revolved around the batting, following the ignominy of being bowled out for 50 by India in the Asia Cup final.
Back-to-back scores of 300-plus however, suggest that perhaps that the Asia Cup final was an anomaly – or maybe just that Sri Lanka’s batters are good enough to capitalize on batting friendly conditions, and pile on the big runs.
Whichever it is, Sri Lanka can take confidence in a batting line up that is slowly firing up, even if there is still room for improvement, with the likes of Kusal Janith Perera and Dhananjaya de Silva yet to make big contributions.
And despite scoring 344 on Tuesday, Sri Lanka’s productivity in the final ten overs of their innings, when they managed just 61 runs of the loss of 5 wickets, betrayed everything they had done before, and ultimately meant they ended with a total that Pakistan were able to chance down.
But in some good news...
Kusal Mendis may just be unlocking his best self
He gave us a taster during the pre-tournament warm-up match against Afghanistan, scorching 158 in just 87 deliveries, but Kusal Mendis served up one magnificent innings against Pakistan, scoring the fastest century by a Sri Lankan in a Cricket World Cup.
On Tuesday, he reached his hundred in just 65 balls – five deliveries quicker than the previous record holder Kumar Sangakkara – and gave Sri Lanka a platform to put up a big total, even if he may have been guilty of giving his wicket away after reaching 122.
The innings was however, indicative of just how in form Mendis is at the moment.
Sure, it’s a small sample size, but since the beginning of the Asia Cup, Mendis has been scoring at a strike rate (112.10) far above the rate (86.93) he has scored at in the entirety of his 114-match ODI career.
That this was his first ODI century in three years also goes to show that, for all the prodigious talent, Mendis has been inconsistent and not reached the heights that many thought he would when he broke out in 2016.
But if this form is anything to go by, and he sustains it for longer than he has before, we could be seeing the very best version of Sri Lanka’s best batsman.
What changes should Sri Lanka make to their bowling?
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