Ominous signs of a T20 World Cup debacle

By Shehan Daniel at R. Premadasa Stadium 

It was somewhat ironic that on the day Sri Lanka announced its 15-member squad for the T20 World Cup, they also displayed one of their worst batting efforts at home, losing to South Africa by nine wickets in the second T20I yesterday. 

Sri Lanka’s total of 103 all out was their lowest ever score batting first at home, and the lowest score they have been bowled out for by South Africa. 

The margin of victory was the biggest for South Africa against the hosts in terms of wickets. 

The 2-0 series defeat means Sri Lanka have not won back-to-back T20I series since 2016/17, when they won away from home in South Africa and Australia. 

With this same group of players rubber stamped by the Sports Minister to travel to the United Arab Emirates for the World Cup, if the performances on this tour don’t raise questions about the selections, they must at least cause some jitters among the selectors, perhaps wondering if it was too late to make any changes. 

With a target of 104, South Africa completed the chase with 38 balls to spare on the back of a half-century from Quinton de Kock, losing only the wicket of Reeza Hendricks -- that too more than half the way to the target.

With only four front-line batsmen and three classified all-rounders, Sri Lanka’s tactics yesterday played into the hands of the South African spinners, who once again gave very little away, exposing a seemingly serious lack of aptitude against spin and a willingness to adapt to the situation.  

Left-arm leg-spinner Tabraiz Shamsi, who had an off-day in the first T20I, bounced back yesterday to take three wickets for 20 runs in his four overs, although South Africa’s best bowler was part-time spinner Aiden Markram who also accounted for a trio of Sri Lankan wickets. 

Markram had just one wicket to his name going into this match and yesterday conceded just 21 runs in his four overs, even sending down a maiden in the 18th over of the innings. 

More telling was that Markram didn’t cherry pick on tail-enders. His three wickets were that of established batsmen Kusal Janith Perera, Bhanuka Rajapaksa and Charith Asalanka, all dismissed to either bad shot choices or poor execution of those shots. 

After their struggle for runs in the powerplay overs effectively cost them the first T20I, Sri Lanka were more aggressive in the opening six overs yesterday, with 52 runs for the loss of two wickets. 

But even after hitting a few speed bumps, some of Sri Lanka’s batsmen didn’t seem to want to step off the accelerator, throwing their wickets away, when calm was the requirement. 

29 of those powerplay runs came off Kagiso Rabada’s two overs, with the rest of South Africa’s bowlers tightening the screws, and capitalizing on the Sri Lankan batsmen’s mistakes.

Perera top scored with 30 and was involved in the team’s best partnership of 28 runs for the second wicket with Rajapaksa, who contributed 20, but outside of that only two other batsmen scored in double figures, with Sri Lanka losing their last eight wickets for just 44 runs – from 59 for 2 to 103 all out – and no boundaries or sixes off the last 54 balls of the innings.