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(Daily Mirror) – Sri Lanka’s embarrassing defeat to South Africa in their opening match of the T20 World Cup 2024 in USA and West Indies exposed their lack of preparation ahead of the tournament.
Most of the players had left to the USA weeks before the tournament in an attempt to get used to the conditions, but their batting display on Monday (3) against South Africa clearly shows that they are well short of proper preparation.
In a high profile tournament such as the World Cup, in addition to getting used to the conditions, it is very important to study the opponent. However, the Sri Lanka batsmen looked absolutely clueless against the South African pace attack.
Anrich Nortje produced a stunning spell of fast bowling where he had four Sri Lankan batsmen caught in the deep. Nortje is a really fast bowler, but the manner in which the Sri Lankan batsmen got out just goes on to show that they didn’t have enough preparation against that type of bowling. While Kusal Mendis and Angelo Mathews tried hooking the paceman, Kamindu Mendis and Charith Asalanka could only manage to flick full deliveries to deep square leg.
In complete contrast though, when South Africa were batting they looked much prepared to handle Sri Lanka’s best bowler Matheesha Pathirana who was sending absolute rockets over 150 kmph. Heinrich Klaasen for instance knew what to expect from Pathirana and barely lifted his bat when the quick was operating at proper pace trying to get those yorkers in. Had he been dismissed at the time, things could have gone either way, but this was the better prepared team who knew what was needed to be done on the particular phase.
Many criticized Wanindu Hasaranga for opting to bat first on a fairly strange wicket, but had Sri Lanka put on 120 runs, that would have been considered a masterstroke. The problem again was batsmen not knowing what to do on different phases. At times, it was very clear how opener Kusal Mendis just tried to whack the ball, having run out of options.
This is when the think tank has to contribute and help players get through phases such as that. As things stand, Sri Lanka doesn’t seem to have any think tank. This is Sri Lanka’s best 15 men, there is hardly any doubt about it, but if they are being sent to the field without proper preparation, days like Monday could happen more often.
Sri Lanka is also becoming very predictable in terms of bowling. Was Angelo Mathews Sri Lanka’s most lethal weapon on a wicket like that defending 78? It seems like he is going to open the bowling no matter what. This is what differentiate great teams from the rest. Back when Sri Lanka was playing their best possible cricket, there were instances where even T.M. Dilshan was opening the bowling. At the moment, Sri Lanka have got really good players who seem to have got very little input on how to deal with top bowling attacks at a high profile tournament.
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