Smiling Through The Whimpers

Sri Lanka carry a good form through to the world cup and enters into the marquee world-clash as one of the hot favourites while Pakistan come in as the ‘dark horse’ after having to come through a row of tough situations which include match fixing scandals, player-bans and threats apart from losing the opportunity to co-host the big stage along with Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and India because of the security issues caused by the terror attacks in the country.

It was an important game for both teams after beating the minnows easily on their first games: Sri Lanka beat Canada by 210 runs at Hambantota while Pakistan beat Kenya by 205 runs at the same venue. After the reconstructions, the R.Premadasa ground provided the perfect atmosphere for a nail-biting game between the Asian giants. Shahid Afridi won the toss and decided to bat first considering the fact that it’s pretty tough to chase under lights on Premadasa wicket. After losing 3 wickets for 105, Younis Khan and Misbah-ul-Haq got together to add a century-run stand to take them towards a competitive total of 277/7 in their 50 overs. The Sri Lankan spinners were pretty economical with Muttiah Muralitharan conceding only 35 runs in his 10 overs and picking up a wicket while the left arm spinner, Rangana Herath coming back into the side replacing Ajantha Mendis, picked up 2 wickets for 46 in his 10 overs. Sri Lanka however, really felt the need of their partnership-breaker, Lasith ‘Slinger’ Malinga and realised how big a part he plays in the SL seam attack.

Chasing a massive total of 277, Sri Lankan openers, Tharanga and Dilshan, got off to a good start by setting up a 76-run stand for the first wicket though the middle order couldn’t capitalise from there. The wickets of Tharanga, Dilshan and Samaraweera are considered unlucky though Mahela doesn’t seem to have overcome the little technical faults in his batting yet. Although he looks brilliant when he plays his elegant, classy strokes around the ground, he sometimes makes mistakes at good balls. His century in the last game against Canada was a treat to watch but the way he got out in this game was so frustrating: He just tried to stand there and glance the ball across the line from outside the off stump to midwicket instead of getting the front foot forward and playing it with a straight bat down the ground.

Unlike in his batting; Shahid Afridi was so consistent with the ball. He picked up his second consecutive four-for by taking 4 wickets for 34, following his 5 for 16 against Kenya at Hambantota in their first game and with the variation of spin and pace, he caused enough troubles to the Sri Lankan batting order. With the late fight back by the long lower-middle order, Sri Lanka managed to get 266, losing the game marginally by 11 runs in the end. However the major cause for the loss was not the batting but the lack of intensity and aggression in their bowling. It became the first game that Sri Lanka lost at home in a world cup game and Pakistan remain unbeaten against Sri Lanka in the world cup history winning all the 7 games they played against them.

Looking at the shiny side of the lost game, what Sri Lanka can be happy about is that with Chamara Silva finding his rhythm back, they’ve got a long in-form batting line up and if Malinga recovers soon and hopefully makes a comeback in the next game, it’s still not too late for them to grab the cup with both hands.

-Sachintha Saputhanthri-