Running between the wickets; A concern for Sri Lanka?

The beautiful island nation in the Indian ocean has undoubtedly had a rough patch in cricket.

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There is no need to talk about the results and our performances to add to the grief and disappointment we have had to bear as true followers. However, with the dawn of the new year Sri Lanka has taken a step on the right path with the addition of Chandika Hathurusinghe as the Team coach. It has brought renewed hope and anticipation among many.

Content Courtesy – Chamila Karawita

Can Hathuru make a difference? Can he change the pattern of defeats to victories? These are questions which await answers. He has been handed over a set of players who have struggled to be consistent for the longest time, so he has clearly got his work cut out for him.

In the past calendar year, Sri Lanka played 57 international matches. They managed 14 wins, but the losses stacked up to 47 in all three formats. Apart from certain occasions where the lions sparked some confidence out in the middle, they failed to be consistent in all three departments of the game. After producing so many high-class batsmen over the years, Sri Lanka have seemingly failed to find replacements for the retired Sangakkara, Jayawardena and  T M Dilshan.

However, on further scrutiny, fielding it seems was the biggest let off last year.  So, one could say it’s not a lack of talent that’s missing in the team. The number of run out dismissals Sri Lanka conceded during 2017, was a staggering 37 in 57 matches which is something that cannot be ignored moving forward.

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Sri Lanka played 13 test matches which included 7 run outs, 29 ODI’s which included 23 run outs and 15 T20’s which included 7 runouts.

Confusions during running between the wickets occur mainly due to callous negligence on the part of the batter. This goes to show that it is not entirely the lack of talent of the players that has resulted in the losses, but the inattention of the players which has aided in the failures.

Amongst those 37 dismissals, there was only one occurrence where the dismissal was indeed created by some  brilliance in the field. It was during the sole test match against Zimbabwe where Asela Gunaratne was found short of the crease through a joint effort Malcolm Waller, Tarisai Musakanda and Regis Chakabva. Apart from that, there were 18 occurrences where the run outs were affected by direct hits.

There was one occasion where the bowler flicked one to the stumps on his follow through during the Zimbabwe tour. The victim was Upul Tharanga who was caught short of the crease by Donald Tiripano who got a bit of hand to the ball which was hit back by Dinesh Chandimal.

During the year 2017, there have been 19 dismissals to run-outs which included the top order of Sri Lanka and it was the rising star Kusal Mendis who topped the list with 4 dismissals. He is followed up by Dinesh Chandimal, Upul Tharanga and Asela Gunarathne who were dismissed 3 times each. Kusal Mendis who was tipped off to become the next big thing in Sri Lanka Cricket was found missing in the squad which travelled to India after his failures in the Pakistani Tour and unfortunately running between the wickets has been a major concern for the youngster.

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Another young prospect Wanindu Hasaranga who picked up a hat-trick against Zimbabwe has been run out twice in his short career of just 5 ODI matches.
Also, in the match against Bangladesh which was held on the 28th March, the Sri Lankan innings included 3 run outs. Upul Tharanga, Thisara Perera and Dilruwan Perera were the victims.

Amongst those 37 occasions two batsmen missed out on making triple figures during last year. Kusal Mendis who played an absolute blinder of an innings in the big run chase against India in the Champions League, was run out on 89 just 11 runs short of the century while Dimuth Karunarathne was dismissed for 93 in the 1st test against Pakistan in Abu Dhabi.

Chandika Hathurusinghe would no doubt have pounced on this factor in his analytics as he is known to be a very scientific and fact driven coach.

Below is the list of all 37 run outs during 2017: