It was a very disappointing finish to the Sri Lankan Cricket Team’s effort to qualify for the Semi Final against England at Cardiff.
In their first outing in the tournament against South Africa at the Surrey oval, Sri Lanka bowled South Africa for a score of 299. Had our bowling been more disciplined from overs 40 to 50 we could have restricted South Africa to a score of around 270. Sri Lanka after having lost an early wicket, that of Niroshan Dickwella, were able to establish some useful partnerships while maintaining the required run rate. However, when things were going our way we kept losing wickets at regular intervals and were bowled out for 203 runs, conceding a 96 run victory to the South Africans. The absence of Captain Angelo Mathews due to injury had a negative effect on our batting as he usually guides the more inexperienced players while batting alongside them. It was also unpardonable that the Sri Lankans failed to bowl their quota of 50 overs in the allotted time resulting in the stand-in skipper Upul Tharanga being suspended for the next two matches in the Tournament.
The second game against India, again at the Surrey Oval saw India being put into bat after Sri Lanka won the toss. India got off to a fine start when the openers Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan putting on a 138 run partnership. The Sri Lankan bowlers did well to restrict India to 321 in 50 overs when at one time it looked as if they would be in a position to get close to a 350 run total. Sri Lanka in their turn lost the early wicket of Niroshan Dickwella but a sensational partnership of 159 runs between Dhanushka Gunathileka and Kusal Mendis gave the Sri Lankans the necessary momentum and heart to chase down the Indian total. The batsmen who followed were able to capitalize on this big partnership and score freely to overhaul the Indian total with two overs to spare. This 7 wicket victory was an astonishing one considering that India had one of the best bowling attacks in this tournament. It must be emphasized that this victory was made possible due to the calm and collected manner in which skipper Angelo Mathews batted and guided the others in this big run chase.
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The win against India made our third game against Pakistan in Cardiff a must win game for one side to qualify for a semi final birth, as Pakistan too had scored an upset victory over the more fancied South Africans in the same group. Pakistan won the toss and decided to bowl first hoping to extract any early life on the wicket but was unable to make a break through until the Sri Lankan openers had scored 50 runs. Kusal Mendis who looked in very good touch in scoring 32 runs was bowled by a superb delivery from paceman Hassan Ali. Dinesh Chandimal was out soon after, causing some concern for Sri Lanka. At this stage Skipper Angelo Mathews joined opener Niroshan Dickwella and steadied the Sri Lankan innings with a partnership of 70 runs maintaining a scoring rate of 5.5 runs an over. Skipper Angelo Mathews who looked in complete control played a rash stroke and was bowled for a well compiled 38 runs. Niroshan Dickwella too was out soon after, playing an injudicious stroke to be brilliantly caught behind by Sarfraz. Sri Lanka had slumped to 160 for 7 wickets but a very useful partnership of 60 runs between Asela Guneratne and Suranga Lakmal enabled Sri Lanka to post a total of 236 in 49.2 overs.
Pakistan in their turn was lucky when a hot chance off Azar Ali was dropped before he had opened his account. Thereafter the opening pair batted freely before the first wicket fell at 70. The Sri Lankan bowlers there after bowled in good areas and were able to pick up wickets regularly to put the Pakistani batsmen under pressure. Pakistan had slumped to 160 for 7 when Captain Sarfraz Ahmed was joined by pace bowler Amir. This pair batted doggedly to establish a big partnership to take Pakistan to victory. As this partnership was progressing skipper Sarfraz who was unbeaten on 61 at the end, was dropped on two occasions and the Sri Lankan fielding deteriorated with overthrows and misfields easing the pressure on the batsmen. It could therefore be concluded that Sri Lanka missed a good opportunity of qualifying for the Semi Final. Having seen the performance of the Pakistani’s in this match where they made heavy weather of achieving a victory over Sri Lanka they would have to lift their game by leaps and bounds to be competitive against England in the semi final at the same venue.
