Every young kid who start their cricketing journey are taught one important rule by all coaches at the junior level, ‘Catches Win Matches’. Sadly Sri Lankan fielders, who are international cricketers, seemed to have forgotten that same rule while defending 236 against Pakistan in Cardiff on Monday.
In a competitive tournament like the ICC Champions Trophy which had 300 as a par score, Sri Lanka had a brilliant chance of defending a below-par score but three vital dropped catches cost the islanders the game and their opportunity of sealing a semi-final berth.
Of late, Sri Lanka’s fielding has been the talk of the town with players, administrators and coaches stressing heavily on that aspect of the game. Sri Lanka skipper Angelo Mathews was visibly annoyed during the game which saw simple chances being spilled at crucial moments.
“Looking at today’s performance, well, I thought we were pathetic once again. If we had held those catches, it would have been a different story today, especially at very crucial times. First over, and towards the end, and where we let go of Sarfraz was very crucial. Being an international team well, I thought we’ve improved a little bit, but today was not really our day.” Mathews said at the post-match press conference when asked if Sri Lanka is the world’s worst fielding unit.
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This lackluster performance in the field is not something new to Sri Lanka, despite the islanders being known as one of the best fielding units in the 90’s and early 2000’s. Sri Lanka’s one-time interim coach and current SLC Chief Operating Officer, Jerome Jayarathne labeled the islanders as the world’s ‘worst’ fielding unit back in 2015, “We are now the worst fielding side in Asia, we were never behind Pakistan but now we have gone behind them. India proved that they were better than us and even Bangladesh is fielding better than us.” Jayaratne had mentioned then.
With the guidance of fielding coach Nic Pothas, Sri Lanka had shown glimpses of improvement during the tournament but the efforts were completely ruined today. Prior to the ICC Champions Trophy 2017, Sri Lanka team manager Asanka Gurusinha stressed that fielding will be key to their chances in the United Kingdom, “We want certain things happening with fitness and fielding. There was a clear message from the Chairman of Selectors that we are not going to select players simply because they have scored heavily in domestic cricket. They need to achieve certain standards in fielding,” Gurusinha had said.
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You’ve got to feel for Lasith Malinga, who probably played his final ICC tournament and bowled his heart out only to see three chances go down off his bowling. Danushka Gunathilaka, who is renowned to be an energetic fielder, was the 1st offender, missing a regulation catch at cover-point off Azhar Ali in the very first over. Ali went on to add 74 runs for the first wicket with young left-hander Fakhar Zaman, making 34 after being dropped on 0.
The most crucial drop catch was in the 39th over when Sarfraz Ahmed who was on 38 hit the ball in the air to mid-on where Thisara Perera put down what could only be described as the simplest of chances. In Malinga’s next over, Sarfaraz mistimed the ball towards square leg where substitute fielder Seekuge Prasanna ran in about 10 yards from the deep and dived forward only to spill the catch he’d done well to get to.
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“We saw the effort that he (Malinga) put in today as well. It was unfortunate that we dropped his catches as well today. We had about 30 runs at that moment, so we could have won the game if we held onto those two chances. I think that’s where we lost the game.” Mathews further stated.
Apart from the catches, Sri Lanka further missed a couple of direct-hits which would have had Sarfaraz short; overthrows and miss-fields gave away at least 10 extra runs to add salt to the wound. All in all the fielding was in complete shambles as the team wilted under the pressure.
Furthermore, Dhananjaya De Silva who had spent less than 48 hours in Britain had this to say regarding the performance, “The main reason for our defeat was our poor fielding. Yes, according to today’s performance in the field, anyone can label us as the world’s worst fielding team.” He said.
Cricketers in this day and age are provided with the best quality of training in the world and pursue the game of cricket as a profession from which they earn a living. Yes, human error is part of the game but the repetition of the same mistakes is something that should not be pardoned.
