{"id":41001,"date":"2015-01-25T17:20:44","date_gmt":"2015-01-26T00:20:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=41001"},"modified":"2015-01-25T17:20:44","modified_gmt":"2015-01-26T00:20:44","slug":"cricket-sri-lanka-and-the-world-cup-2015","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2015\/01\/25\/cricket-sri-lanka-and-the-world-cup-2015\/","title":{"rendered":"Cricket: Sri Lanka and the world cup 2015"},"content":{"rendered":"

By\u00a0<\/span><\/b>Mario Perera, Kadawata<\/span><\/b><\/h2>\n
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What we are witnessing in New Zealand is a sad spectacle of Sri Lankan cricket. To put it succinctly, the national team is in shambles. If we look at the classification table, it is Australia and South Africa that head the list. Then come New Zealand, India. After them comes Pakistan. Then only would Sri Lanka and the West Indies find their spot.<\/span><\/div>\n
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What went wrong with the team? Practically everything. We do not have an opening batting combination. Dimuth Karunaratne has been dismal failure. Of the ancient Trinity composed of Dilshan, Sangakkara and Jayawardene, only the first two could be considered as being stable. Sanga is a class by himself. Jayawardene is a temperamental character. Just watch the way he got himself out today, the 25th<\/sup>. He holed out a dolly catch to mid-off, a stroke totally devoid of discernment. Counting on Jayawardene is like placing reliance on astrologers.<\/span><\/div>\n
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As matters stand the team can only count on Dilshan and Sanga to display their batting prowess. Mathews has been out of action for the last two games. There are no other batting stars down the line. If at all, they are good only on paper but not on the turf. This means that once these two and Mathews are gone, the backbone of the Srilankan batting line up crumbles. This further means that when the forth wicket goes down, the rest tumbles like nine-pins.<\/span><\/div>\n
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Today’s one day cricket is a game won or lost on the big hitting ability of the batsmen. The New Zealanders have big hitters right down the line to their No.11. So have most other leading teams. As for the Sri Lankans, they only have one proven big hitter in Tissara Perera. But Tissara has blown a fuse. Nothing comes out of his bat. He has done nothing for the team with bat or with ball.<\/span><\/div>\n
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Now let us consider the bowling. Sadly it is in tatters. Our fast bowlers are lacking not only in pace, but also in line and length. Kulasekera has already lived out his day and is hardly worth the mention. Lakmal has no venom. He is just a trundler. Prasad has some pace but sprays the ball like an insecticide device. Tissara Perera is very hittable, so hittable that when he gets batsmen caught, it is only in the crowd!<\/span><\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n
As for the spinners, they produce no turn and no terrors. They are easy prey for the big hitters. Furthermore considering that the world cup pitches are not amenable to spin, they only make up the numbers.<\/span><\/div>\n
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Lastly what about the fielding? Looking at the catches that were dropped the only thing our fielders appear capable of holding on to would be their plates of rice.<\/span><\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n
All in all this is a very sad and humbling assessment of our team. Very soon the old triad of Dilshan, Sanga and Mahela will be gone with absolutely no back-up prospects. Cricket being the only game that could keep our spirits high, we still hope for miracles at the World Cup. Indeed hope springs eternal in the cricket fan’s breast. However that hope must necessarily be a hope against hope. Nothing in the team’s performance in New Zealand justifies such hope, but luckily hope is a free commodity. So undeterred the Srilankan segment of the crowd will continue to play their drums and shout themselves hoarse, fully living up to the slogan: newa gilunath ban choon.<\/span><\/div>\n
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I am watching the last ODI. Sanga has run out his second batting partner. Big hitter Tissara is already heading for the calm and quiet of the pavilion. We are on the verge of a total wash out, and that on the eve of the World Cup.<\/span><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By\u00a0Mario Perera, Kadawata What we are witnessing in New Zealand is a sad spectacle of Sri Lankan cricket. To put it succinctly, the national team is in shambles. If we look at the classification table, it is Australia and South Africa that head the list. Then come New Zealand, India. After them comes Pakistan. Then […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-41001","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mario-perera","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41001","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41001"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41001\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41001"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41001"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41001"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}