World Cup : We are on Course

Dilrook Kannangara

It was the match against Australia in the super eights; Sri Lanka has already secured a position in the semis; some expected another nail biting finish. Sri Lanka played very sensible cricket by allowing a chance to Malinga Bandara and Nuwan Kulasekera both had played very well in Australia against the Australians and South Africans a year ago. So why is the fuss?

Apparently, it is the absence of Murali, Vass and Malinga. There are those responsible for selecting the day’s team and they have come up with 11 world-class cricketers. How can anybody question the right of our selectors? If Ian Chappell claims that we failed to provide a good, hard-fought, close game, who played that type of cricket throughout the world cup? What about our matches with South Africa, India and England? His assertions are nothing but ridiculous.

Chaminda Vass and Muttiah Muralitharan have been playing ODIs for the past one and a half decades and Australians have played against them on so many occasions. Why are they particularly keen on playing against them at this moment? True enough no team has been able to give the Aussies tight, they have an unbeaten record from 1999 at world cups and have a very strong batting line up. However, should we risk aggravated injuries to our players just to provide them with batting practice? On the other hand, is it a futile attempt to question Malinga’s actions ahead of the big game, which they tried it with Murali years ago?
We will never share the world record for underarm bowlers. It was the yellows bowling against the blacks when the bowler changed his actions vastly for the last ball; it was an underarm throw and was since banned. Who played dishonourable cricket?

However, the match wasn’t exciting not because of the bowling department, but because our batting was anything but respectable. We had the full strength batting line-up, yet except for Mahela, Chamara, Maharoof and Bandara the others failed to make an impression. Given that the first three batsmen scored a poultry 18 runs, and as usual the last 10 overs didn’t hold any long partnerships, our 226 was quite gettable. Had we scored another 50 runs more, going by the Australian run rate, it would have been another close encounter. This is the sticking point of the team’s recent performance. Sanath, Upul, Kumar, Mahela, Chamara, Dilshan and Arnold (essentially all the top/middle order batsmen) are due for a big ‘un each. Are centuries so difficult to come by? A glance at statistics tells a different story.

The last ten overs need solid partnerships. When Maharoof and Bandara aren’t playing, it is imperative that the target score is less than a dozen runs away by the fall of the sixth wicket. Batting skills of Chaminda has declined but he more than compensates it with fantastic bowling. Very few runs can be expected from the next three players especially when things hot up. Therefore, it is necessary that two anchor innings take us through to the 50th over. Recent statistics show that it is more important for the last two reputed batsmen to stay there than to accelerate the run score. Going by Dilshan’s and Arnold’s strike rates, they can amass 46 runs for the last 10 overs (couple of extras and it is 50) by playing their normal game; yes, no accelerations needed. It is tempting to follow Australia, South Africa or England to go after the bowlers in the last 10 over no matter who is batting. However, that is not our game when we play without Maharoof and Bandara and when five wickets have already fallen.

Strike rate times average gives an indication of batting performance. A single indicator for bowling is to calculate the product of reciprocals of average and economy rate times 1000. These indices can be used for ranking batting and bowling performance. Fielding rakings can also be calculated based on catches, stumpings and run-outs. Overall rankings (MVP rank) can be obtained by combining the three separate rankings.

It is interesting that Tharanga comes at number 11; it may be useful to reconsider his place. Dilhara comes at 13; Maharoof may be a better option.

However, the above only considers numbers and match winning performances are not factored in.

Our team is doing very well and they should keep the momentum going. It is needless to drag unnecessary conflicts and irrelevancies. We all stand by Mahela who has improved his batting and leading the team by example.