World T20 2014

Hope Sri Lanka starts off with a bang, and more importantly, finishes with a bang as well

So that is a good start!

What a Game.Congratz way to Go..   

Congrats SL Team T20, Weldone Kusal....!!!!

Form vs. Experience – Sri Lanka’s selection dilemma


By Channaka de Silva reporting from Chittagong, Bangladesh

Sri Lanka’s batting line up, made to appear utterly brittle by the stunning lack of form shown by the three seniors added to the perpetually misfiring skipper Dinesh Chandimal who is supposed to be playing as a specialist batsman, should be a major concern for world’s number one ranked T20 team when they take on a strong and balanced England team in a Group 1 match of the ICC World T20 tournament here at Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium in Chittagong today.

In their first tournament match against South Africa, Mahela Jayawardene, Kumar Sangakkara and Tillekaratne Dilshan, all former Sri Lanka captains and the present captain failed to impress, while Dilshan and Jayawardene appeared rusty in Sri Lanka’s brief but record-breaking annihilation of minnows Netherlands on Monday.

While they scraped through to a narrow win over the South Africans against whom opener Kusal Perera and Sri Lanka’s Test and ODI captain Angelo Mathews atoned for the failure of seniors, the chinks in the armour could be exposed bitterly against a stronger opposition than Netherlands.

The failures appear even more costly in the face of in-form Lahiru Thirimanne who has been forced to warm the bench, despite producing a magnificent performance in the Asia Cup just a fortnight ago when he emerged the player of the tournament.

Skipper Chandimal once again provided his run-of-the-mill prematch promise that the best eleven will play and it is interesting to see if Sri Lanka’s national selectors would muster enough courage and have the backbone to walk that talk. Chandimal made it clear that the green top which has proven to be fast and offer a lot of bounce contrary to their expectations would not permit more than two spinners today. “We have observed a lot of grass in the wickets and we feel there is a little bit in it for the fast bowlers. So, we are going with two spinners. We can’t go with three spinners” said Chandimal, which makes it a toss-up between Ajantha Mendis and Rangana Herath to partner off spinner Sachitra Senanayake as Herath’s left arm spin may come in handy against England’s batting which is supposedly suspect against the type.

Chandimal did not feel that bundling out Netherlands for a record low of 39 was a freakish performance and said it could even happen again today when the English media questioned him.

“It happens sometimes. But we are playing very good cricket at the moment, so it can even happen in our next game too” said Chandimal.

When he was asked if it was realistic assume they can do it against a Test playing nation Chandimal was equally positive, saying “Netherlands are also a good side in the T20 format. We know England are also a very good side but we have something in our pockets to offer them too”.

Chandimal said they were keen to make a clean sweep in the first round to enter the knockout stage with confidence.

“We can make it to the next round even if we win one more game, but we are looking forward to win both our remaining games and enter the next round with a strong mind set” he said.. England all rounder Ravi Bopara endorsed Chandimal take on the wicket.

“We learnt a lot about the conditions in our previous game. We initially thought the wickets were going to be really, really slow. But the ball was going through and it bounced quite a bit” said Bopara.

Bopara said Sri Lanka’s destruction of Netherlands was not completely unexpected but claimed they were better prepared to meet the challenge. “We didn’t obviously expect Netherlands to be bowled out for 39. They (Sri Lanka bowlers) are tough customers especially if you haven’t really played against them. I don’t think Netherlands have played much against them before. But we’ve seen and played against a lot of their cricketers. So England will be more prepared” said Bopara.

Bopara said they would not mind the chances they had to make it to next round even if they lose today. “It is a must-win game for us. We have to win. Winning against Sri Lanka would be a big confident booster. That’s the way we are looking at it” he said. Bopara also talked about the prospect of dealing with Sri Lanka’s most potent weapon Lasith Malinga.

“I think the best way to approach Malinga is to try to deflect him. You have to find the gaps and deflect him past the point or behind the square. Probably that’s best way to approach him. He has a very, very good slower ball and you can’t afford to have a big swing at him” explained

A storm !!

Mendis is a big mistake, yet they persist. 4 overs with wet ball to boot.

Bad luck with us. But enjoy competitive batting style from senior player Mahela & Dilshan.

Good luck SL.

Hard Luck Guys. Just win next Three Matches.