An Opportunity Missed

Thursday 1st October , 2009 Sri Lanka pay the price for poor fielding, bad selections An opportunity missed Rex Clementine rights to contend: “only a The Sri Lankans clearly there’s a toss Zealander Jesse Ryder with reporting from sense of utter hopelessness.” misread the conditions. On a up between Mendis and the batsman on 12 proved to Johannesburg The Sri Lankans, after track that helped the seam Muralitharan, it can’t be be so crucial. being put into bat by Strauss bowlers, in the game against your vice-captain who Monsters in the pretext of he Sri Lankan cricket were in a mighty hurry.The England, they opted to play should be left out. Especially cricket agents have done team will arrive in top four - Tillekeratne both their specialist spin- when he’s the highest wicket more harm to cricket in Sri TColombo this morning Dilshan, Lanka than good and have after their early exit in the Sanath tried to sign up the player for Champions Trophy tourna- Jayasuriya, as many products as possible ment and the postmortem by Mahela in search of their 10 percent the board and the selectors Jayawardene commissions. Don’t be sur- into what went wrong for and Kumar prised if you see Mendis on one of the pre-tournament Sangakkara billboards on the road pro- favourites will be painful. fell to poor moting toilet paper, very Once the Sri Lankans start- shots and soon. ed off with a bang, securing Sangakkara’s For the record, Mendis a 55 run win against hosts in particular has promoted more products South Africa at Centurion, was a shock- within a short span of a year hopes were very high, but ing dismissal. than Muralitharan has done Kumar Sangakkara from thereon, one week into With the throughout his 18 years of the tournament, their team struggling at 17 for ners - Muralitharan and taker in the game. international cricket. Had he chances were reduced to three, the Sri Lankan cap- Ajantha Mendis - leaving out And how the Sri Lankans spent the time he spends in mathematical calculations tain chased a wide delivery Thilan Thushara, who has regretted that decision. The promoting products in hon- after two poor outings at the that would have been called done exceptionally well in wicket helped the spin ing his skills in fielding, he Bombast Wanderers, here in a wide and ended up giving the last 12 months. bowlers so much that the wouldn’t have become a lia- Johannesburg. Strauss at first slip a catch. And then against New part-time left arm spin of bility. No doubt, fingers will be The positive for Sri Lanka Zealand, where the track Sanath ayasuriya fetched Lasith Malinga is not far pointed at the Wanderers in that game was the fight suited spin bowlers, they left him figures of three for 39 behind Mendis when it crash-lands! track, which the Sri Lankan back by Thilan out Muralitharan. In the and in all, Sri Lanka’s three comes to fielding. Not too captain Kumar Sangakkara Samaraweera, Thilina first spin bowlers bowled 20 overs long ago, Chairman of by Russell Palipane (A match preview head- called a track similar to a Kandamby and Angelo place, between them and gave away Cricket Selectors Ashantha line described the Sri first day of a Test match. Mathews. They went on to if only 90 runs, compared to de Mel accused the Sri Sky is the limit for this Lankans as buoyant and The Wanderers track wasn’t post 212, but the total proved the three fast bowlers - Lankans of neglecting their team – Sri Lanka cricket cap- England, hapless). a sporting one and if the to be insufficient as England whose 24 overs cost them 187 fielding drills during training tain Kumar Sangakkara. A case of being hit by tur- International Cricket chased the target with 30 runs. The presence of and you are made to wonder This is what he was bulence? Council wanted to put up a balls to spare, with six wick- Muralitharan would have whether the allegations are reported as having told the Being bombastic is not the colourful show to ensure the ets in d.Kandamby may have been a real handful on that true. There were quite a few media, following Sri Lanka’s wisest thing to do. existence of ODI cricket, this provided some answers for day. dropped catches and mis- 55 run win over South Africa And then on Sunday, the wasn’t what should have Sri Lanka’s middle order Sri Lanka has been a side fields during the two defeats in the Champions Trophy Sri Lankans were really been prepared. struggles, with the selectors that has taken great pride in and captain Sangakkara con- curtain-raiser on September brought down to earth when However, the Sri Lankans having tried and tested its fielding abilities. Not ceded that fielding was 22. they were defeated by the weren’t completely faultless. many players in the too long ago, they ‘appalling’ at times. A few days later, Sri Kiwis (a flightless bird Poor fielding and thought- position he now were on par with The positives are that Sri Lanka received a blow in the species!) less team selections are occupies. But one South Africa Lanka will take heart due to solar plexus, when they lost Quite a nose-dive indeed, things that they will regret, area he will have and were con- the fact that players like to England by six wickets at for the man who said that, but what will hurt them to improve is his sidered one of Mathews and Kandamby are the Wanderers. sky is the limit for this team. most is that 30 minutes of running the best field- looking good. Mathews in madness at the Wanderers between the ing sides in particular has been a terrif- when they lost 17 for four wickets, as the world. ic find for the Sri Lankans proved to be a crucial he was dis- But the and why he was not nomi- moment in the tournament. missed in stan- nated for the ICC Emerging Australia into semis When England arrived in that fash- dards Player of the Year award is South Africa after a 6-1 drub- ion in suc- have a mystery.There are also lots CENTURION, South SCOREBOARD bing at the hands of cessive dropped of ifs and buts. What if the Africa (AP) - Australia Australians, no one expected games. drasti- Sri Lankans played all their beat Pakistan by two wick- Pakistan them to make it all the way Off- cally. games at the Centurion? ets in a last-ball thriller K. Akmal b Watson 44 Wednesday to reach the to the semi-finals. spinner What if Sangakkara had S. Afridi c Hopes b Johnson 15 Muttiah Ajantha won the toss against semifinals of the Y. Kahn c Johnson b Hopes 18 Such was England’s form, A team that took Champions Trophy at the Mendis has England? What if respected cricket writer great pride in expense of India. S. Malik c Ponting b Johnson 27 Muralitharan become a liability Kandamby hadn’t been run Simon Wilde writing in coming up with Australia was cruising M. Yousuf c White b Lee 45 ‘London Times’ said, “When had one bad game at excellent fielding on the field and has out? What will hurt the Sri at 140-2 in the 32nd over in M-ul-Haq hit wicket b Watson 41 England’s Champions Wanderers and it was displays not too not improved his field- Lankans more, however, is pursuit of Pakistan’s 205-6 U. Akmal not out 2 Trophy squad pass through unfair for the team long ago, Sri ing one bit since com- that they missed out on until losing 6-47 with 25 Naved-ul-Hasan not out 7 customs at Johannesburg on management to Lanka’s fielding during ing into the side and opportunities to make an balls left. However, Brett Extras: (6w) 6 Tuesday and are asked if leave him out of the the Champions Trophy was can be considered the impression in ODI cricket, Lee and Nathan Hauritz TOTAL: (for 6 wickets) 205 they have anything to crucial last group appalling and they have with worst fielder in the having gone with a strong held firm and scrambled a Overs: 50. declare, Andrew Strauss game against New them Ajantha Mendis - probably world. The catch that resolve to regain past glo- bye off the last ball to take Fall of wickets: 1-30, 2-85, 3-89, 4- would be well within his Zealand. the worst fielder in the world. he dropped off New ries. Australia to last-four clash 123, 5-186, 6-198. with England on Friday. Did not bat: U. Gul, M. Asif, S. Michael Hussey made Ajmal. 64, while Ricky Ponting (32), Bowling: Lee 10-0-30-1 (2w), Siddle Tim Paine (29) and Shane 5-0-24-0, Johnson 10-0-45-2 (2w), Watson (24) all got starts at the top of the order. Watson 8-0-32-0 (2w), Hopes 10-0- India eye massive win 50-1, Hauritz 7-1-24-0. “I had chewed all my fingernails off,” Ponting Rex Clementine ment and gained one point from Dhoni brought himself on hand- for four. Dinesh Karthik was said. “It was tough to score Australia reporting from Johannesburg the game against Australia after it ing over the wicket keeping unbeaten on 10 with Virat Kohli quickly out there because S. Watson c Akmal b Gul 24 was rained off at Centurion.

Load more