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Sri Lankans scalp a UAE batsman during an Under-19 Asia Cup match at Dubai
By Sa’adi Thawfeeq
Sri Lanka’s Under-19 Coach Jehan Mubarak believes that the Under-19 Asia Cup loss would make the players more determined and drive them further towards achieving success in next month’s ICC Under-19 World Cup in South Africa.
Sri Lanka went to the Under-19 Asia Cup with a lot of confidence on the back of beating Pakistan in Pakistan in an ODI series, a feat which most sides find difficult to achieve. But in Dubai, after beating Japan in their opening game, Sri Lanka suffered two back-to-back defeats at the hands of UAE and Bangladesh to be knocked out of the semi-finals.
“After the loss to UAE they were a bit low in confidence because there were high expectations,” said Mubarak after the team returned from Dubai. “UAE was also not a bad team; they were playing good cricket. Three players have played for their national team and one of them had played 20 ODIs, so they had that experience. I don’t think the players should feel too bad about losing to UAE because you have to give them credit for playing good cricket. They continued to play good cricket as they beat Pakistan and Bangladesh beat India. When the conditions are not all that batter friendly sometimes even the best teams can lose especially in a short tournament where you don’t have time to adjust. We didn’t get our game together under pressure.”
“Hopefully, I think this performance in the Asia Cup should drive them more. We were a little bit relaxed because it was a relatively easy group with Bangladesh and UAE. What this tournament has taught the players is that you cannot take anything easily however weak the sides are. India and Pakistan were also out. Pakistan was the strongest team in the tournament, but nobody can relax. In the Under-19 World Cup also we should not take any team lightly just because we had a good tour of Pakistan. I don’t think we are playing bad cricket but it’s just that we didn’t handle two key situations – the ball moving around against UAE and after that loss, they were very tentative against Bangladesh. Seven batters got into 20s, but no one went on to get a big score.”
“It’s taking on a responsibility, some of them tried to accelerate at the wrong time and some batters went into a shell. It’s a balance between confidence and responsibility. For me, responsibility is number one. If you are in form you have to score 70 or more. Our guys are comfortable playing pace as long as the ball doesn’t move around. Against spin dominant attacks like UAE and Bangladesh we need to improve the strike rotation against them, whereas against pace as long as the ball doesn’t move, we are okay.”
Mubarak admitted that the boys still have a little bit of school mentality, but he didn’t want to put too much emphasis on it.
“It is our responsibility as coaches to develop the players and bridge the gap from school to Under-19 international level. Long term yes, we need to uplift the standard of school cricket. But in this particular performance I don’t want to put too much pressure.”
The players will have a break from cricket before they begin training on Tuesday for the Under-19 World Cup.
“Sport is a lot about mental skills. We are trying to have mental skill programs and looking at some outbound training camps or someone to come to us and do some team building and motivating sessions,” said Mubarak. “We were initially thinking of going to Maduru Oya, the Army training camp has a program there. I don’t think we have enough time for that with the rains. We need to do some mental conditioning and toughness and it is to adjust to whatever is in front of you today. We have been adapting to what we have been playing previously and not what is in front of us. You need to adapt quickly in conditions especially in the one-day format and when you lose the toss, and you are put into bat.”
