Sri Lanka miss golden opportunity to win a series in India

Sri Lanka skipper Dasun Shanaka congratulates India’s Suryakumar Yadav after his superlative century that clinched the T20I series 2-1 for India. Player of the Series Axar Patel is on extreme right

By Sa’adi Thawfeeq

Sri Lanka were left to rue missed opportunities after India won the three-match T20I series 2-1 with a comprehensive 91-run victory in the third and final game concluded at Rajkot on Saturday.

Sri Lanka who had never won a series in any format in India had the best opportunity to do so, but they botched the first game which they could easily have won and lost it by a mere two runs. Had they won it, they would have comfortably sealed the series 2-0 lead with their victory in the second match by 16 runs and made the final game a dead rubber.

As it was, both teams came to the final and decisive match locked at one-all, and India, powered by Suryakumar Yadav’s impact century, ran out winners quite easily to clinch the series.

Where Sri Lanka actually lost the plot was in the first match. With some common-sense batting by the top-order they could have easily chased down the target of 163 after their bowlers had come up with a superb display on the field.

Even coming down to the final over, Chamika Karunaratne should have shown more intent in trying to take singles and see his team over the line rather than waste two balls trying to convince the umpire that they were wides, whereas in fact they were not. With 13 required off the final over Karunaratne and Kasun Rajitha had brought it down to four off the final ball of which Sri Lanka could manage only one.

At the post-match media conference, Sri Lanka’s assistant coach Naveed Nawaz lamented his team’s missed opportunities.

“The first game was a really good opportunity for us to win. We regret losing that. It was a good chance for us to win a series in India which we have not done before,” said Nawaz. “Today’s game (Saturday) we came with a lot of hope and motivation to do well.

“It was a good toss to win in this game and bat on a placid wicket and put runs on the board. But it didn’t happen like that. All credit to India, they batted really well and an outstanding innings by Suryakumar took the game away from us.”

Despite the series loss Sri Lanka can take heart from the fact that they have improved as a T20I side from what they were some two years ago, where even making a total of 140-150 was an effort. In the Asia Cup which Sri Lanka won they racked up scores in excess of 170 on four occasions. However, that consistency was not extended to the T20 World Cup that followed and the recently concluded series against India.

“It’s a bit of a worry our batters didn’t make use of these conditions to have partnerships but on the other side of it when you are chasing such a big score in 20 overs there has to be one batter going big like Suryakumar and the others batting around him. We were also expecting one of our batters would click but it didn’t happen like that today. However, the intent was there,” said Nawaz.

“I am happy that the boys were trying to strike at a higher rate so that we can get into the game. 228 is a massive score, four of our batsmen’s strike rates were pretty high. They were trying to strike at 140-150. Obviously when you are trying to strike at that rate you are taking a lot of risks and they couldn’t sustain it. That was probably the reason why we were bowled out for 137.

“We were keeping an eye on passing 200 at least in the 17-18 overs so that we will have a chance in the last two overs. We couldn’t sustain because the Indian bowlers bowled better areas and they kept on picking up wickets. They were executing their plans well, the Yorkers, the slow balls, even the spinners.”

The series was a personal triumph for skipper Dasun Shanaka, who eventually proved his worth in the side (124 runs with a strike rate of 187.87 and 2 wickets, ec/rt 4.00). Prior to the start of the series Shanaka was under pressure to perform. Many were of the view that he was retaining his place in the team only because of his captaincy because his contributions towards the team had been few and far between.

However, the appointments of Wanindu Hasaranga and Kusal Mendis as vice-captains in the T20I and ODI formats respectively seemed to have injected new life into Shanaka’s cricket and brought out the best in him. He showed us in the series against India, how effective his batting can be towards changing the course of a match. His seldom used medium-paced deliveries were also instrumental in giving Sri Lanka their only win of the series.

Nawaz is pleased that despite the losses the team is showing progress towards reaching the point of where they want to be.

“It’s about answering the questions the bowlers put on to them like slow balls, wide yorkers, etc. As a batter you have different answers to those questions. They go out there at training sessions and try finding answers to different questions the bowlers pose at them. They train in different ways and sometimes it takes time for them to master them because we have a young team. We make mistakes and we learn from them. That’s the only way to move forward.”