Will Sri Lanka capitalise on Pakistani injuries to make the final?

Pakistan’s injured duo Haris Rauf and Naseem Shah

Dunith Wellalage put to shame some of the senior Sri Lankan batsmen with his display

• Crucial Asia Cup Super4 match at R. Premadasa Stadium today

By Sa’adi Thawfeeq

Injuries to two of Pakistan’s deadly fast bowling trio Haris Rauf and Naseem Shah has pushed them onto the back foot ahead of today’s vital Asia Cup Super4 clash with Sri Lanka at the R. Premadasa Stadium. Haris and Naseem along with Shaheen Shah Afridi have been the spearheads of Pakistan’s bowling attack in the ongoing tournament.

Naseem who injured his bowling shoulder towards the end of the match against India has been ruled out of the Asia Cup and been replaced by Zaman Khan.

Haris who also suffered ‘discomfort in his right flank’ in the same match did not bowl on the reserve day. Neither player batted in Pakistan’s run chase that saw them dismissed for 128 and suffer a massive 228-run loss. It is a defeat that has affected Pakistan’s chances of qualifying for the Asia Cup final. They must beat Sri Lanka in their final Super4 match today to qualify with India. In case the match ends in a no-result due to bad weather, both teams will share two points and be equal on three points, but Sri Lanka will go through to the final because of their superior net run rate.

With the Cricket World Cup starting in less than a month’s time, Pakistan don’t want to take any chances with their injured bowlers so it is very likely that they will field their second line of fast bowlers with the exception of Afridi.

Sri Lanka on their part will be looking to come up with a much better batting performance than they displayed against India on Tuesday. After their bowlers had performed splendidly by dismissing the strong Indian batting for 213, the batsmen flopped for Sri Lanka to be bowled out for a dismal 172 in 42 overs. On a tricky surface where all ten Indian wickets fell to the Lankan spinners, Sri Lanka could have easily topped India’s total had they played risk-free cricket because the asking rate was barely above four runs an over. But it was not the Indian spinners who did the early damage to the Sri Lankan innings, but their seamers Bumrah and Siraj who had them three down for 25 inside the first power play. After that it was a question of how much purchase the Indian spinners Kuldeep and Jadeja could extract from the surface. The Lankan batsmen played into their hands going for fancy shots when all that was required was to rotate the strike with the odd boundary to get to the target.

Young Dunith Wellalage, the way he batted put to shame some of the senior batsmen and made it a point to show that had they done their bit Sri Lanka could have easily romped home winners.

One of Sri Lanka’s main problems in their top order is the form of Test Captain Dimuth Karunaratne. The left-hander was brought into ODI cricket for the World Cup qualifiers and showed remarkable consistency in helping Sri Lanka qualify scoring 369 runs (avg. 61.50) in seven matches with one century and three fifties. But in the Asia Cup he averages 13.25 for 52 runs from four matches which is a cause of concern. There is a lot of pressure to replace Karunaratne with Kusal Perera at the top of the order, a decision which the national selectors and the team management must make.

Sri Lanka will also need to keep a strict check on the wides sent down by their bowlers. In the match against India there were 20 wides bowled out of the total of 21 extras, which means giving the batting side more than an extra three overs and additional runs. Depending on the surface prepared for today Sri Lanka may also make a few changes to their bowling line up as well.