Sri Lankans have peaked at the right time

Tillekeratne Dilshan went to Bangladesh with doubts over his fitness and the selectors had given him an ultimatum of 19th of March. He top scored with 43 runs during Sri Lanka’s second practice game against West Indies on Wednesday and that should be sufficient proof that he is good enough to play.

The form of fast bowler Laisth Malinga will be huge bonus for the Sri Lankans. Malinga was the Man of the Match during the finals of the Asia Cup and prior to leaving for Bangladesh he spoke on the disappointments of losing ICC finals and his keenness for a good show this time around. Malinga also owed up to the defeat in the last World T-20 saying that the team lost because of him.

 by Rex Clementine

By the time you read this, Sri Lanka would have already played their first match of the World T-20 – against the Proteas on Saturday in Chittagong. Amazingly, the team has come up with some outstanding performances, just ahead of the ICC T20 World Cup, although the months prior to big events have been a struggle. The national team entered the 2007 and 2011 World Cups with not so great momentum but went onto reach the finals over many fancied teams.

This time around they have had the perfect momentum. Sri Lanka won the Asia Cup and remained unbeaten in Bangladesh during the bilateral series between the counties and having spent over eight weeks in Bangladesh, they enter the tournament not only as the number one ranked team, but also as the side that everyone is talking about.

Sri Lanka won their first warm-up game against India and after getting a winning mindset; they experimented for the second game and left out some players for the second game against West Indies which they lost.

They have also got an easy group in the Super Ten Round. Sri Lanka are pooled alongside South Africa, New Zealand, England and one of the qualifiers, possibly Ireland. In the other group, there’s huge competition to get into the semi-finals among defending champions West Indies, former champions India and Pakistan and Australia who look determined as this is the only trophy they haven’t been able to win.

With such momentum and an excellent draw, the Sri Lankans should go all the way. Their semi-final though will be tough. At times in T-20s, things like momentum and good form hardly matter as momentum shifts in just a matter of couple of overs unlike in ODI cricket.

Sri Lanka could have done without some of the controversies though. The players left the island without signing the contracts. Even 12 hours before leaving the island they were at SLC headquarters trying to resolve the contracts dispute and the following morning they left SLC headquarters with a heavy heart.

Then there was a massive controversy about the manner in which Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene announced their retirement. SLC officials were making a big fuss over a minor thing. They certainly have bigger things to worry about.

The form of fast bowler Laisth Malinga will be huge bonus for the Sri Lankans. Malinga was the Man of the Match during the finals of the Asia Cup and prior to leaving for Bangladesh he spoke on the disappointments of losing ICC finals and his keenness for a good show this time around. Malinga also owed up to the defeat in the last World T-20 saying that the team lost because of him. In hindsight, Sri Lanka’s strong batting line-up should have chased down a target of 138.

In recent months, Angelo Mathews has started to take up more responsibility in the middle order. Sri Lanka’s batting heavily depended on Kumar Sangakkara, Tillekeratne Dilshan and Mahela Jayawardene and Mathews stepping up to take more responsibility is sure to help improve the performances of the team.

Mathews had an outstanding Asia Cup with match winning knocks and Sangakkara prior to leaving for the World T-20 said Mathews will become a Graeme Smith like figure leading the team for a long time although he is not the captain of the shortest format.

Tillekeratne Dilshan went to Bangladesh with doubts over his fitness and the selectors had given him an ultimatum of 19th of March. He top scored with 43 runs during Sri Lanka’s second practice game against West Indies on Wednesday and that should be sufficient proof that he is good enough to play.

The Sri Lankans play the shorter versions well and that’s why they are successful in ICC events. They are not the most talented side in the world and do not possess the luxury of several big hitters that other teams possess, but the Sri Lankans adapt according to opposition and conditions well and it will be a great sight to watch them compete in the World T-20.

Source: The Islands (Sri Lanka)