SRI LANKA WIPE THE SMILE OFF THE IRISH – BY TREVINE RODRIGO IN MELBOURNE
Sri Lanka’s bowlers stifled a dangerous Ireland batting line-up and then the familiar picture of an in-form Kusal Mendis stepped in, bludgeoning a hapless Irish attack, smashing an unbeaten 68 off 43 deliveries to give them a glimmer of hope of surprising many in this edition of the T20 World Cup.
A backup pace attack did an incredible job to restrict and bamboozle the Irishmen before the big guns, Wanindu Hasarsnga De Silva and Maheesh Theeksheena strangled the run flow while picking up wickets at random to give the batsmen the relief of an achievable target.
There was no panic, as the Sri Lankans plotted a cool calm and calculated chase. With little terrors in the Irish attack to deal with, there was no disorientation like in the game against Namabia.
Missing explosive Pathum Nissanka, Sri Lanka pushed Dhananjaya De Silva up to open the innings with Kusal Mendis. It proved to be a master-stroke.
It was a good choice of opener as they cooly posted 64 for the first wicket off 8.2 overs before De Silva was enticed, and chased a wide Delaney delivery outside off stump and edged one to the keeper. He delivered all that was expected. De Silva should have been out earlier had the Irish reviewed an appeal for caught behind. He used his reprieve to the fullest to make the target easily gettable.
Not making anywhere near par, the Irish had their backs against the wall trying to defend a score that was hard to defend against a strong Sri Lanka batting line-up. It proved to be the case as first Mendis and De Silva, then he and Charith Asalanka imploded to make the target easy while boosting Sri Lanka’s important net run rate which will be a key factor when things get tight.
Binura Fernando and Lahiru Kumara proved to be more than handy replacements for injured Dusantha Chameera and Pramod Madushan, and this was an obvious key to contain Ireland’s batting early before Chamika Karunaratne and the spinners applied the brakes.
The rapid rate of injuries has had the Sri Lankan coaching department scrambling for replacements flying over left arm medium pacer Asitha Fernando. Matheesha Pathirana and Niroshan Dickwella with head of High Performance Tim McCaskill. They may have issues dealing with the climatic conditions in Australia which is creating a train wreck.
To the beat of the deafening cacophony of the Papare band and thousands of cricket mad fans, Sri Lanka began their run chase like they were at home, not in Hobart and the crisp, cold temperature. But that did nothing to deter their focus and a strong aim to build on their incredible run of success of eight wins in nine games which now makes them a dangerous proposition to the best on the competition.
Sri Lanka skipper Dasun Shanaka is emerging as a great leader of his nation despite some unfounded criticism before the team arrived in Australia, even after winning the Asia Cup. They need to stay the course with his proven leadership, and coach Chris Silverwood will need to be firm about dealing with any distraction that will derail their quest to deliver the improbable.
How they handle the treacherous bounce and pace in Perth against a humiliated Australia will prove their strength and mental capacity to handle what’s ahead of them.
Ireland will reflect on a learning curve in different conditions although there were no excuses on Hobart where they were already acclimatized but failed to counter a well drilled Sri Lanka attack.
Sri Lanka need to work on their batting that has been fragile in the middle order against lesser opposition. Against the best in the big time, they face the acid test.
While it’s early days, and the important Australia challenge ahead, Sri Lanka have proved they will be a handful to all before them.
