Lankans ready for the England challenge
View(s):Notwithstanding the impressive win on Thursday over Bangladesh, the Lankans go in today to face the tentative Englishmen a bit weary. The day after the match the Lankans left for Wellington on Friday and opted to have a day off from cricket. The Lankans take on England at the Westpac Stadium, Wellington, today.
Explaining the situation the Lankan coach Marvan Atapattu said. “We have had a tough day yesterday, traveling from Melbourne, early morning flight, got here late afternoon with a two hour time difference.
Sri Lanka cricket coach Marvan Atapattu (above) was confident that his team could carry the momentum gained after the win against Bangladesh in the ICC World Cup 2015 - AFP
I think fatigue management is important as getting the guys on the field.”
Nonetheless, after their performance against Bangladesh, surely the Lankans looked more composed and looked as if they were ready get back into their usual winning habits.
The strengths and weaknesses of the Englishmen are no secrets to the Lankans as they have tested their wits home and away on twelve occasions.
In their last win against lowly Scotland, once again they strode on the run scoring ability of Moeen Ali who now seems to have taken over that position permanently in the limited overs version of the game. However their number three position is still in the balance with Garry Balance not balancing his act in the proper manner. In his three 2015 World Cup innings Gary has made 10 runs on each occasion. Yet, the Lankans also must be mindful that skipper Eoin Morgan limped back into some runs – thanks to the docility of the Scottish attack. Yet prior to game English paceman Chris Woakes meeting the press said that they are ready for the Lankans.
As for the Lankans their first against New Zealand was a loss, the second inspite of an ultimate comfortable win on paper, was a bit of a nightmare. Third may have been worse, but for the benevolent first slip fielder Bijoy in the fourth ball of the first over opted to give the Lankans the much needed lease of life. The Lankans took the opportunity with both hands and the rest was cricket history.
After the win against Bangladesh a beaming T.M. Dilshan said “Definitely this was a really important game for us. I think we didn’t play our 100 percent against New Zealand and Afghanistan. Yet, I think we did really well today batting, bowling and fielding.
“This confidence we can carry for the rest of the series. I think with this performance, everyone’s confidence is high, especially the bowlers have comeback really well, especially Malinga. He’s getting better by the game. I think it’s a very important win for us going forward.”
Yet, we do not agree with the Dilshan statement where fielding is concerned. Lankans had to rue because of the dropped catches and the sloppy ground fielding. Thanks to those lapses remember Bangladesh made a score of 240 runs. I do not think against a side like the Englishmen the Lankans could afford that kind of luxuries. Give young Buttler a chance and he may clean you up.
Head to head in this tournament both the Sri Lankans and the Englishmen have enjoyed somewhat similar fortunes and the skill levels are also in the same ilk. A win against England is important for the Lankans in their post first round fortunes to see whom they would play in their quarter-final in Sydney on March 18.
The Lankan coach Atapattu called this tournament a new playing field with new circumstances. He said “Certainly, the last two games have been good for us, although we came very close to a surprise it was a very close game against Afghanistan. Having said that, we would expect our No.8 to score the way he scored in the Dunedin game. Yes, we would like to take game by game at this stage. We know in World Cups every game is important, and peaking at the right time is the most important thing. We as a group believe in that, and hopefully we have a good result on Sunday.”
