“We did not deserve to win” – England skipper Eoin Morgan
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On a sunny morning in front of a fully packed crowd at Headingly, Leeds, Dimuth Karunaratne, the Sri Lankan skipper won the toss and took the bull by the horns, and elected to bat on a pitch that proved slow and sometimes low – ask Jos Buttler. The result was a pulsating win for Sri Lanka thanks to a magnificent team-effort, by 20 runs.
However, within the third over both openers, the high-scoring skipper Dimuth Karunaratne, and Kusal Janith Perera were back in the hutch with the total at a mere 3 runs.
Then came a blinder of a cameo by Avishka Fernando 49 (6 fours and 2 sixes) in 39 balls. Jofra Archer was summarily dismissed for 24 runs off 15 balls, and one six was sent soaring over square-leg and disappeared out of the ground. Pity the youngster played a half-hearted upper-cut and gave a simple chance to deep third man and missed a well-deserved half-century.
But the stage seemed to have been set for Sri Lanka to make a reasonable total. Kusal Mendis (46 in 68 balls) chipped in but it was former skipper Angelo Mathews (85*in 115 balls with 5 fours and a six) batted through the innings and was the lynchpin that helped to give some sort of a semblance for the bowlers to defend.
The total of 232/9 did not seem to be a reasonable total for the batting heavy England side. Remember the mauling Afghanistan received at Manchester when all sorts of batting records went by the board, including 17 sixes by skipper Morgan. The Afghans must still be reeling after that onslaught!
The Sri Lankans total may have seemed too easy for England. After all, this England side had previously topped the 300-mark in eight of their last nine ODI innings. Then the ever-green Lasith Malinga began his magic and put England on their back foot first by dismissing Jonny Bairstow in the second ball of the innings. Malinga’s (4/43) figures in the CWC 2019 enabled him collect a career total of 51 wickets in World Cup cricket and thus became the fourth bowler after Glen McGrath, Muralidaran and Wasim Akram to join the 50-wickets club.
Not only Malinga but part-time off-spinner Dhananjaya de Silva (3/32) struck thrice in nine balls while paceman Nuwan Pradeep kept it tight with figures of 10-1-38-1. Not to outdone, wicketkeeper Kusal Janith picked four catches and did not concede a single bye. Isuru Udana too contributed with his wily pace variations with two sharp catches, one off his own bowling and another in the outfield.
So all in all this was a superb team-effort by the Sri Lankans although England, all-rounder, left-handed Ben Stokes tried his best at the tail-end with a well controlled 82* off 89 balls including back-to-back sixes off Udana and back-to-back boundaries off Nuwan Pradeed bringing hopes to England – but it was not be as Sri Lanka slipped through to victory by 20 runs.
It was pleasant to see Ashantha de Mel, Chairman of Selectors, after the game mixing up with the players and having a good time after all the problems he’s been having on this tour. The writer remembers obviously, Manager Ashantha de Mel is having his hands full with most of these problems. But, reverting to the 1983 World Cup, de Mel had another problem.
In that CWC tournament held in England, Sri Lankan paceman, Ashantha de Mel, played in six games and – according to the Wisden Almanack (1983) – his final record was 67-13-265-18, including two successive 5-wicket hauls – only three other bowlers have achieved the feat of having captured two five-wicket hauls in the history of the World Cup at that time.
However, the 1983 World Cup bowling statistics reveal de Mel’s figures as 66-13-265-17 – one over and one wicket less! The highlights were, against Pakistan, when de Mel returned figures of 12-1-39-5 at Leeds on 16/6/1983, and two days later vs New Zealand his analyses were 12-4-32-5 resulting in a 3-wicket win for Sri Lanka and de Mel was adjudged Man-of-the-Match as well.
In the match against New Zealand played at Bristol, de Mel’s figures (as per the 1983 Wisden Almanack) were 9-2-35-3. Unfortunately, the scorebook had credited de Mel with one wicket less. As de Mel said: “After returning to Sri Lanka and having realised the error, our Manager Mr. Murugaser, wrote to the World Cup authorities and pointed this mistake but however they were reluctant to make a change.”
If that wicket was, rightfully, included in de Mel’s figures, Roger Binny (India) and the Sri Lankan paceman would have been credited as the most successful bowlers – with 18 wickets apiece – in a World Cup series up to 1983.
What a shame!