Important facts on the ended Windies Limited Overs series

By Eng Daya Mallawaratchie

When compared to the men’s teams in the recent T20I and ODI series where Sri Lanka won by 2-1 games, it is clear that the West Indies teams were better than their opponents which won both series.

The main factor can be outlined as Sri Lanka won the tosses at the correct time. If the West Indies teams won these tosses, they would have won both the series.

Sri Lanka teams should aim at being the first, second and third team in international games by solely winning the matches even though they lose the tosses.

Therefore, Sri Lanka should improve their performances, even though their head coach Sanath Jayasuriya has efficiently transformed the mediocre team to a winning one.

The improvement required to win most of the future matches despite losing the tosses are given below.

Bowling is the weakest point with respect to our T20 and ODI teams.

Sri Lanka bowlers must bowl on the stump or close to the off stump.

Sri Lanka pace bowlers should not bowl short pitched balls mainly outside the off stump.

Sri Lanka spin bowlers should not bowl too full nor too short, nor on the leg stump after the ball bouncers the after pitching.

Running between the wickets is another main factor.

As the West Indies fielders have been very good and they intensely throw at hit the stump, running out two or three Sri Lankan batsmen, they must improve this aspect.

Sri Lanka should improving the fielding and throwing at the stumps.

It’s very rare that Sri Lankan fielders had acted quickly and thrown at the stump so that the team can get opposite batsmen runout.

This aspect must be improved by intensive practices.

West Indies batsmen, most of the time, placed the ball where there are no fielders, whereas Sri Lankan batsmen at every option hit straight to the fielder.

During the powerplay Sri Lankan batsmen hit the ball, straight to the two fielders outside the 30-yard circle, when they can get only a run.

Whereas, if they placed it elsewhere, they could get two or four runs.

When Sri Lankan batsmen play defensively or play attacking shots, very often, they play into the air straight to the fielders, instead of placing the ball.

This aspect should be improved by practicing.

When No.10 West Indies batsman Motie (the best spin bowler on both sides) scored 50 odd runs not out, Sri Lankan bowlers, not all-rounders, scored only a few runs.

All such batsmen should be given a special training, especially for ODI matches, the recent England Test team, New Zealand Test team and West Indies limited overs team matches.

Sri Lanka team for the ODI matches against West Indies had only four recognised bowlers including all-rounders instead of five recognised bowlers as the normal case.

With the result, the Sri Lankan captain had to give two or three overs to bowl to Kamindu Mendis, his schoolmate who got hammered for more than twice the recognised bowlers.

If Sri Lanka had five recognised bowlers and if one of them got hammered, then the Sri Lankan captain could have used Janith Liyanage as a pacer and Charith Asalanka and Kamindu Mendis as spin bowlers.