Complacency leads to Lankan defeat -de Mel

Chris Dhambarage

Chairman, National selectors Ashantha de Mel said that a little bit of complacency that crept into the Sri Lankan team was the main cause for their three wicket defeat in the second one day international against the touring Indian team at the Rangiri Dambulla International Stadium on Wednesday.

The former Sri Lanka opening bowler felt that after their success in the first one day international at the same venue the batsmen played rather carelessly and were shot for just 142 runs. This was in fact Sri Lanka’s lowest completed innings total against India in Sri Lanka.

De Mel said that knowing the fact that there will be some movement in the wicket during the early stages the top four batsmen should have put their heads down and batted in a more responsible manner. India went through the same experience in the first one day international and were skittle out for 146 runs on that occasion.

De Mel said that under these circumstances the top order batsmen need to concentrate more and put up a challenging total for the bowlers to defend. But unfortunately they were defending a modest total of 142 runs which was not sufficient to win a match.

De Mel also said that Sri Lanka cannot afford to play an extra batsman because they are looking ahead at a combination of six batsmen and the five bowlers which have been quite successful in the recent past. As a result he ruled out any chances of Kumar Sangakkara batting down the order with the inclusion of another specialist opening batsman.

Meanwhile Sri Lankan captain Mahela Jayawardena said that his side lost the contest during the first 45 minutes and the top order collapse left them at least 25 runs short of a defendable target. Jayawardena believed that had they gone through the initial stages without losing any wickets the situation would have been completely different.

“We could not get through the initial 45 minutes and lost four early wickets for 11 runs. That changed the whole situation and the batsmen will have to take the responsibility. We knew that we had to make sure that we don’t lose too many wickets upfront, keep the wickets in hand and drag the game as much as possible, but we fail to execute our plans,” he added.

Jayawardena said that they were well aware of the conditions after the first one day international and felt they should have batted the full 50 overs to put up a decent score on the board. “When we went into bat we always thought 175 would have been a great score on this wicket and that was our target.

When you are defending 142 you try to stop runs and pick up wickets. We tried different things and picked up wickets when we needed them. We were just one wicket away from making inroads into their tail but the partnership between Dhoni and Badrinath took the game away from us.

The Sri Lankan captain also said that the partnership between Indian skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni and debutant Subramaniam Badrinath took the game away from them. “We know Badrinath is a talented batsman and a very busy player. He batted well for a debutant.