Poor team selection and gutless batting

Poor team selection and a gutless batting display saw Sri Lanka gift the fourth one-day match and the series 3-1 to Australia under lights at the R.Premadasa International Stadium on Saturday. When this column is read the final game would have been played and we hope Sri Lanka would have registered a consolation victory.

Sri Lanka's team selection was inexplicable. On form only the first four batsmen - Tillekeratne Dilshan, Upul Tharanga, Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardena had been among the runs, while the form of Chamara Silva and Angelo Mathews had been poor.

With only four batsmen in form how could you expect to build a formidable total and put the Aussie batsmen under pressure. This being a "must win" game for Sri Lanka the selectors should have shown more daring and played a potential match winning combination.

Conditions ideal

The conditions and the wicket was ideal for a Lankan victory and when Dilshan won the toss and elected to bat first, the batsmen had to make it their business to build a strong score from where the bowlers could take it and probe for a victory that could have helped them to square the series.

Had they squared the series, the Lankans would have been a side oozing with confidence going into the final clash and with the full house of spectators cheering and backing them. And if they did, they they could have had the kangaroos on the hop.

But with a gutless batting display, they let down their 20 million supporters who were supporting them. Such was the apathy created, that it was sad to see the spectators deserting them and leaving the ground in their numbers when the Lankans were on the skids and sliding to defeat.

Prasanna excellent

In this gloom, it warmed the cockles to see debutant leg spinner Seekkuge Prasanna having the Australian batsmen in a flat spin. We need not tell the think tanks that a leg spinner is expected to buy his wickets. With a measly total of 132 can Prasanna buy his wickets? But yet the leg spinner made a memorable debut when he bowled a triple wicket maiden and had the Aussie batsmen looking like little boys lost unable to read which way his spin was going. Had there been more runs on the board, the soldier boy would have been our match winner. It is hoped that the selectors will persist with him.

Once again it was former skipper Mahela Jayawardena who batted with responsibility. Always a team man, Jayawardena has consistently been an example from the time he sported national colors. And in this game when the batting was collapsing like a pack of cards, he put his hand up and played another sterling knock of 53.

Sri Lanka's ambitions and dreams of becoming top dogs in the one-day scene has taken bad beating and how they will recover will be interesting to watch.

Good on Dilshan

The selectors have done well in giving Captain Tillekeratne Dilshan the nod to continue in the hot seat and lead the country until the end of the year.

This means that Dilshan will be in the saddle for the Three Tests against the Australians, followed by a series against Pakistan and then a tour of South Africa in December. For a Captain to bloom and blossom, the essential ingredient is continuity.

By giving him the nod the selectors have done just that and it is now left to Dilshan to take it from there and repose the faith that the selectors have in him by leading from the front, and by example,and taking the game to the top.

Dilshan is in the pilot's seat as it were because he opens the batting and that is a position from where he can set an example by batting with responsibility and giving the team a flying start to build a formidable score and put the opponents under pressure.

Responsibility

Batting with responsibility does not mean that he should be ultra cautious. Certainly not. He must temper caution with aggression. He has the strokes to punish any attack. He must cut out the risks, get his eye in and then begin to break out into playing his now famous big shots that has demoralized many an attack.

On the series in England and in the on-going limited over series against Australia, Dilshan has shown that he has the traits to be one, if not the best captain produced by the country. Now that the selectors have given him continuity, he must make it his business to be consistent and push for success.

The way the team has been performing under Dilshan, it is obvious that every member is giving him 100 per cent and more. That is half the battle won and now he must use the support of his team mates and grind them into a fighting and second to none unit.

Good rapport

Also it is obvious that Dilshan has cultivated a good rapport with the media. He has so far handled the media with great aplomb. He must always remember that a friendly media will make his job all that more easy, as long as he is transparent. The media at times might needle him. But he must always keep his cool and answer to the point and not show arrogance as was like in the past.

It will also do his captaincy a world of good if he resorts to CONSULTATION, COMPROMISE and CONSENSUS. He must always remember that he is an AMBASSDOR and his behaviour must always be an example, because he will always be watched.

And this is what the greatest ever batsman, that the world has seen or will ever see, Sir Donald Bradman the former Aussie captain and run machine opines would make a brilliant captain.

'A good captain must be a fighter; confident but not arrogant, firm but not obstinate; able to take criticism without letting it unduly disturb him, for he is sure to get it - and unfairly, too'.

So here's wishing Dilshan success every step of the way.