'Let us learn our lessons and build up our innings with greater maturity'

Anton ABEYSEKERA

Our Cricket team has completed two important series, the Commonwealth Bank series in Australia and the Asia Cup in Bangladesh. We had phenomenal success in the CB series down under, but failed to win the series by a whisker. The Asia Cup was a disaster having lost two important matches to India and Pakistan? Did we lose these matches because the opponents had the better side? I would say no. We had the better side but we lacked an important factor in all the matches we lost. We failed to plan our innings. In comparison let us study the way India played in their final match against Sri Lanka in the CB series. They had to get 321 runs to win and winning was not enough, they had to get the target in 40 overs. What happened is history and they romped home to victory thanks to a brilliant display of batting by Virat Kohli who made a 86 ball 133 runs and was ably supported by Gautham Gambir. It was a do or die effort and it was at a phenomenal rate of scoring.

Interestingly the next match Virat Kohli and Gautham Gambhir played was also against Sri Lanka and this time it was in Bangladesh in the Asia Cup. Were this pair again in their usual, belligerent attacking style? Not at all, they played a subdued but effective innings which brought them both a century. The manner of their approach to this innings was dependent on demands of the occasion and they adapted themselves with great maturity made sure they had wickets in hand and provided the platform for Dhoni and Suresh Raina to increase the tempo.

In the critical match against Pakistan, Kohli along with Sharma and Raina, had to rise to the occasion once again and accelerate the pace to ensure victory.

This is one aspect we lacked in our team, planning an innings according to the demands of the occasion. In the Final of the CB series against Australia we did well to restrict the strong batting line up to 231 runs. When we commenced our innings to chase this meager total, we had to gather 4.62 runs per over to win and what was required was to preserve our wickets, get the singles by rotating the strike, and dispatch the loose deliveries to the fence. However, there was a rush of blood, they were too eager to finish the match early.

Dilshan, Mahela and Sanga, the three key batsmen at the top were attempting needlessly to increase the pace and lost their wickets early and a inevitable collapse occurred and we lost the match.

In the Asia Cup match against India did we learn from our mistakes? Not in the least. The wickets were much slower and different to those in Australia but our style of play in reply to the Indian innings of 304, was the same there was no plan to consolidate and build up our innings and rash strokes caused the downfall of our top order including the promising Dinesh Chandimal who tried to hit a straight ball from Ashwin out of the Park very early in his innings. The circular motion of the hand of the umpire signaling the "power play" seemed to trigger an alarm in Sanga, who was playing well at that time, who deviated from his wide repertoire of strokes and played an uncharacteristic slog sweep and tried to send the ball over the ropes in the first ball of the batting power play bowled by Ashwin, whose strength is deadly accuracy, only to scoop it for a easy catch at mid wicket.

Did we learn a lesson from this match? I am afraid not. In the next match against Pakistan, batting first, we started in attacking style again taking unnecessary risks and thus Mahela and Dilshan got out cheaply paving the way for another collapse and we lost the match. It is my belief that where batting skills are concerned our cricket team is not second to any other International side. We have seasoned players at the top order and new players with a great future ahead of them like Dinesh Chandimal and Lahiru Thirimanne. The key to success is not only skills in batting but how an innings is planned to achieve victory according to the situation of the match. In all the matches that we have lost so far; in hindsight, we would have realized that we would have done much better if we had wickets to spare and not rely on the tail to try and bail us out.

Let us learn at this late stage that an innings in one day fifty over cricket should be planned with the objective of achieving victory, according to the circumstances of the match. Power Play does not mean that you should get into a frenzy and surrender your wicket cheaply by playing rash shots.

Our top order consist of players who are very fluent in their stroke play, competent in playing good attacking shots with minimal risk. Let our cricketers plan their innings when they venture out to bat let them ask themselves the question "How should we bat to win this match" and consolidate by preventing the fall of early wickets by rash ambitious, strokes, and victory will inevitably follow.