It was so close and yet so far

By Rev.Bro. Nimal Gurusinghe, FSC

After Sri Lanka beat Pakistan in the Semi-Final all Sri Lankans expected our national team to engrave Sri Lanka’s name in the 2012 T20 world cup. On Sunday 7th October all had lots of hopes to see our lads carry all before us and become kings of T 20 world cricket.

But after the match all of us were disappointed and sad. I would say Sri Lanka cricketers missed a golden opportunity to show the world our class in T20 cricket. Whatever happened we are runners up. Let us congratulate our lads for becoming the 2nd best team in this tournament.

On that day West Indians won the toss and rightly decided to bat. Our bowlers were on target and they found very difficult to score runs. They had no answer to our superb bowling attack. Even mighty Chris Gayle was not allowed to free his arms.

When the score was 87 half of the side was back in the pavilion. But some solid batting by man of the match Marlon Samuels, D Bravo and skipper Darren Sammy, West Indians were able to score 137 runs. According to me in a final and on a pitch of that nature it was a respectable and formidable total. It was not an easy total to chase.

Sri Lanka began their innings with a disaster. Our master blaster T. M Dilshan got the best ball of the tournament. His off stump was uprooted and he had no answer to that special delivery. No knowledgeable cricket fan will blame him for getting out for a golden ball of that nature. Nevertheless our two veterans Mahela and Sanggakkara were consolidating and picking up runs. But in the rush of blood Sanggakkara threw his wicket. Then Angelo Mathews gifted his wicket. Mahela could not handle the pressure and tried to hit an unorthodox stroke and gave away his wicket.

Two of our “Mr. Reliables” Thisara Perera and Jeevan Mendis made things easy for them by getting run out. Nuwan Kulasekara tried his level best to turn the match Sri Lanka way. But it was too late and too difficult because the required rate was over 13 runs per over. Then at the 19th over Lasith Malinga gave an easy catch to Bravo off Narine and the T20 World Cricket crown to Caribbeans.

No doubt West Indians bowled well, but still our senior players should have handled the pressure well and got this 138 runs. They did not believe in milking the bowling and getting singles. Some of our players were in a mighty hurry and offered their wickets by trying to play fancy shots. Can we afford to give two run outs to our opponents, especially in a final?

Mahela Jayawardena is usually a very good captain and he handles his bowlers very well. I just cannot understand why he persisted with Lasith Malinga. For his four overs West Indians scored 54 runs. Akila Dananjaya gave only 16 runs for his three overs and Nuwan Kulasekara bowled three overs only for 22 runs. That was not Malinga’s day. Mahela should have stopped him after two overs. Instead of him he should have tried Kulasekara and Dananjaya. Then their total would have been less than hundred.

Now it is all over. Let us look forward to form a good team and train our lads to handle pressure in any situation. Hope men in authority will try to address this important issue.