Well as I have repeatedly mentioned in my previous posts about the presence of weaker teams and their influence on world records, here is yet another one adding to the list with Sri Lanka putting up a first wicket partnership of 282 on the board at Pallekele yesterday. Once again, SriLanka were enjoying the home team advantage and even if they were not, things would have hardly been any different. However, things were not satisfactory for the home team despite the aforesaid record. I just don't have the patience to search for the highest 1st wicket partnership in world cups.
And even by chance Sri Lanka happen to be the team that boasts fir the highest 1st wicket partnership of yesterday's match against Zimbabwe, that would hardly go down as the best one day innings be it in world cups or otherwise. Sri Lanka have a long way to go in this world cup and their record or performance so far in this tournament is below satisfactory. They lost their group game against Pakistan by 11 runs despite repeated drop chances by Pakistan and then the match against Australia was abandoned with 30 odd over being possible. Their next important game is scheduled against New Zealand.
Sri Lanka as a matter of fact are yet to win a game against Pakistan in world cups. Though they had an upper hand in the abandoned match against Australia, nothing can be said with 100% confidence for, Australia are also not a down to earth team despite not having the services of Glenn McGrath and co. Coming to the game between Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe, it would be just a waste of time to cite Sri Lanka's win over the African nation since 1992 when they held the world record for the highest run chase in world cups after chasing down 312 on board.
Since then, forget about Sri Lanka winning over Zimbabwe and instead, Zimbabwe's major victory has been against India and South Africa in the 1999 world cup when they made it to the 2nd round of a world cup for the first time in the history of Zimbabwean cricket. Sri Lanka's total of 327 was far less compared to the expectation which should have seen them cross 370. The opening partnership stood for 44 overs and since then Sri Lanka lost 6 wickets. Had it not been for the first wicket partnership, may be Sri Lanka-Zimbabwe would have been a close encounter.
Showing posts with label Upul Taranga. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Upul Taranga. Show all posts
Friday, 11 March 2011
Saturday, 9 January 2010
Bangladesh have not learnt from the past
This was the third time in the tri series that Bangladesh did what they were supposed to do with the bat but nowhere when it came to doing the same with the ball. In the first encounter against Sri Lanka, Bangladesh posted a total in excess of 250 and lost the game by 7 wickets showing that their bowling was nowhere close to the requirement. And in the second encounter with the Indians, there was no reason for the Bangladesh team to lose so badly despite putting up a massive score of 296 on the board. And now in the 3rd ODI as well, Bangladesh have done exactly that.
Put up a comparatively decent total on the board and forget what to do next. Bangladesh did well to post a total of 249 on the board despite losing wickets at regular intervals with almost every batsmen from the Bangladesh team contributing upto his caliber. The single digit scorers were the ones who came in at number 8 onwards. But all these efforts from the Bangladeshi batsmen could hardly guarantee them even a close encounter against Sri Lanka. All that the Bangladeshi bowlers were able to do with the ball was to get the wicket of Mahela Jayawardane not before the batsman scored a century and ensured that Sri Lanka won the game.
The Bangladesh captain Shakib Al Hasan bought in as many as 8 of his bowlers all of whose efforts were outplayed by just 2 Sri Lankan batsmen in Mahela Jayawardane and Upul Tharanga. There was not even a single bowler from the Bangladesh side who was found bowling his entire quota of 10 overs. Sri Lanka reached the target of 250 runs with as many as 8 overs to spare. On the other hand, Sri Lanka needed the efforts of just 5 of his bowlers (though there were 6 players from Sri Lanka who bowled) to restrict the Bangladeshi batsmen. The 6th bowler in Samaraweera going in for 17 runs of the only over he bowled.
The only reason for the Bangladesh to feel better was the fact that the Bangladesh innings had 4 hits out of the boundary compared to none from the Sri Lankan side. However, given the caliber of Bangladesh team, strong teams like India and Sri Lanka should be found resting their key players and playing some young talent which has not been the case so far in the series. The Indian captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni is found playing his full strength team with the likes of Gambhir, Sachin Tendulkar, Sehwag and Yuvraj though it has been Ravindra Jadeja and Virat Kohli who proved to be better in their area.
Put up a comparatively decent total on the board and forget what to do next. Bangladesh did well to post a total of 249 on the board despite losing wickets at regular intervals with almost every batsmen from the Bangladesh team contributing upto his caliber. The single digit scorers were the ones who came in at number 8 onwards. But all these efforts from the Bangladeshi batsmen could hardly guarantee them even a close encounter against Sri Lanka. All that the Bangladeshi bowlers were able to do with the ball was to get the wicket of Mahela Jayawardane not before the batsman scored a century and ensured that Sri Lanka won the game.
The Bangladesh captain Shakib Al Hasan bought in as many as 8 of his bowlers all of whose efforts were outplayed by just 2 Sri Lankan batsmen in Mahela Jayawardane and Upul Tharanga. There was not even a single bowler from the Bangladesh side who was found bowling his entire quota of 10 overs. Sri Lanka reached the target of 250 runs with as many as 8 overs to spare. On the other hand, Sri Lanka needed the efforts of just 5 of his bowlers (though there were 6 players from Sri Lanka who bowled) to restrict the Bangladeshi batsmen. The 6th bowler in Samaraweera going in for 17 runs of the only over he bowled.
The only reason for the Bangladesh to feel better was the fact that the Bangladesh innings had 4 hits out of the boundary compared to none from the Sri Lankan side. However, given the caliber of Bangladesh team, strong teams like India and Sri Lanka should be found resting their key players and playing some young talent which has not been the case so far in the series. The Indian captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni is found playing his full strength team with the likes of Gambhir, Sachin Tendulkar, Sehwag and Yuvraj though it has been Ravindra Jadeja and Virat Kohli who proved to be better in their area.
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