Looking beyond the Proteas
Sri Lanka is looking at the bigger picture rather than worrying on short term gains before the third and decisive One Day International against South Africa, to be played at Pallekele International Cricket Stadium today.
Sri Lanka skipper Angelo Matthew said Sri Lanka needs to change its way of thinking to keep Sri Lanka a better prepared unit for the World Cup, starting 10 months from here, in England.
"We have got to start playing on good wickets."
"Yes, it might take a bit of time but I can assure you that the team will improve going forward and once the guys get used to it, we can win overseas. We will change it moving forward," Angelo Mathews said at the at the prematch confab, yesterday.
Sri Lanka is currently 2- 0 behind in the five match ODI series but the skipper stands firm on his feet saying "We will move forward regardless of the outcomes".
"That is the change that we need to make" Mathews said.
"We have to take a look at where we have gone wrong in the past. In the last 36 ODI's we have won only nine games and we keep giving excuses. We can give excuses like we have had too many captains. We have rotated too many players. The fact remains that in the last ten series or so, we have won only one," Mathews mused.
"We need to change the way we think and our strategies. We sat as a group and we are going to change the way we play. Ten months away from World Cup, we need to find out whether we are going to gain anything by playing on dusty slow wickets against a team like South Africa".
"If we want to win overseas, we have got to change the way we play," Mathews explained.
Drubbing in Dambulla, for the seventh consecutive time, came as a blessing in disguise. Sri Lanka team management had an in-depth analysis considering the last 36 ODI's played and realised that they had won only nine of them.
Sri Lanka, who was ranked second in the ICC ODI rankings by the end of 2014, shown a dreadful decline during the last four years and now ranked at 8th in the same. This is mainly due to the series of losses since the last World Cup held in Australia and New Zealand.
This has much to do with the retirements of players in the calibre of Mahela Jayawardane, Kumar Sangakkara, T. M. Dilshan and the sidelined Lasith Malinga.
With the retirement of Sanga, Mahela and Dilshan, there was not a single ODI century scored on home soil. Kusal Janith Perera's 135 against Ireland in 2016, in Dublin, was the only ODI century for Sri Lanka since Kumar Sangakkara's four on the trot at 2015 World Cup in Australia and New Zealand.
In the bowling department, there were only two five wicket hauls out of 66 One Day Internationals played during the last four years. Dasun Shanaka's 5 for 43 won the game in Dublin but there were hardly any Sri Lankans to appreciate and cheer. A ground full of spectators in Pallekelle saw Akila Dananjaya claiming 6 for 54 against India last year but Mahendra Singh Dhoni ( 45 not out) and Buwaneshwar Kumar (53 not out) put on 100 runs partnership for the eighth wicket and took the win away from Sri Lanka.
People, paying for tickets and coming to watch matches had nothing to cheer for. They just boozed, sang, danced and left the ground with utter frustration and anger. Many a time, Sri Lanka team was booed.
Sri Lanka has played 66 ODI's since the World Cup and won only 21 of them in patches. Many of those 21 matches were on dusty slow turners at home. But the fact remains as Sri Lanka has failed to win a single ODI series on home soil for three years, despite boasting of spinners and making use of home advantage. Sri Lanka's last ODI series win at home was beating below ranked West Indies in 2015.
"We rely on our spinners too much I think."
"Test matches are different, but when it comes to white ball cricket, we rely too much on spinners. Whenever teams like South Africa, England or
Drubbing in Dambulla, for the seventh consecutive time, came as a blessing in disguise. Sri Lanka team management had an in-depth analysis considering the last 36 ODI's played and realised that they had won only nine of them.
Australia come over here we tend to do that. If you look at overseas teams, they play on good wickets"
"Yes, other teams use home advantage when it comes to Test cricket, but when it comes to ODI cricket; all oppositions want to play on good surfaces. They believe that they can win on good wickets even playing at home. In the past we have relied on our spinners too much but that is not going to happen in future" Mathews confirmed.
Even for batsmen, wickets play a key role. Mathews reiterates the fact of playing on a decent wicket.
"How many times we have scored over 300 in the past 30 odd games. We have not batted our 50 overs. We have not got more than 250 more than four or five occasions. That comes with confidence…If you want to play a shot or if you want to take a risk, the wicket has to be good. On slow turning tracks, it is not an easy task for the batters. That is one reason why we decided to play on good tracks"
"It was a terrible day for us when it comes to fielding. The first 40 minutes was like a joke." Skipper Mathews summed up all in a nutshell.
"I have never seen my team fielding as bad as we did in the last game. Hopefully it is just a one off game and hopefully that it was a one off…. We have been good fielding team and we work hard on our fielding" Mathews went on mince his feelings of the sloppy fielding shown.