Lankan crisis takes another turn

The crisis within the Sri Lankan set-up appeared to have taken another bad turn with reports emerging that Chamara Kapugedera went against team management’s decision to chase in the third one-dayer here on Sunday.

Having had a look at the wicket, batting coach Avishka Gunawardene apparently suggested that they bat first in the event of Sri Lanka winning the toss, and the team management reportedly endorsed his view.

It may be recalled that India, who had won the toss in the first two matches, had opted to chase and did so successfully. After opting to bat first on Sunday, Lanka managed to muster no more than 217 for nine and India chased it down with some ease to clinch the series.       

When asked as to what was the rationale behind batting first, Kapugedera didn’t have anything logical to offer. “Even in the evening our bowlers did a decent job,” he stressed. “There were a couple of edges that flew past the fielders. We thought that we will put up a decent total on the board and then defend. But that was not to be so.”

Kapugedera felt Lanka have forgotten the formula to win matches.

“I have seen that happen to many teams. When a team is losing, even if they get close to win, they just can’t go beyond that hurdle. So we have lost that winning formula. But we’ll have to win just one match and go from there. We also talk a lot as to how we get this on track but I think in the last two games, we have bowled well.

“There was a big improvement in our bowling in the last two games. On the other hand, our batsmen also need to lift their game. If we (batsmen) can go for a fair total, I think we can win,” he explained.

The stand-in skipper now has the onerous task of winning the fourth match in Colombo to keep Lanka’s hopes of getting a direct entry for the World Cup. Lanka need to win the remaining two matches in the series to earn direct qualification.

“It is must win, no doubt. We have just finished the game and we need to think of who are replacements we can come up with before moving forward. We haven’t spoken of anything as yet. We need to get back to Colombo, sit with the team and the management and have a chat to see what can be done to improve.”

Lahiru Thirimanne, who scored a measured 80 on his return to ODI fold, spoke about his approach. “The plan was to bat for the first ten overs normally. The ball was seaming a bit and not easy to rotate the strike. After ten overs we planned to bat another ten overs without losing a wicket. That was the plan.”