Pakistan white wash Sri Lanka by 6 wickets to win the 3rd and final ODI at Rawalpindi.
By Brian Thomas.
Another one way traffic at Rawalpindi yesterday as Pakistan made Sri Lanka look mediocre in white ball cricket by handing the island team a richly deserved white wash.
Sri Lanka were forced to rest Wanindu Hasaranga due to his recurring hamstring injury, replaced him with Jeffrey Vandersay.
Charith Asalanka’ suffering from viral flue , was replaced by Pawan Ratnayaka.
Asitha Fernando suffering from a virus infection was replaced by Eshan Malnga , whilst Dusmantha Chameera was given a rest , and the struggling Mahesh Theekshana was given the nod.
The only players Sri Lanka missed from the playing eleven was all rounder Wanindu Hasaranga , and seamers Asitha Fernando and Dusmantha Chameera because the wicket did respond to seam if bowled in the right areas.
Charith Asalanka’ was not missed because Pawan Ratnayaka did a better job with the willow by scoring 32 valuable runs because Asalanka’ would have definitely struggled against Faizal Akaram the new found left arm wrist spinner of Pakistan who was unplayable with his variation and his accurate wrong un.
Put into bat Sri Lankan openers Pathum Nissanka and Kamil Misra gave the Sri Lankan fans a sugar coated pill by stitching 55 runs for the first wicket, after which they were sent back to the hutch by Harris Rauf and Wasim Junior , as both players were guilty of not using their feet against quality pace , trying to reach for the ball. Wonder as to why the batting coach has not detected this flaw at the nets ,?
Kusal Mendis who captained the side in the absence of Charith Asalanka’, put his foot in his mouth by telling Wauqur Younis at the toss that his batting unit is capable of scoring 320 runs on the given surface.
Good to have a mind set and be ambitious, but it sounds a joke when you have batters , who lack foot work , against quality seam and spin which Pakistan are blessed with in their bowling unit.
Sri Lankan batters were found wanting playing the spin of debutant Faizal Akaram who exposed the lack of foot work by the Sri Lankan batters against quality wrist spin.
None of the batters played the ball to the “V” , instead most strokes against the spinner was heading towards the cover region indicating the lack of foot movement. Watch Babar Azzam play spin , Sri Lanka, he uses his crease on the back foot and plays with a straight bat. Wonder what the batting coach is doing not addressing this batting flaw.
Sri Lanka lose wickets in clusters period. They made 55 in 8.1 overs , Pathum Nissanka was pathetic when Harris Rauf bowled him for 24 , feet going nowhere, after batting with confidence, then in the 12th over Kamil Misra was out for 29 with Sri Lanka on 69 , yet again lack of foot movement, caught by the wicket keeper to an out swiing of Wasim Junior. It’s not poor shot selection but both openers were dismissed due massive technical errors in their batting.
Kusal Mendis and Sadeera Samarawickrama, made 43 runs for the 3td wicket, way too slow in their approach. They played 35 dot deliveries , and took 78 deliveries to stitch 43 runs , which put Pakistani bowlers in command, as they dictated terms to the hapless Sri Lankan batters.
Kamindu Mendis too made the Sri Lankan supporters tast a sugar coated pill , 2 beautiful boundaries in his short stay of 9 runs , becomes the first victim of Faizal Akaram,who took a matron dormetry caught and bowled opportunity , to open his wickets column in his promising international career.
Pawan Ratnayaka in his one day debut made 32 , batting with the lower order , since Janith Liyanage too played away from his body when Wasim Junior disturbed his timber , and Sri Lanka slumped to 143 for 5 wickets in the 30th over.
I can not understand as to why Sri Lanka sent Kamindu Mendis ahead of Janith Liyanage, this is a sign that Sri Lanka are playing under a cloud.
Sadeera Samarawickrama departed , undone by the ball of the day by Faizal Akaram. Sadeera angled his bat to play a legitimate leg spin , which turns away from the right hander , he did not watch the wrist of Faizal Akaram, he try to read the delivery off the pitch , and became a victim of a visious wrong un that spun into him , disturbing his timber after making 48 runs in 65 deliveries with just 2 boundaries, with Sri Lanka on a run drought of 166 for 6 wickets in the 36th over .Guess this wicket abandoned Pawan Ratnayaka the debutant to bat with the never contributing tail Enders of Sri Lanka
Bowled out for 211 runs. With 5 overs to spare , appalling to state the least. This is where Sri Lanka missed the services of Wanindu Hasaranga. Had they batted the remaining 5 overs and accumulated another 40 runs to the total , the match in hindsight might have gone down to the wire.
Pakistan had no problems in getting to the target Vandersay proved his worth in capturing 3 wickets for 42 runs including the wicket of Babar Azzam for 34 , but sadly he had no support from the other bowlers.
Wauqur Younis even stated that it might be worth playing 2 leg spinners in the Sri Lanka playing eleven. Basically 3 seamers and 2 spinners seem the way out , especially playing on foreign soil.
Sri Lanka will get away in home conditions playing with 7 batters and 4 bowlers, but overseas the 5th bowler is a prerequisite. Selectors must start taking into consideration that past laurels by seniors players does not automatically do the job , and are dead and gone , especially in modern day cricket which is challenging.
Pakistan got to the target courtesy of Mohammed Rizwan who remained unbeaten on 61 , with Talal Hassan on 42 , as the pair stitched an unbroken partnership of 100 runs for the 5th wicket.
Negative assessment of Sri Lanka”s performance in the series is their obsession of playing 7 batters and 4 bowlers, instead of 6 batters and 5 bowlers.
The lack of foot work by the top order batters , a technical flaw which must be addressed when playing quality seam and spin. Batters trying to read quality spin off the pitch and not the wrist.
Expecting the next batter to complete the job , and not striving for excellence by batting till the end and accumulating a big score.
Add value to your wicket like Barbar Azzam, Mohd Rizwan, Salman Ali Agar, Fakar Zaman, and Talal Hassan, this top order batting combination had 2 centuries and 5 half centuries, to their credit whilst Sri Lanka batters only recorded 2 half centuries , none by the top order batters.
Positive side , Wanindu Hasaranga contributing with the bat , and the openers stitching 3 partnerships of 50 plus runs in 3 outings and Vandersay proving he belongs to the park and not the bench.
Main scores
Sri Lankan 211 all out 45.1 overs
Sadeera Samarawickrama 48
Kusal Mendis 34
Pawan Ratnayaka 32
Pathum Nissanka 24
Kamil Misra 29
Faizal Akaram 2 for 42
Mohd Wasim Junior 3 for 47
Harris Rauf 2 for 38
Pakistan 215 for 4 in 44.4 overs.
Mohd Rizwan 61 not out
Babar Azzam 34
Talal Hassan 42 not out
Jeffrey Vandersay 3 for 42.
Pakistan win by 6 wickets and the series 3 nil.
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