Nervous Lanka miss a trick, Oz get a confidence booster

It’s odd what pressure can do in desperate contests. Mitchell Marsh was cruising, his confident footwork and clear head showing the way to other Australian batsmen on Monday evening at Lucknow. Then a little after the 10^th over, the Australian innings hit a bump with runs reduced to singles. There was no real score board pressure as Sri Lanka’s 209 did not need rapid scoring. But the lack of fluidity got to Marsh who went for a run that was not there and fell a yard short. Suddenly, after Marsh and Marnus Labuschagne had steadied the innings after losing David Warner and Steven Smith early, Lanka was back in the frame.

It was now Lanka’s turn to fluff its chances in a match where both teams were looking to win their first points. Inexplicably, Lanka captain Kusal Mendis brought on Lahiru Kumara and Dhananjaya de Silva and persisted with them almost till the 20^th over. Kumara failed to make any impression, leaking 47 runs in four overs. De Silva’s regulation off breaks demanded attention but never threatened. Soon enough, new batter Josh Inglis, borrowing a page from Marsh, took the fight to the Lankan camp with some crisp driving and sensible running. Labuschagne, who has looked uncertain in his outings in India, also collected himself and the score was 158 before the batter was out to Dilshan Madushanka who was finally brought back into the attack.

The long interval when Lanka made do with the inadequate Kumara and part-timer de Silva allowed Australia to reach a position from where they could not lose the match. Madushanka, the one bowler who looked like he could spook the Aussies, cooled his heels. So did Maheesh Theekshana, who managed to quickly grasp the length he needed to bowl his right arm spin. Unfortunately for Lanka, by the time Theekshana and Madushanka were re-introduced, Australia were well on their way and within a couple of overs, both bowlers got taken for runs and their economy rates suffered a dramatic slide.

The Lankan tactics were puzzling as a modest total meant they just had to take wickets. It made little sense to keep the bowlers most likely to be among the wickets on the sidelines. If Australia worked their way through the post powerplay overs – as they did – there would be nothing to defend as the match progressed. It was a bad call and resulted in Lanka losing their third match in a row.

Australia would be very glad to have two points against their name, but they still have some hard work ahead of them. David Warner might consider himself unlucky to be given LBW to a ball that slo-mo showed was just kissing his leg stump but a decisive score eludes him. He started well but had trouble reading Madushanka. Steven Smith’s woes continue with his first world cup duck. His foot movement was wooden and the batsman of yore would never have fallen to the ball that caught him plumb. Much has been said about his unorthodox grip but this wasn’t a problem until not too long back.

Lanka squandered a start that saw Pathum Nissanka and Kusal Perera put on 125 for no loss. It was a progression after that with only Charith Asalanka reaching double figures. The fourth highest score was extras at 13. Lanka face a crisis of faith. They reached the Asia Cup finals only to be blown away at 50 all out by Indian very recently. The trauma lingers and they need to confront their demons quickly to remain in the World Cup fray.

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Rajeev Deshpande

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