***Official**** Sri Lanka in New Zealand 2014/2015

[viriya]

31 runs and 5 wickets in the last 5 overs.. at least they got past 275 but if they lose we all know why.

 

[viriya]

So have I and I disagree so nyarhhhhh

Sena's from my high school and I like him so nyarhhhhhh.

Kula dropped three world cups so **** him so nyarhhhhhh

 

[thierry henry]

There is definitely some merit in Mitch bowling that sort of neither here-nor-there length at the death....theoretically should be terrible but in reality seems to guarantee skied catches

 

[Bahnz]

Milne injured, huh? Kinda gutted I didn't take PEWS up on that $1000.

 

[Maximas]

I've pretty much watched every single SL game in the last 2-3 years, and Sena is definitely the better big hitter, the numbers back it up as well.

uh, they do?

Will never forget Kula's 70 odd at Brisbane or his 'nightwatchman' knock in the CT against England, good times

Pretty good score this but christ our middle to lower order flopped hard

 

[hendrix]

I think it's time to admit we're not as good a bowling team as we think we are.

 

[viriya]

uh, they do?

Will never forget Kula's 70 odd at Brisbane or his 'nightwatchman' knock in the CT against England, good times

Pretty good score this but christ our middle to lower order flopped hard

95+ SR vs ~80. With 2 overs left I would always pick the former.

 

[hendrix]

95+ SR vs ~80. With 2 overs left I would always pick the former.

probably something to do with the fact that Kula has always come in earlier than Sena.

Their T20I SRs tell a different story.

 

[Maximas]

95+ SR vs ~80. With 2 overs left I would always pick the former.

SR doesn't necessarily correlate with how far you can hit the ball though

 

[viriya]

Momentum with NZ.. SL should've easily made 300 here, Kane is back and if Baz fires it can be a relatively straightforward chase.. not a slow wicket so I don't expect the slow bowlers to do a lot.

 

[viriya]

SR doesn't necessarily correlate with how far you can hit the ball though

Well I didn't use "big hitter" literally - more like the ability to score runs quickly. Even if I did, Sena can make merry too.

 

[Bahnz]

I think it's time to admit we're not as good a bowling team as we think we are.

Why so gloomy? I guess time will tell, but 276 against a strong batting lineup on a pitch were the Chump Districts made 326/3 isn't a bad effort. Particularly encouraging this season has been our ability to take regular wickets and close down the scoring rate in the final 15 overs.

 

[Prince EWS]

Kula's strike rate is 94 since the start of 2012 anyway.

 

[hendrix]

Why so gloomy? I guess time will tell, but 276 against a strong batting lineup on a pitch were the Chump Districts made 326/3 isn't a bad effort. Particularly encouraging this season has been our ability to take regular wickets and close down the scoring rate in the final 15 overs.

A team with a decent lower order would've made 350 from where they were.
Mitch was rubbish early on. He somehow seems to collect decent figures with some canny/jammy death bowling but he's a liability as opener or first change bowler at the moment.
Milne was excellent today but he's probably out of the tournament.

Boult is still a big question mark and I still think we don't know what our best lineup is.

 

[Maximas]

Kula's strike rate is 94 since the start of 2012 anyway.

Indeed, however we haven't seen the best of him with the bat since that Ireland ODI really, been missing his finishing

 

[Bahnz]

A team with a decent lower order would've made 350 from where they were.
Mitch was rubbish early on. He somehow seems to collect decent figures with some canny/jammy death bowling but he's a liability as opener or first change bowler at the moment.
Milne was excellent today but he's probably out of the tournament.

Boult is still a big question mark and I still think we don't know what our best lineup is.

Setting aside the contestable notion that 350 from 165/2 after 30 would've been easy for any team with a strong lower-order, it's worth acknowledging very few teams have as strong a top-order as SRL have. Only South Africa and India can rival them in terms of top 5 run-making potential, both of whom also have shakey lower-orders (and we've already show-cased our ability to manage India's batting in home conditions with more or less the same side in the past 12 months). All in all, I continue to be very encouraged by the bowling's efforts. Milne's injury is a blow, he seemed keen to keep on fielding so fingers crossed that it's not that serious and Brendon is just taking precautions. But the real problem remains the batting, so it will be interesting to see how things look now that Kane is back in the side with a challenging total to chase.

 

[Jimbo the giant]

Milne was our best bowler in 2 out of 3 games and gt Sanga 3/3 pretty much his bunny. Hope his injury wasn't as bad as it appears.

 

[dfrinku]

this music is ridiculous

 

[Prince EWS]

Good move opening with Mathews, especially in the context of this lineup.

Lots of inswing from Kula here. Always at his best when he's doing that.

 

[hendrix]

Good move opening with Mathews, especially in the context of this lineup.

And Sanga doesn't allow McCullum to bash him by coming up to the stumps.