Assessing the Sri Lankan changes for the final

[honestbharani]

Mendis averages 19 in ODIs (19 FFS!!) and gets dropped for the final FOR A BLOKE WHO WASN'T IN THE SQUAD after playing like the gun he is all tournament, because of a perception that India play him well.

This decision is going to look more and more bizarre as time goes by

The way I see it Kapugedera/Silva was pretty meh (both crap), Kulasekera was a swap for Herath (as those two seem to have been fighting for a spot most of the tournament, and arguments can be made for both depending on pitch conditions) and Perera came in for Matthews as he's the next closest thing to an all-rounder.

It is more than just "perception" to be honest, but I don't think you have followed any of the 93293457928 ODIs recently between India and SL..

 

[ankitj]

HB slipping in his phone number hoping some random, desperate chick will call him for sleazy chat

 

[honestbharani]

SL, IMO, have enough "champion" material players (or at least had, in the past 4 or 5 years) to be a champion team but never allow themselves to be that coz of their dire negative outlook towards the game and stupid captaincy... For starters, Sanga seems way too eager to show himself off as some brainy cricketing intellect and hence HAS to keep making left field decisions... And their entire bowling plan seems to revolve around getting one or two early with Malinga and/or Murali and then hope and choke the batting side. AT times it works, esp. against individual batsmen like SEhwag or Gilchrist and not givng them what they want and forcing them to mistakes, but sometimes the old style of getting your best bowlers bowling at crucial times is great too. Why can't Malinga ever bowl a 6 over first spell like most strike bowlers do for their team? Why can't Murali ever bowl in a powerplay regularly when spinners with half his talent almost always do? They are just way too NEGATIVE and almost always afraid of things going wrong for them to be a champion side. They will continue to be good and keep crushing minnows and the bottom level sides and even pull off wins against the best but honestly, I juz do not see them being the best in the world which they can be, coz of all this negativity in the way they play cricket. They are just afraid of someone playing THE innings against them or someone bowling THE spell against them and in the effort to guard against that, they almost always miss the opportunity to do THE spell or THE innings themselves... They get some crazy comfort knowing that even though the opposition is having a good partnership going, they can get Malinga and Murali to bowl 8 of the last 10 and so choke the opposition to a defeat but why do you need that when you can get them out in the first 10 or 15 itself?

 

[honestbharani]

HB slipping in his phone number hoping some random, desperate chick will call him for sleazy chat

11 digit phone numbers are rare, tbh

 

[pup11]

I agree that Sanga's captaincy is pretty dire when the pressure is on, I can't help but think that the decision to include 4 new players in a final would have largely been taken by him and it probably has to go down as one of the most dumb decisions in the history of international cricket.

Having players like Samarweera, Silva in the squad ahead of blokes likes Chandimal or Kandambi was a negative decision to start of with, but in the final axing Mendis, Herath in favour of Kulasekara and Randiv was extremely lame.

Sri Lanka were negative for most of the tournament and they were just lucky that their top 4 batsmen had such a great tournament otherwise they would have really struggled to reach this far.

 

[vcs]

Very interesting thoughts, HB. I am reminded of the Test India won last year at the P. Sara Oval chasing 250 odd in the 4th innings on day 5, and you said similar things about Sanga's captaincy, especially the ease with which he was allowing singles to VVS and Sachin.

 

[centurymaker]

Should've played Mendis even though the indians have worked him out. If not Mendis, then should've definitely gone for Herath.

 

[Spark]

Very interesting thoughts, HB. I am reminded of the Test India won last year at the P. Sara Oval chasing 250 odd in the 4th innings on day 5, and you said similar things about Sanga's captaincy, especially the ease with which he was allowing singles to VVS and Sachin.

TBF basically every Test captain in the last few years does that, some worse than others.

 

[vcs]

Not entirely sure Mendis and Herath would have changed a whole lot TBH, but they deserved to be picked if for no other reason than that they had played their part in taking SL to the finals, and you just don't drop people like that on a horses for courses basis.

 

[vcs]

TBF basically every Test captain in the last few years does that, some worse than others.

I think Dhoni is essentially a defensive captain, but when defending gettable targets, he is much more proactive.

 

[centurymaker]

I agree that Sanga's captaincy is pretty dire when the pressure is on, I can't help but think that the decision to include 4 new players in a final would have largely been taken by him and it probably has to go down as one of the most dumb decisions in the history of international cricket.

Having players like Samarweera, Silva in the squad ahead of blokes likes Chandimal or Kandambi was a negative decision to start of with, but in the final axing Mendis, Herath in favour of Kulasekara and Randiv was extremely lame.

Sri Lanka were negative for most of the tournament and they were just lucky that their top 4 batsmen had such a great tournament otherwise they would have really struggled to reach this far.

A year or two back he was the NO.1 ODI bowler and don't forget that he scored crucial 30 odd runs. Also, his six off the 1st ball of the 2nd last over of Zaheer really shifted the momentum in his team's favour!

 

[honestbharani]

Very interesting thoughts, HB. I am reminded of the Test India won last year at the P. Sara Oval chasing 250 odd in the 4th innings on day 5, and you said similar things about Sanga's captaincy, especially the ease with which he was allowing singles to VVS and Sachin.

Yep.. It is not just defensive field settings though.. In ODIs, it is obvious he is just so desperate to have the cushion of 8 overs or so from Malinga and Murali/Mendis up his sleeve in the last ten, irrespective of what the position of the opposition is around the 10 or 15 over mark.. To me, it just smacks of "let me ensure I don get thrashed first" mentality and with the talent at his disposal, that should the last thing Sanga should be thinking about...

TBF basically every Test captain in the last few years does that, some worse than others.

Not when BOTH batsmen are new...