Batting displays worry despondent Tharanga
Upul Tharanga looked devastated at the post-match press conference after Sri Lanka’s six-wicket defeat to India in the fifth and final One-Day International at the R Premadasa Stadium in Colombo on Sunday (September 3).
Not winning a single game in a bilateral series at home can do that to the best of people. Sri Lanka lost the Test series 3-0 before being humbled 5-0 in the ODIs.
Tharanga, who missed the third and fourth games while serving a ban for an over-rate offence, offered another lengthy explanation on why the team had sunk to such lows over the last year.
“We have to admit that as a team, we weren’t up to the mark,” said Tharanga. “The Test series was a huge disappointment and then we failed in the ODIs as well. We committed too many mistakes. As a batting unit, we failed to post decent totals. In all the five games, we failed to post 250 runs even once. Feeling very disappointed with that.
“These batting displays are worrying,” he continued. “Even today, we could have made about 270 or 275. We were well placed, but like in the last few games, we collapsed. We lost seven wickets for 53 runs. That has been something that is happening frequently now. We commit too many mistakes and we need to rectify them soon.”
Tharanga made a breezy 48 and looked set for a big score until an unplayable delivery from Jasprit Bumrah put an end to his stay in the tenth over. Lahiru Thirimanne and Angelo Mathews then added 122 for the fourth wicket to give Sri Lanka the right base to cross the 250-run mark, but yet another collapse saw them bowled out for 238 with two balls to spare in the innings.
“When we are playing white-ball cricket, we should have eight or nine guys who can bat,” said Tharanga in reference to just the three tangible contributions. “We need to have a couple of all-rounders, a little support from the tail. We need the tail to fire and that didn’t happen in this series.
“(Niroshan) Dickwella and Danushka (Gunathilaka) are attacking batsmen. We have given them the freedom to use the Power Play period. But we have told them that if you get a start, you need to go on. When you are batting in the Power Play, you score about 30 or 40 runs and you should go on. We failed to achieve that even after five games. We have not scored a single century in the whole series and that has been a letdown for us.”
The home side made 216 in the first game, 236 for 8 in the second, 217 for 9 in the third and 207 in pursuit of India’s 375 in the last game. Tharanga put it down to a lack of experience.
“Most of our players have played less than 30 matches,” he rued. “It is hard to expect them to perform at the level of say a Kohli. He has played so many games that he knows what needs to be done when.” Kohli hit his second successive century in the series, an unbeaten 110. It was also his 30th one-day century from 194 games.
“We lacked consistency,” said Tharanga. “We didn’t bat well. We didn’t bowl well and we didn’t field well. We were outplayed in the series. I am disappointed with our batting. India were very consistent. We have to try and get out of this situation.
“As a player and captain, I feel very bad about it,” he added, referring to his team not booking a direct berth to the ICC Cricket World Cup 2019 but having to wait on how Windies’ results go to find out if they will qualify directly.
