When a game is well set and it is washed off due to rain; one feels really bored and tries to get through the rest of the day. The Sri Lanka versus Australia match was well set to be a cracker but when the weather intervened the points were shared. There are a few positives that both teams can take from the thirty three overs of play.
Kumar Sangakkara won the toss and chose to bat first one a slow pitch. What surprised everybody was his decision to play three spinners. Rangana Herath replaced Kulasekara who has been very consistent in the one day format. Sangakkara made it clear that this was just for one game and this highlights the intent of the Sri Lankans to make Australia play more spin. The pitch was really slow today and Jason Krejza, the Australian off spinner was getting good turn and bounce. Had the match continued, it would have been a good contest between the Sri Lankan spinners and the Australian batsmen. Even a total of 220 would have required some chase!
The Sri Lankans would be happy with their batting effort. They lost three wickets but Samaraweera and Sangakkara played well to stabilize the innings. The stability showed by the two batsmen would give them confidence going into their next game. The Australians would be happy with the fact that they did not allow the Sri Lankan openers to get away with a flier. They got Dilshan and Tharanga pretty early. The biggest positive for them was Steve Smith’s performance on the field. He took a brilliant one handed catch at point and also scored a direct hit to get rid of Jayawerdene who was looking good.
We have two good games tomorrow as South Africa take on England at Chennai and India take on Ireland at Bangalore. The results of both games are crucial to the group standings. England are coming off a shock defeat to Ireland while South Africa are just growing in confidence at the top of the table. India would like to win comprehensively tomorrow after their tie against England whereas Ireland would want the dream to continue.
The game at Chennai is going to be an absolute cracker. As pointed out by Andrew Strauss that England are good at bouncing back and I believe tomorrow they will go out there with all the intent to win. They will be up against South Africa who have been clinical in both their games till now. It would be interesting to see what line-ups the two teams would play. Expect a few surprises from both sides as England would like to strengthen their bowling whereas South Africa will look to put up a combination that can beat England comprehensively.
The South African’s surprised everybody by dropping Botha for their last game and playing Morne Van Wyk as the wicketkeeper. In my opinion they should persist with the same team that beat the Netherlands the other day. Imran Tahir is doing very well and should play tomorrow as the Chennai pitch can offer turn. Robin Peterson should play simply because it would add variety to the attack and also the fact that Kevin Pietersen (KP) isn’t very good at playing the left arm spinners. They can open the bowling with Peterson to get rid of KP early on. This may trouble him to a point that he may throw his wicket away. There wouldn’t be any change to the batting order as the top order has looked really good. The fast bowling attack would comprise of Steyn and Morkel.
The shock defeat to Ireland would have been very hard to take for the England team and fans alike. However, they have to put their past behind and look to start afresh tomorrow. Their batting has been very good and they shouldn’t make any changes to it. However, they need to perform better in the batting powerplays. They should look to capitalize on these restrictions as much as possible. I am very interested to see what changes they would make to their bowling. Graeme Swann would be retained for sure and may get support from the Chennai pitch. Bresnan has been their best fast bowler and he is another certainty. Broad will play if he is fit and I think they should replace Anderson with Shahzad. They have another option before them i.e. playing the extra spinner instead of Anderson. It may not be a bad idea to give James Tredwell a game. Strauss should try to bowl as many overs as possible from Yardy as well. If they can improve their fielding and pick up their bowling, then they would be really hard to beat.
India go into the game against Ireland with a few question marks over their bowling and fielding. They have to pick up their bowling and fielding to a much higher level. These two departments were good in South Africa and they have to try to replicate that from now on. Their batting has been good no doubts about it but the bowlers have to do more to complement the batsmen’s efforts. As mentioned in my previous posts India need to take the risk and play five bowlers. Nehra should come in tomorrow and Ashwin should play in place of Yusuf Pathan.
Ireland would like to maintain their level of performance against India. They have been a part of a great game and should now try to improve even more. Their top order has to show more stability and shouldn’t leave Kevin O’Brien and the lower order with too much to do as you cannot expect him to play a whirlwind innings every time. The Irish have the confidence now and should try to translate it on the field.
Comments invited.
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