Sri Lanka captain Charith Asalanka acknowledged that the eighth over completely altered the course of their Asia Cup Super Four encounter against Pakistan. The turning point came when Asalanka was dismissed at deep square leg by Hussain Talat with the score at 58/3 in the seventh over. Off the very next ball, Dasun Shanaka edged behind, leaving the side in deep trouble at 58/5 with most of the innings still to be played. From that stage, Sri Lanka never recovered and eventually posted only 133/8.
“Although we didn’t get a great start from the openers, at the end of the powerplay, we still had 53 runs. We’d lost three wickets, but we were still in a good place, because it’s not easy to score that many in the powerplay,” Asalanka said, as quoted from ESPNcricinfo.
“But then myself and Dasun got out of successive deliveries, and that was when the biggest damage was done,” he added.
Sri Lanka’s Innings Falls Apart After Powerplay
“Neither Dasun or I were going for big shots when we got out. I was trying to put the ball into a gap, but ended up top-edging it. Dasun also played a normal shot first up. But we have to take responsibility,” Asalanka noted.
Kamindu Mendis was the lone bright spot, compiling a fighting 50 from 44 balls, while Wanindu Hasaranga and Chamika Karunaratne added short cameos. Still, the batting side failed to build any momentum after the collapse.
“We lost five wickets in the first half of our innings, and against these kinds of teams it’s really hard to come back from that,” Asalanka said.
“Kamindu and the others fought hard, but Wanindu also got out at a bad time, when it had felt like we could get to 150. In the end, it was not enough,” he added.
Team Combination Concerns for Sri Lanka Ahead of T20 World Cup
Sri Lanka opted for an extra bowler in this match, dropping Kamil Mishara for Chamika Karunaratne, but the move backfired as they stumbled to their second successive defeat in the Super Four stage, all but ending their qualification hopes.
“We’ve had lots of issues with our combinations, and that’s something we have to get right ahead of the World Cup,” Asalanka said.
“We tried going with an extra bowler today, but we lost a specialist batsman because of that, and didn’t score the runs we needed. Other times we’ve played an extra batsman and couldn’t defend a score with the ball,” he noted.
“We need to figure out how to consistently score 180 to 200, and also how to use the part-time bowlers – myself, Dasun, Kamindu Mendis – better. Those are things we need to improve in the future,” he added.
Looking ahead, Asalanka stressed that the biggest challenge for Sri Lanka is finding the right balance in the playing XI before the T20 World Cup.
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