India favourites against inconsistent SL as Tri-series final beckons as SL hopes their captain Athapaththu steps up.
India favourites against Sri Lanka on the eve of the tri-series finale.
Sri Lanka has defeated India in One-Day Internationals three times in 33 games played. The magnitude of the job at hand for an ever-improving Sri Lanka team becomes clear when you consider that Sunday’s tri-series final against India will be their first final in any ODI event with three or more countries since 2009.
India, on the other hand, is almost exactly what is meant by a well-oiled machine in a textbook: their batting has been excellent, their spin assault, spearheaded by Sneh Rana, has been persistent and penetrating, and their fielding, which is perhaps their weakest component, has been better than poor. There are not many weaknesses.
On Sunday, however, all of that becomes less significant. The memories of that historic Asia Cup victory, in which they defeated India 10 months prior, albeit in the T20 format, will give Sri Lanka confidence. However, their loss to Sri Lanka in the round-robin round of the current tri-series would have undoubtedly relieved any complacency that might have been settling in if that loss hadn’t served as a reality check for India.
India has scored at least 275 runs in two of their previous 10 ODIs and more than 300 runs in four of them, including one over 400. Actually, they only fell short of these standards during games where they were pursuing.
The tri-series final will therefore be determined in large part by Sri Lanka’s ability—or lack thereof—to restrain this Indian hitting force. In the first of their two group encounters, India dominated Sri Lanka by taking advantage of the improved bowling and batting conditions. However, Sri Lanka kept India below 300 in the second and then boldly chased down 276.
India has the manpower to make the flip of a coin meaningless, but Sri Lanka will acknowledge that winning the toss and chase is their best chance of winning.
When Chamari Athapaththu is removed, half of Sri Lanka’s batting is eliminated as well. Prior to the last ten or so years, it was the case. However, Sri Lanka’s hitters have recently demonstrated that they are capable of succeeding even in the absence of their lucky captain’s assistance.
Last time out, Athapaththu’s 23 off 33 balls was only one of eight double-digit scores made by players like Harshitha Samarawickrama and Nilakshika de Silva that helped Sri Lanka chase down 276 against India. Additionally, Athapaththu only scored six runs in the last match against South Africa, despite Sri Lanka chasing a mediocre 236 mark. On that day, Kavisha Dilhari and Samarawickrama raised their hands.
Although that is encouraging for the team’s future, Athapaththu’s peak performance is when Sri Lanka can reach its full batting potential. Thanks to an incredible knock of 195 from their captain, Sri Lanka achieved their greatest successful ODI chase and their only one over 300. However, Athapaththu has only scored twice over fifty in 13 innings since then, averaging just 24.07. However, Sri Lanka will be hopeful that Friday’s victory over South Africa marks a prompt return to form, particularly in the run-up to the ODI World Cup later this year.