Khettarama throws huge surprise as Bangladesh unravel brutally in a pitch that changed characteristics in both innings.
Khettarama bites back as Bangladesh unravel in magnificent fashion.
In recent years, at least two leaders of Sri Lanka’s men’s white-ball squad have stated that they would much rather this piece of work, the Khettarama pitch, would learn to behave.
The pitch on which Sri Lanka plays the majority of their home games is locked in the nineties, while other top white-ball nations have installed flatter and flatter white-ball surfaces, pushing totals into the stratosphere and bowling economy rates into adjacent galaxies. It’s cunning. On it, it permits the ball to perform nasty little dances. It frequently rises up in the middle of innings and stifles a pursuit. Theoretically, this indicates that Sri Lankan bowlers and hitters do not acquire the abilities necessary to compete on the surfaces used for the majority of contemporary white-ball cricket matches.
Charith Asalanka had expressed his belief that “this pitch [at Khettarama] will be a bit more batting-friendly than usual” prior to this game. He had said that with the assurance of a man who understood the instructions being conveyed to the curator by the team regarding the type of surface that curator was expected to make.
Perhaps aware that this would not be another spin-friendly track, Asalanka even included three seamers in his starting lineup, giving Milan Rathnayake his first appearance instead of going with left-arm spin-bowling all-rounder Dunith Wellalage, who is already somewhat of a favourite at Khettarama and averages 16.60 with the ball here.
It seemed like Asalanka was correct throughout the first 66.2 overs of this contest. It was a “more-batting-friendly-than-usual Khettarama deck” . The line was being hit by batters. Long-term mistakes were severely penalised. It was hardly surprising that Asalanka, who has been quietly establishing himself as one of the world’s top ODI middle-order batsmen, produced a valiant 106 off 123 for Sri Lanka.
When Tanzid Hasan and Najmul Hossain Shanto were tearing through those early overs, their 244 all out eventually looked 30 runs short.
However, we can never fully ignore our inner selves, old habits die hard, comfort comes from the familiar, and wonderful stories heard again provide joy.
Perhaps the pitch regained part of its savagery all at once. Perhaps a little of Sri Lanka’s previous spin-bowling chaos returned. Perhaps Bangladesh dug deep and discovered an old weakness in Sri Lanka. All three may have occurred. The fact that seven wickets were lost for five runs is what we are certain of. Additionally, no wickets from No. 2 to No. 8 have ever fallen for fewer runs in ODI history.
Kamindu’s taking 3 for 19 in an innings is remarkable enough because he is mostly a batter. Naturally, though, we are discussing Sri Lankan spin bowling here, which is distinct from batting, and this player is insane even in that regard. As a left-handed hitter, his preferred finger-spin arm was left-arm spin, which he used to take his first two wickets. However, he dismissed left-hander Taskin Ahmed with a right-arm offspin for his third wicket.
It should be mentioned that Bangladesh’s hitters were also adopting some terrible hitting techniques from the 1990s, when they were easy-to-beat Bangladesh teams. At one point, they were 99 for one. They were soon 105 for 7. After a slide like that, no serious innings bounces back. It was incompetence that made history.
In previous matches against Sri Lanka, Bangladesh’s batting has proven resilient and strong. Sri Lanka has demonstrated a readiness to abandon spin-friendly songs. However, we occasionally revert to our old habits. Almost unintentionally, seven wickets have fallen for five runs.