As I had never seen our Sri Lankan Women’s Cricket Team in action, through curiosity I watched on TV their World Cup Match against India played at Derby England last week.
India’s Captain Mitali Raj won the toss and decided to take first lease of the wicket. Most of the Sri Lankan bowlers bowled a good line and length and restricted the Indian scoring to less than 4 runs an over up to about the 30th over. The Indian players were aided by some poor fielding by our players, dropping as many as five easy catches. Deepthi Sharma, who was dropped by the wicket keeper before she had scored more than 10 runs, batted with authority thereafter to score 78 runs. She was well supported by her Captain Mitali Raj and they were able to establish a partnership of over 100 runs for the 4th wicket. Both batters were dismissed in quick succession which enabled Sri Lanka to get back into the game, as the Sri Lankan bowlers were able to keep the scoring rate down to under 5 runs an over. Towards the latter part of the Indian Innings the Sri Lankan players let the Indians off the hook by missing catches, which enabled them to finish with a score of 232 runs for the loss of 8 wickets in their 50 overs.
When it came to Sri Lanka’s turn to bat, Sri Lanka’s openers were able to score only 17 runs between them. Chamari Attapathu who had played a splendid innings against the Australians scoring 178 not out, came to the center at the fall of Hasini Perera’s wicket and was expected to consolidate the Sri Lankan innings. However, she found run scoring difficult due to the Indian spin bowlers not giving her enough pace off the wicket to get her timing right. She eventually hit across the line to the Indian leg spinner Poonam Yadav and was bowled for 25 runs. The batters that followed also found it difficult to score due to the Indian spinners not giving them enough pace to work with. What was required from the Sri Lankan batters was to use their feet and get to the pitch of the ball and rotate the strike. They failed to do this and due to pressure building up as a result of many dot balls being conceded, went for high risk shots and lost wickets at regular intervals. Despite this omission in their batting strategy, Sri Lanka were able to get up to a score of 216 runs for 7 wickets at the end of 50 overs, thus falling short by 16 runs.
Sri Lanka could have won this game quite convincingly, had our players taken the catches and restricted India to a score of under 200 runs. The score of 234 could have also been achieved, had our players rotated the strike regularly and also hit the ball straight down the ground when going for big shots rather than playing cross batted shots.
The Sri Lankan women cricketers seemed a talented lot but lacked technique and strategy to perform consistently. Unless the short comings that I have mentioned above are corrected, I cannot see the Sri Lankan women’s team performing well on a consistent basis. It will be up to the coaches to address these shortcomings and rectify them for the betterment of women’s cricket in Sri Lanka.
