Sri Lanka’s victory in the Zimbabwe tri-nation one-day series is a much needed boost for the team ahead of the tough opposition they will encounter in South Africa next month.
Both Sri Lanka and West Indies were sans some of their experienced stars but nevertheless the series provided an ideal opportunity for the youngsters who replaced them to showcase their talent on the international stage.
By winning the Man of the Final and also the Man of the Series awards, young Kusal Mendis once again proved that he was a big game player someone in the caliber of former captain Mahela Jayawardene. It is a tad too early to start comparing Mendis to a legend like Jayawardene but he is in fact displaying signs of turning out into a class act and one who will be heard of and spoken quite often in the future.
The absence of regular captain Angelo Mathews and vice-captain Dinesh Chandimal along with fast bowlers Lasith Malinga and Dushmantha Chameera placed heavy responsibilities on the young shoulders of Mendis, Dhananjaya de Silva, Niroshan Dickwella, Asela Gunaratne, Shehan Jayasuriya and Kusal Perera. The first three players showed maturity and what they are capable of while the last three did not perform to expectations. Most disappointing was Kusal Perera who failed to get going in any of his four innings and ended with a low average of 11.50 with a top score of 21. Gunaratne compensated for the lack of runs with useful wickets with his right-arm medium-pace. He finished as Sri Lanka’s leading wicket-taker jointly with Nuwan Kulasekara with eight apiece.
Suranga Lakmal and Nuwan Pradeep spearheaded the pace department sufficiently providing the early breakthroughs and returning later to dry the runs at the death.
Sri Lanka’s spin options were in the hands of two inexperienced bowlers left-armer Sachith Pathirana and leg-spinner Jeffrey Vandersay who between them have appeared in just a handful of 15 ODIs but against an inexperienced Zimbabwe side they were more than a handful.
The presence of two seasoned ODI players in batsman Upul Tharanga and fast bowler Nuwan Kulasekara gave the team the necessary balance between youth and experience to come out of tight situations.
West Indies who were also minus some of their big guns like Chris Gayle, Keiron Pollard, Dwayne Bravo, Marlon Samuels, Lendl Simmons, Andre Russell and Sunil Narine could consider themselves really unlucky not to have made it to the final with Sri Lanka.
They produced the only two centurions in the series – Evin Lewis and Shai Hope and also the leading bowler of the series skipper Jason Holder with nine wickets. However they had no one to blame but themselves when on two occasions they failed to finish off matches which they should have quite easily won.
Their tie against Zimbabwe and their one-run loss to Sri Lanka cost them a place in the final when they lost their rain-hit final league game against Zimbabwe on the Duckworth-Lewis method.
The amazing thing about hosts Zimbabwe is that they qualified for the final having experienced all four possible results – a loss, a tie, a no-result and a win.
Even against depleted Sri Lanka and West Indies sides, Zimbabwe still couldn’t prove an equal match. Their performance in the final against Sri Lanka where they were bowled out for 160 inside 37 overs hardly made the contest meaningful and was a far cry from what a final should be. A Sri Lanka-West Indies contest would have made it a much worthy contest. Sri Lanka without their big guns still proved to be too much for the Zimbabweans. Although Sri Lanka came out victorious it is certainly not a proper yardstick to gauge how good a one-day team they are unless they are tested against the best. The ODI series in South Africa will give a better insight to where we stand at present.
In the ICC ODI rankings Sri Lanka are currently placed sixth above West Indies (9th) and Zimbabwe (11th). South Africa whom Sri Lanka takes on in five ODIs in late January are ranked second behind Australia.
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