Thilina Kandamby, the batting coach for Sri Lanka, bemoaned the way the team’s batters played against South Africa and Bangladesh, which prevented them from moving on to the Super Eight stage of the 20-nation competition, after the team’s elimination from the ICC T-20 World Cup without progressing to the second round.
After the match against Nepal was rained out, the team did manage to pull together in St. Lucia, defeating the Netherlands handily, but it was already too late.
“Our batsmen weren’t able to adjust says batting coach -Kandamby”
“This has been a difficult campaign. I felt we did a good job with the preparations. During training, we put in a lot of effort. We didn’t carry out our plans, and I don’t want to hold the wickets responsible for our defeat. The batters were not conditionally adaptive. After just two batting collapses, all of our preparation was lost, Kandamby, the former captain of Sri Lanka’s Under-19 team, told reporters.
The batters were removed from the game in both of Sri Lanka’s losses in New York and Dallas while attempting to make huge shots; however, in St. Lucia, their strategy appeared to have shifted as they were more dependent on turning singles into twos and twos into threes.
“Our strategy was to try and get more twos. We scored less than 80 runs in the first game. We were unable to carry out the plan in the second game because of the small field. Saint Lucia was enormous. In order to exert pressure on the fielders, we could run quickly. The lack of confidence was the issue.
Whether Sri Lanka sent the best team to the World Cup has been questioned. One topic that has been discussed extensively is the lack of power hitting. However, Kandamby was pleased with the side’s composition.
“This is the most effective team we have to offer. Over the years, we haven’t had many power hitters. Apart from Thisara Perera, we didn’t have many power hitters when we won the World Cup in 2014. We had a large group of musicians. We engaged in various forms of cricket. Our statistics show that since January of this year, we have hit 150 sixes in all three formats. That is a respectable amount.
On Monday morning, Sri Lanka left St. Lucia and returned home. The trip back home is lengthy and involves stops in Miami and Dubai. A few weeks will pass before the players compete in the Lanka Premier League and then the home white-ball series against India, which starts in early August.
