Sri Lanka side, a tower of experience
Jan 17, 2015 Sri Lanka will top the World Cup teams in at least one
respect - they've got a pile more caps than any other nation.
The team who pulled the series level at Hamilton on Thursday night
have amassed 1775 ODI caps. That's a lot of accumulated wisdom. New
Zealand's XI had 932. At a time when New Zealand are publicly confident
their batting will come right - the evidence will be produced in the
next few days, optimistic batting coach Craig McMillan said yesterday -
it's worth a glance at the other team in this seven-game marathon.
Sri Lanka won the 1996 cup final, and have been beaten finalists in
the last two editions, against Australia in Barbados in 2007 and against
India in Mumbai four years ago. Expect them to be there at the sharp end
of this year's event.
One reason for that is they have four matchwinners in their top six
batsmen..
Consider the output of Tillekaratne Dilshan, Kumar Sangakkara, Mahela
Jayawardene and captain Angelo Mathews. That quartet is a match for any
batting group who will start the World Cup. Jayawardene is retiring
after the cup. He'll play his 437th ODI at Eden Park today. Only Sachin
Tendulkar (463) and countryman Sanath Jayasuriya (445) have played more.
He's hit 18 hundreds, which you'd think he would recall; but how about
the 76 fifties.
There's a challenge for the man who wields his bat like a wand.
Sangakkara will walk out for his 393rd international today. He needs 17
runs to overtake Jayasuriya for ODI runs.
Only the uncatchable Tendulkar and Ricky Ponting would then be ahead
of him. A solid next few weeks' work will have him behind only the
Indian master. Mathews is averaging 40 from 147 games and is ranked 13th
among ODI batsmen (Sangakkara is fourth, Dilshan 8th and Jayawardene
23rd). He's got his best years to come.
Which leaves Dilshan, in a sense the unsung hero in this group. But
check the numbers for the 38-year-old: he averages 38.56 in his 15-year
career, with 19 centuries and 41 fifties. Sure, he misses out at times,
but give him a chance to settle into his work, as happened at Seddon
Park, and he can do serious damage, as New Zealand discovered.
He was savage on New Zealand's fastest bowler, Adam Milne, scoring 54
from 32 balls off him on his way to a match-winning 116. Throw in tidy
offspin and smart movement in the field, and you have one of the more
effective one-day players around. It may be that with more illustrious
teammates around Dilshan doesn't get the recognition his talents
deserve.
It may be that his value is best appreciated by those around him. But
keep an eye on this man for the rest of this series. Thursday might not
be his only "special" between now and the start of the World Cup.
- NZ Herald
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