As I said in my last article, the game of cricket is very unpredictable, especially in the T20 format. The game’s result cannot be ascertained until the last ball is bowled.
Yesterday, two games were played for the T20 World Cup round 1 and both results were very interesting and exciting.
Namibia created history and has upset the singing and dancing fans of Sri Lanka. The same Sri Lankan team have recently beaten the strong Indian and Pakistan team and won the Asia Cup 2022.
Sri Lanka was expected to win the first match of the world Cup; however, they have lost the match with a huge margin of 55 runs.
Sri Lanka lost the plot in last few overs where they leaked too many runs to Namibia and it was looking like Namibia will end up their score around 130 to 140; but they end up scoring 163.
The additional 20-odd runs are too many in T20 cricket.
Analysis of the loss of Sri Lanka
- Bowled too many short deliveries and Namibina players were able to pull and hook and were able to score more runs.
- They also bowled too many good length balls outside the off stump which are very easy to hit during the slog overs.
- Namibia were just 95/6 after 15 overs, so Sri Lanka gave nearly 65 runs in their last 5 overs.
- In the second over itself, Sri Lanka lost their first wicket in form of Kushala Mendis.
- In the 4th over Sri Lanka again lost two wickets in two consecutive balls and that added lot of pressure on the batting side and they never were able to recover from there.
- Once you lose 3 early wickets in the first 4 overs, it’s a bit difficult to survive and score as it adds pressure to the batters on each dot ball.
Sri Lanka now has an uphill task of winning the rest of the matches with good margins to improve their points and net run rate.
It will be very interesting to see how the team cope and forget this defeat and comes back fighting hard in their next upcoming matches against Netherlands and UAE.
Sri Lanka is one of the Champions and a strong team in the group they are expected to be on the top and have to qualify for the second round.
Also Read: T20 World Cup first round predictions