17.2.2008
Rex Clementine reporting from Adelaide

Sri Lanka cricket team's form with the bat looks contrastingly different to what it was exactly a year ago when they cruised to the finals of the World Cup tournament in the West Indies. Half way through the Commonwealth Bank Series, they are placed bottom of the points table with just six points and one win and the team is in such a situation that they now need to win their next three of the four games to qualify for the best of three finals.

By promoting Tillekeratne Dilshan to open the innings, Sri Lanka seem to have found a solution for the out of form Upul Tharanga, but in return, the problems in the middle order have compounded. Chamara Silva looks a pale shadow of the batsman he was a year ago while Chamara Kapugedara, making a comeback to the national side, hasn't done any justice for his potential.

While both players have batted just twice each so far in the competition and they need to be persisted with time is running out as Sri Lanka face a possible early exit from the competition.

"We feel that six batsmen should do the job for us. Dilshan has the experience and his promotion does weaken the middle order a little bit. But then, it's an opportunity for guys like Chamara and Kapu (Kapugedara) to show what they are capable of," Jayawardene told journalists after Sri Lanka's 63 run defeat to Australia at the WACA on Friday.

Like in Sydney, which the tourists lost heavily to Australia, the bowlers did a fantastic job in restricting the hosts below 240 and Jayawardene said his team didn't finish off the good work done by the bowlers on a fine batting wicket and a fast outfield.

"In the morning I thought 260 or 270 would be a good total. They had wickets in hand and we did well to restrict them below 240. So having done the hard work it was disappointing to throw it away. We could have definitely chased those runs," he felt.

"We took too many risks earlier on. We did the same mistakes in Sydney. We can't throw away that many wickets in the first 20 overs. That has been our downfall. It's difficult for the middle order then to take chances. It was a very good wicket and it was a gettable score."

The only notable partnership was between Kapugedara and Sangakkara, who put on 53 runs for the third wicket before Kapugedara was dismissed for 26. "The way we lost wickets was bad. We never put on decent partnerships. When Kumar was batting with Kapu we thought okay from this point we can build on, but we lost Kapu at that stage and we can't keep doing that," Jayawardene said.

Spirit of Cricket was questioned again after television replays indicated that Andrew Symond's catch to dismiss Silva wasn't a clean one. Jayawardene was asked as to why his batsman didn't stand his ground.
"These days it's very hard to stand and wait. The umpire gave him out and he walked away and I am fine with that. I had a look at the replay a couple of times and there seems to be little bit of doubt."

While the loss was bad enough, Sri Lanka's fielding also looked awful with two of the younger players in the side, Kapugedara and Upul Tharanga, coming as substitute, putting down simple chances. "You want to catch everything that comes your way. The catches didn't prove to be too costly, but at this level, you are expected to take them. Up to that point we fielded really well, but it sort of came off towards the end.

One of the positives for the Sri Lankans, however, was Lasith Malinga's effort of four for 47, the best bowling performance by a Sri Lankan in Perth. He could have picked up his first five wicket haul had Tharanga taken Michael Hussey.

"He was down a bit because he bowled really well in the first few games, but didn't pick up enough wickets. On a wicket like this we knew he can be handful. We have asked him to do a tough job. Start off with the new ball and keep things tight and then come back and finish it off. He's doing a great job. No complaints with the bowling, we just need to sort out our batting."

Sri Lanka arrived in Adelaide yesterday evening and will play their next game on Tuesday against India at the Adelaide Oval.

courtesy SNNI