Sri Lanka always play decent cricket when it comes to ICC
tournaments. They had some good memories with them in the World Cup’s since
1996 when they lift their maiden World Cup title. They reached Semi Final in
World Cup 2003 and finished as runner up in World Cup 2007. In 2010
T20 World Cup, they reached semi final.
Then came the ICC World Cup 2011, where they left heartbroken after loosing the
final vs India. They were again beaten in the final by
West Indies in the T20 World Cup 2012. Finally they won the T20 World Cup 2014 where they
defeated India. Moreover, this win was for their two legends, Kumar Sangakkara
and Mahela Jayawardane, who retired from T20 format after the mega event. After
ICC World Cup 2015, they also took retirement from ODI’s. West Indies struggled
after the retirement of their legends, same way New Zealand and Australia
struggled. Sri Lanka faced the same problem, they
struggled and its fair to say that they struggled badly as they didn’t had the
players who fulfill the places of Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardane.
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| Sri Lanka Cricket Team celebrating their maiden T20 World Cup title. They defeated India in ICC T20 World Cup 2014. Image Source - Google | Image by - DIXIT BHARGAV |
Journey of T20 World Cup 2016
Its another ICC tournament, another T20 World Cup. In 2016, Sri Lanka were no longer a strong team. They did had some good players in their team with likes of Veteran T Dilshan, Angelo Mathews, L Thirimanne, C Kapugedera, Dinesh Chandimal, all rounder T Perera. They had some good bowlers with the likes of Nuwan Kulasekara and R Herath. They didn’t had a good start in 2016 as they lost couple of T20 bilateral series vs New Zealand and India. They even lost to Bangladesh in the Asia Cup resulting failed to qualify for final. So, a struggled Sri Lankan team entered in the tournament where they were to face with the likes of West Indies, England and South Africa. They knew they had to play out of their skin to have any chance to progress for the Semi Final. Lets see what happened to them in ICC T20 World Cup 2016.
1st match vs Afghanistan at Eden Gardens
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| Man of the Match and Veteran Sri Lankan Batsman (left) with skipper Angelo Mathews after their victory in the opening match against Afghanistan Image Source - Google | Image by - PTI |
Afghanistan won the toss and elected to bat first. Sri
Lankan skipper Angelo Mathews struck in the 3rd over to get rid of
dangerous Mohammad Shahzad. Afghanistan skipper Asghar Afghan joined Noor Ali
and played some sensible cricket resulting scoring only 36 runs in the 6 overs.
Post powerplay Afghanistan tried to improve their run rate but in the process
lost 3 wickets in 3 overs. Noor Ali 20(23), Karim Sadiq 0(7) and Veteran
Mohammad Nabi 3(4) were the victims. Then S Shinwari joined this skipper an
played with attacking mindset. He scored 31 runs in just 14 balls. Skipper
Asghar Afghan scored 62 runs in 47 balls. None of the other batsman contributed
to their team score. Resulting, Afghanistan scored 153/7 in 20 overs. T Perera
and R Herath took 3 and 2 wickets respectively. Sri Lanka started their chase
positively and their openers Dilshan and Dinesh Chandimal gave them good start.
Dinesh Chandimal 18(17) fall in the last over of powerplay. Sri Lanka scored
41/1 in 6 overs. Match was perfectively set up for fight. Their best spinner
Rashid Khan removed Thirimanne to gave his teams some hope. Rashid Khan along
with M Nabi bowled in tight areas and not allowed Sri Lankan batters to score
free runs. Tight bowling resulting in 2 run outs. T Perera 12(8) and Kapugedera
10(9) left the chase to Dilshan and skipper A Mathews. Angelo Mathews played
his shots from the word go. He scored 21*(10). Other end is perfectly help up
by Veteran T Dilshan. He scored 83* off 56 balls. As a result Sri Lanka won by
6 wickets with 7 balls in hand. Afghanistan fought really well but Sri Lanka
were the better side. T Dilshan won the Man of the Match for his unbeaten 83
runs. Sri Lanka off to a winning start in the T20 World Cup 2016.
2nd match vs West Indies at Bangalore
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| S Badree celebrating with wicket keeper Dinesh Ramdin. Badree finished with brilliant bowling figures with 3/12 in 4 overs. Image Source - Google | Image by - Twenty20Wiki Web Desk |
West Indies won the toss and elected to bowl. Sri Lankan openers looked scratchy and in the process of surviving, they lost their openers TM Dilshan(12) and Dinesh Chandimal(16) in the powerplay. Sri Lanka score 41 runs in the powerplay. Their fortunes didn’t changed after powerplay as they lost 3 more batsman before the 10th over. S Badree took all these wickets to left Sri Lanka with 47/5 in the 9 th over. Skipper Angelo Mathews 20(32) and all rounder T Perera 40(29) took some Sri Lanka to a decent score of 122/9. S Badree (3/12), S Benn(0/13) and D Bravo(2/20) didn’t allowed Sri Lankan batsman to free their arm. West Indies started their chase by scoring 13 runs off A Mathews over. Its time for the pitch to play his role. Slowness of the pitch and some discipline bowling by Sri Lankan spinners didn’t allowed West Indies to score freely. Opener J Charles 10(13), M Samuels 3(12) and Dinesh Ramdin 5(13) struggled to get going. But they knew the target was modest and all they need to just stay at the crease. Man of the Match, A Fletcher 84*(64) and A Russell 20*(8) finished the game for West Indies.
3rd match vs England at Feroz Shah Kotla
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| Sri Lankan skipper Angelo Mathews left dejected after the loss against England. He left alone in the chase. Image Source - Google | Image by - espncricinfo |
Sri Lanka won the toss and elected to field. England lost Alex Hales (0) early in the inning but Jason Roy and Joe Root stabilized England's inning and scored decent 65/1 in first 10 overs. Kotla pitch was slow so it seems like England's plan was to explore in later part of inning. Joe Root 25(24) and Jason Roy 42(39) fall in quick succession before batted sensibly on slow pitch. England,unlike in previous game, kept wickets in hand and that paid off as Jos Buttler 66*(37) played blinder in later part of the inning. He was well supported by skipper Morgan (22). England finished at 171/4. Sri Lanka struggled right from the first over and their scorecard reads 15/4 in 3 overs, all thanks to some fine spell of David Willey. Captain Angelo Mathews didn't lost there, he along with Kapugedera (30) and Thisara Perera (20) did some fight and kept Sri Lanka in the chase. But death over specialist, Chris Jordan was too good for Sri Lankan lower order. He bowled with pace and accuracy and took 3 wicked in the later part of inning to left Captain Mathews a mountain to climb. Skipper Mathews's 73* runs off 54 balls was not good enough and Sri Lanka lost by 10 runs. Jos Buttler, for his 66*(37) was awarded Man of the Match. With that result, Sri Lanka were eliminated from the T20 World Cup 2016. On the other hand, England progressed to Semi Final.
4th Match vs South Africa at Kotla
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AB de Villiers (left) and Hashim Amla with the Sri Lankan players after the match. Both team were out of the tournament before the start of play.
Image Source - Google | Image by - zeenews
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Both, South Africa and Sri Lanka played this match just for their pride and to go back home with happy faces. South Africa won the toss and elected to field first. Sri Lankan openers Veteran TM Dilshan and skipper Dinesh Chandimal gave them a good start as they scored 45 runs in 4.4 overs. Aaron Phangiso first got Dinesh Chandimal 21(20) and Lahiru Thirimanne off consecutive balls and brought South Africa back into the match. Sri Lanka didn't recover from this blow. Dilshan 36(40) and T Siriwardana 15(10) put a decent partnership of 30 runs. Miscommunication costs Siriwardana's wicket. Sri Lanka falls like a nine pins after that. Only 4 batsman managed to reach double digit and they bundled out for 120. South Africa to chase a modest target but they lost Q de Kock (9) in the 2nd over. Skipper Faf du Plessis joined Hashim Amla and steadied South Africa inning. Suranga Lakmal removed du Plessis 31(36) in the 13th over when the score was 75. Hashim Amla socred a half century. AB de Villiers played his natural game and he looked to finish the game as early as process. South Africa managed to chased the target in the 18th over and South Africa won by 8 wickets and ended their ICC T20 World Cup 2016 campaign on a winning note. Hashim Amla scored unbeaten 56 runs and AB de Villiers scored 20*(12). Aaron Phangiso awarded Man of the Match for his (2/26). This was very ordinary performance by this Sri Lankan team in the ICC T20 World Cup 2016.
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