SI Cricket Talks
Sri Lanka’s opening match against South Africa at the Cricket World Cup 2023 certainly wasn’t ideal as they lost the game by 102 runs after conceding 428 runs a CWC record with the ball after electing to bowl first. As a result, A defeat is a defeat and is nothing like a victory but Sri Lanka can take away many small victories from this match! Nevertheless, well played to #SouthAfrica! That said, let’s look at some pros and cons with both bat and ball that Sri Lanka can take out of this match and forward:
Pros (with the ball and fielding)
- Struck early with the new ball
- Adjusted the bowling plan well after a few expensive overs
- They had good energy in the field early on (within the first 10 overs)
Cons (with the ball and fielding)
- Didn’t strike regularly in the middle overs
- Gave away too many easy singles
- Dropped plenty of chances (tough chances)
- Energy dropped towards the back end of the innings
Pros (with the bat)
- Kusal Mendis’s innings
- Middle Order not collapsing
- Asalanka’s innings (bonus he scored with a strike rate of 100+)
- Dasun’s innings (would have given him confidence)
- Resistance and fight from Kasun with the bat
- Scoring 326 (helped our NNR from being too bad)
Cons (with the bat)
- Both openers got out cheaply
- Played too many dot balls throughout the innings
- Lost wickets regularly throughout the innings
Overall, these are the pros and cons that we and Sri Lanka can take out of this game and look to improve the pros going forward in the tournament and fix the cons! What are your thoughts? Do you agree with us? Comment below!