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Two or three mistakes in the game against Afghanistan cost Sri Lanka the whole tournament
By Sa’adi Thawfeeq
Having finished in ninth and 10th positions in the last two ICC Under-19 Cricket World Cups, Sri Lanka achieved their best result in three editions when they ended sixth in the tournament concluded in the West Indies on Saturday.
“Obviously I would have liked to have ended up in a higher position than sixth place but overall as a unit I am pretty satisfied not only in the World Cup campaign but in the last four months. We got ready for this campaign within just four months and looking back at what they have achieved in that time we can be satisfied with how far we have gone.
“When you look at how the team played we deserved to be in the semi-finals but that’s how the game goes,” Sri Lanka Under-19 head coach Avishka Gunawardene told Daily FT assessing his team’s performance in the 2022 edition of the U19 Cricket World Cup.
“This Under-19 team had a very good run in the four months compared to the teams in the past few years. This team has a unique run, for of the 21 games we played we won 15, one was abandoned and we lost five 2 v England, 1 v India , 1 v Afghanistan and 1 v Pakistan.
“We have beaten Bangladesh, the defending champions and England who were one of the 2022 World Cup finalists, host West Indies and Australia. There is about 75% win this team has achieved. You can be happy at what they have achieved in the four months. We could have done a bit better if our top order fired and if there was a little bit of help from the fast bowlers as well,” Gunawardene added.
Gunawardene indicated that one of the reasons for Sri Lanka not progressing beyond the quarter-final stage was the failure of the top order batting.
“If you analyse our campaign from the start we started off with Bangladesh. From that tour itself we were trying to get a combination going at the top order. We were experimenting with combinations and it never worked. It’s not the lack of ability but they are not used to playing good fast bowling upfront. The middle order was always under pressure. The middle order has always been doing damage control and repairing the innings rather than going out there and dominating,” said Gunawardene.
“The top order has definitely been a problem, it is something that we need to look into when we go back. I don’t think we play a lot of pace bowling in school cricket. Except for 5-6 overs of pace, it’s all spin throughout. Every time you see a good fast bowler doing a little bit early on, the top order struggles.
“They have the talent and ability to do it, it’s just that they haven’t played good fast bowling in the middle. You can practice but what you do in the middle is that counts and the experience. Overall if you actually analyse the teams that came into the knockout stage the boys had played a couple of matches higher, and had first-class cricket under their belts when they come into a competition like this. That is something that our boys are lacking.”
The defeat to Afghanistan in the quarter-final match Gunawardene said was “heartbreaking” for the boys. “Even after losing seven for 43 to come so close and lose the game when we had it in our hands it was heartbreak for everyone. Just a few mistakes, those five balls that went for five sixes, and the four run outs. Two or three mistakes in that game cost us the whole tournament.”
“I had to do a lot of chatting to make sure that they put that defeat behind because we had two more games to go after that. It’s very difficult to motivate the guys to go out and play when you are out of the competition. You are playing for the seeding. The South African game they played well because after we lost to Afghanistan they wanted to prove a point that they were a better side,” said Gunawardene.
“The most important thing in these matches, the defeats and the wins is that these guys are here to learn at Under-19 level to get the experience to enhance their careers in the future. If they had learnt something from this World Cup from the couple of games we lost, that’s the most important thing. Even after a heartbreaking defeat to Afghanistan they were good enough to still pick themselves up and come back and beat South Africa after a couple of days,” he said.
Commenting on the defeat against Pakistan for fifth and sixth places, Gunawardene said: “It was one of those days you want to put aside because nothing went right for us. But there was no excuse for getting out for 127 because that was a placid batting track, we should have put on a better batting performance.”
