A really humiliating day – Jayaratne

ESPNCricinfo: Sri Lanka interim coach Jerome Jayaratne has called Sri Lanka’s abject defeat in the second ODI “humiliating” in an analysis that was sharply critical of the team’s batsmen. Sri Lanka were all out for 117 on Monday. The top order had also collapsed to 65 for 6 in the first ODI.

“Today was a really humiliating day actually,” Jayaratne said. “It was a bit disappointing. We didn’t expect a performance of this sort. At least in the Test series we were in a position to save a game, as well as in a position to win a game. But then when you look back at the two ODIs in Christchurch, it’s been a humiliating performance.”

Jerome Jayaratne

Jayaratne said the plan for Sri Lanka’s innings had been to play conservatively in the first ten overs, while New Zealand’s seamers bowled with the new ball, before consolidating that start later. However, the top three have been out in the Powerplay in both matches. On Monday, opener Danushka Gunathilaka and no. 3 Lahiru Thirimanne had been caught playing aggressive shots, while Tillakaratne Dilshan was out advancing down the track to Matt Henry, though he eventually checked his shot.

“Mentally it’s difficult for us in the pavilion to control their thoughts,” Jayaratne said. “We can only make them aware and speak about it. We can say there was a lack of experience in the Test team. But in this team, apart from two or three guys, all the others have played 50 to 100 games. Without any management even they should put on a better performance. It was very amateurish.

“In the first ten overs we lose our way and get into a rebuilding phase all the time. We lose three or four wickets in the first overs. Even if we don’t get many in the first ten, the plan was to capitalise later in the innings. That didn’t happen in both the games.”

In addition to the top three, Milinda Siriwardana had also picked out point with an expansive shot. “The way we played is not the way we really planned to operate,” Jayaratne said. “We know the New Zealanders have one of, if not the, best fielding sides in the world. I feel that we keep the ball a little too much in the air when we’re batting. New Zealand always grab hold of the half chances.”

The ODI top order is presently rebuilding following the loss of Mahela Jayawardene and Kumar Sangakkara to retirement after the World Cup. Jayaratne said the players who have replaced them are currently repeating mistakes.

“It was really Lahiru Thirimanne and Dinesh Chandimal who were groomed to fill their shoes at number three and number four. Of course, you can see there’s still a long way to go before they can fill those shoes. The lack of experience is showing somewhat. You can see the requirement at international level. The batsmen are just not tight enough in their game. We’ve spoken about this over and over. When you lose a couple of wickets, you want two people to dig deep, put up a partnership and then build it from that point onwards. That’s not happening at the moment.”

Sri Lanka’s attack has also been walloped in the last two matches. On Saturday they went at over nine runs an over, but worse was to come. A Martin Guptill assault had New Zealand hurtling towards their small target at almost 15 runs an over, but Jayaratne said the blame still lay largely with the batsmen.

“We batted first and didn’t give the bowlers a fair total to bowl at,” he said. “We know that New Zealand are a very good batting team, but you can’t measure the bowlers with the scores we gave them to bowl at.”