Sangakkara laments top-order collapse after narrow loss to Pakistan in World Cup 2011 Group-A match
ICC World Cup 2011 co-hosts and 1996 champions http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Sri-Lanka-c758 had to pay for the nerves that they displayed at the start of their high profile Group-A encounter with the 1992 champions Pakistan at the R. Premadasa Stadium in Colombo.
The hosts lost by 11 runs, which was a massive recovery after they looked set for a big crash when they were 96/4 after being set a venue-record target of 278 runs by http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Pakistan-c755.
Sri Lankan captain Sangakkara fought hard for his 49 with Chamara Silva before succumbing to the guiles of Pakistan skipper http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Shahid-Afridi-c2482.
His partnership with Silva was crucial, yet the snail paced effort robbed his team of crucial overs and scoring opportunities, forcing him to take the power play earlier than expected.
The hosts made little use of the five-over fielding restriction, adding a mere 35 runs with the loss of Sangakkara. The lean pattern meant that the asking rate climbed to nearly 10 runs an over before the start of the last 10 overs.
Although Silva found his touch later, the task was a little beyond the Lankans despite cameos by Angelo Mathews and Nuwan Kulasekara.
Sangakkara feels that the team lost the match after the top order slump which saw them lose four quick wickets within 20 runs even though they had a 76-run opening stand. He added that the team was not concerned about the absence of Lasith Malinga, their
leading fast bowler, as the bowlers did a pretty decent job on a pitch that favoured batsmen, but it was his team’s batting that let them down at the crucial junctures of the game.
“We did pretty well to restrict them to 277 and the start we got was good enough to keep on batting, but when you lose four wickets in the same amount of overs and you are less than 100 for four wickets down, it makes it a bit difficult,” Sangakkara said.
He said the target was definitely gettable and a better approach with the bat could have taken his team through to an important win. “On this track, 277 was very gettable and you saw how close we came at the end. If we had done a little more hard work with
the top-order batsman, I think we would have made it and crossed the line,” he said.
On the other hand, Sangakkara feels that the reversal earlier in the tournament is a rap on the knuckles for his team. He believes his side will have learned some valuable lessons from the defeat.
The easy format of the tournament means that the Lankans are still expected to ease to the knockout stage of the tournament as they have two games left against minnows http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Kenya-c752. Sangakkara thinks the Lankans needed to remember that partnerships
were important and they need not to panic at any stage of the match.
The Sri Lankans have another big match on March 5 when they will face defending champions http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Australia-c746 at the same venue. Before that game they are expected to roll over the Kenyans in a match set to be played also at the Premadasa on March 1.
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