One Sided Play | (Sri Lanka Vs England) World Cup Analysis..
World cup as a world tournament needs to be something that is competitive where people can really see players battle it out to snatch win against the other teams. If matches get one sided, that really marks a bad impression for other teams to gather strength and come up again to make attempts to win. Unfortunately in this edition where matches played in India, most of the matches looked to be so, dominant one team, recessive other party.
Today's match have had similar story. England being the defending champion lost against Srilanka by 8 wickets. Anyone can say that, for even the best team, one day can go wrong and that has happened for most of the times in the recent histories.Those teams that looked as "superpowers" lost against the weaker team, associate nations that used to win barely got into the spot.
But its not like that. I have been closely making an observation in some of the matches where batting first ended up scoring 350+ runs, even close to 400 ; on the other hand down to the scoreline of below 200. The same scenario for the case of batting second, unable to chase down 300 runs in the same pitch that the opponents batted on. This is an uneven bipolarity that most of the times doesnt occur.
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England is not the team that could be packed below 200. In indian pitch conditions, some of the players have been playing for more than decades times. British players usually get high value for being in the same national, although their performance also turns as the best qualifications they make. So, its not the questions or fact that they lack the ability to score big and perform well in all three departments.
But at the end of the 5 match a side , it has been appeared that England lost a few matches and not in a good position to the points table. But I hope they would be back on track and still more actions to come in the remaining part of the fixture, although it seems far away. India and New Zealand are on the top of list and with such pace of performance, it would be simply a predictable fact that they would reach to semi.
But its not the end and many more drama and mishaps can happen. The recent history do showcase that the host nations get successful most of the times for their home advantage. India has been taking the full capacity of the strong point, they didnt lose any single match in this contest.Yet, their team combination would receive the full credit for that.
When Srilanka played today,I think what they did get successful was to restrict the English openers to open up their bat and start hitting boundaries before powerplay to end up. Its a significant point to restrict a team to not reach upto a big total. Lankan bowlers have done that well and thats how they succeeded to play their part.
On the other hand, the batters maintained the rhythm of the match to chase down a smaller target,that ended up not losing successive wickets of key players. What I collected as wit, that in India - partnership is the most important factor to retain, throughout the 10-40 overs period, the sustainable partnership with run rate 5-6 can create a huge impact on the match and set a big total for the opponents.
Looking at the large scores made around 300+, one or two players scored a hundred and never let middle order tl collapse. That is the secret to success to win matches in India. Other than bowlers, batters have greater role to play and successful teams have made that happen.
All the best for future matches and I hope it continues, the thrill and merriment of watching live world cup in tv sets and witness legends to come up and perform, set a legacy and retain the story,unto the decades.