Rex Clementine in Geelong
Since March this year, Sri Lanka have wrapped Dushmantha Chameera in cotton wool and taken extra care of him with one hope, to have him firing on all cylinders at the T-20 World Cup. They could have played him for the second half of Asia Cup, but did not do so hoping he will be quite handful on tracks that have pace and bounce here in Australia. He was on the money running through UAE’s top order during Sri Lanka’s 79 run win in Geelong. But mid-way through his last over, the calf gave away and he has been ruled out of the World Cup.
Chameera had delayed surgery on his ankle and was expected to go under the knife after the World Cup. Now that he has been ruled out for four to six weeks, he will stay back in Melbourne and Dr. David Young, a surgeon in Victoria is expected to do his surgery.
Sri Lanka’s campaign in Australia has been plagued by injuries. Promising left-arm quick Dilshan Madushanka was the first to be ruled out with a torn quad muscle. Along with Chameera, Pramod Madushan and Danushka Gunathilaka are also on the mend with hamstring injuries. While both players are ruled out of today’s game, they are expected to be fit for the second round.
Binura Fernando who has just flown in to Melbourne from Colombo will play today along with Lahiru Kumara. The danger is both players are coming out of injuries as well.
Sri Lanka take on Netherlands in their last Group ‘A’ qualifying round match today. Netherlands lead the group followed by Namibia and Sri Lanka. A win over Netherlands today should be good enough to take Sri Lanka to the Super 12 stage. If Dasun Shanaka’s side beat the Dutch and Namibia overcome UAE, who are yet to win a game, the three teams will be equal on points with two wins each and then Net Run Rate will come into the equation. Sri Lanka are in the safe zone and should go through with a mere win against the Dutch.
The danger is however, that rain has been predicted for today. Although the forecast has improved considerably, if there’s a washout, Sri Lanka are out of the competition. Then Namibia and Netherlands will go through.
Sri Lanka were expected to cruise past the group stages, but their shock defeat to Namibia on Sunday saw them playing catch up. The 55 run defeat margin had done so much harm and even if they win against Netherlands, they are unlikely to top the group. Although they did some damage control with a 79 run win over UAE, it wasn’t the most clinical performance with the bat.
Leg-spinner Karthik Meiyappan claimed UAE’s first ever hat-trick on Tuesday. The Madras born spinner forced Bhanuka Rajapaksa to hit against the turn and had him caught, he deceived both Charith Asalanka and Dasun Shanaka with googlies. Pathum Nissanka is in good nick top of the order having posted 74 off 60 balls in the win against UAE. The 24-year-old’s role is to bat through the innings but on Tuesday, after a batting collapse, he improvised scoring boundaries with some cracking shots.
Defending 153 runs, Chameera did the early damage and then Wanindu Hasaranga ran through the middle order with three wickets. It would have been a clinical performance on the field if Jeffrey Vandersay had not spilled a chance and denied Hasaranga a fourth wicket.