By Rahul Jeyanthan
In a repeat of the series from a month ago, Sri Lanka once again takes on South Africa, this time with the hopes of both teams lying in the balance. The last time these two teams met South Africa convincingly won 3-0. The Sri Lankan team will be looking for a change in fortunes this time around and at the same venue where we beat Bangladesh it will definitely be an exciting encounter to look forward to
Slow and low?
Despite the Bangladesh match being a relatively high scoring one, the pitches in Sharjah have generally favored the bowling side both in the IPL and in the other world cup matches and scores in the 140-150 range should be more than competitive if the conditions play true to form as they did in yesterday’s Bangladesh vs West Indies game. Given that this is a day game with less prospect of dew playing a part, the toss will not play as major of a role as it would have done in a night game but I believe both sides will prefer to field first due to the uncertainty of what a competitive score is likely to be on this pitch.
Another factor that needs to be taken into account is how many runs at the top of the order and at the start of the innings matter in Sharjah, with runs at the death extremely hard to come by with teams going just over 8 runs at over during that phase in 2021 as compared to over 9.5 in Dubai. Despite, the West Indies proving an exception to the rule the general trend in Sharjah has been a steady run rate throughout the innings rather than an explosion at the death. Incoming batsmen have also found it exceedingly hard to adapt to the conditions and therefore it might be wise to have a batsman play an anchoring role.
In the question of spin vs pace, there is no definite winner with both types of bowlers having found success at the venue, however a curious fact is that spinners have been more effective in the powerplay at taking wickets than the pacers while in the middle overs the roles have flipped with the pacers being marginally more effective than the spinners as opposed to conventional logic. However, for the pacers to be effective they will have to get their lengths right as Sharjah does not need a lot of variations on the part of the seamers but they simply need to hit a good length and let the pitch do the work for them.
Sri Lankan batters to face trial by spin?
As was demonstrated by Adam Zampa in the last match and by the South African spinners in the recently concluded series, Sri Lanka has long had a notable weakness against spin, and the stats back that up with Sri Lankan batsmen both scoring almost a run per over slower against spinners in the last 3 years while also losing their wickets more often and to achieve success in today’s match they will need to get through a strong South African bowling attack with the No.1 ranked T20I bowler in Tabriaz Shamsi. Even though his overall career does not show a clear weakness against any type of batting, the limited sample size of 2021 where he really exploded as a force to be reckoned with shows a drastic improvement in his record against Right Handed batsmen while his stats against left-handers have remained pretty constant throughout his whole career. The applies to an even greater extent for Keshav Maharaj with right-handed batsmen having really struggled to score against him, scoring at just overrun a ball.
All these points to the crucial roles Kusal Perera, Charith Asalanka, and Bhanuka Rajapaksha are likely to have in combating the spin duo of South Africa. Also with powerplay runs likely to be crucial and if South Africa does stick with the pace at the start, Sri Lanka’s best option might be to attack Kagiso Rabada (counter-intuitive as it may seem) as he has a much weaker record in the powerplay than Anrich Nortje.
What do the Lankan bowlers do?
In this case, Quinton De Kock returns to the top of the order attacking him early on with the spin of Mahesh Theekshana could be an option that Sri Lanka should consider. Despite the fact that most teams do bowl off-spin against De Kock early on he actually does not get out to spinners all that often in the powerplay but unlike David Warner, his scoring rate decreases significantly against spin and given the conditions in Sharjah support spinners bowling early on, that might be a worthwhile option to consider. Even the likes of Wanindu Hasaranga might be a good option early on as De Kock does really go fast against leg-spin either.
South Africa’s key batsmen in the middle overs are likely to be Rassie van Der Dussen and Aiden Markram and that is where Hasaranga is likely to be key with both players scoring lower than their overall career strike-rate against leg-spin and with the conditions suiting him it will be upon Sri Lanka’s main bowler to try to nullify their threat. However, in the case of David Miller, there is an obvious weakness against off-spin that Sri Lanka should look to exploit with the likes of Theekshana likely being crucial once again.
In conclusion, hopefully, Sri Lanka make use of the helpful conditions on offer at Sharjah and we have an exciting match in store for us today
Be the first to comment