Hits and Misses - ICC World T20 2012, Team Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka

Hits

1. Sri Lanka depended heavily on their top three of Mahela Jayawardene, Tillakaratne Dilshan and Kumar Sangakkara in the batting department. And they all did the job perfectly. One of them almost always played an important innings and that was one of the reasons that Sri Lanka were the team to beat right through the World T20. Mahela's innings in the Semi Finals against Pakistan on a slow and low pitch which made run scoring extremely difficult was a masterclass in batting.

2. The middle order pitched in gamely when the opportunity presented itself and Jeevan Mendis and Angelo Mathews made valuable contributions against England in their last Super Eights match and also in the Semi Final against Pakistan. Lahiru Thirimanne deserves a special mention here for the incredible ramp shot that he played against New Zealand's Tim Southee in the final over to take the game into the Super Over!!!

3. Akila Dananjaya, all of 19 years, was given a game against the Kiwis and he had a memorable debut. He took a wicket in his first over but then copped a serious blow on his face as he failed to latch on to a difficult return catch off Rob Nicol. Playing with a swollen face he picked up another wicket in his last over!!! He bowled an assortment of deliveries... off breaks, leg breaks, carrom balls, googlies, the straighter ones and I loved the way he was not overawed by the situation.

4. The mystery spinner, Ajantha Mendis, made his comeback to the Sri Lankan team memorable; with the performance of this T20 as he had figures of 4-2-8-6 against the Zimbabweans. He almost repeated those stunning figures as he completed the match against the West Indians in the Final with 4-0-12-4!!!

5. Nuwan Kulasekera, Lasith Malinga and Rangana Herath all deserve a mention here. While Kulasekera was accurate with the new ball and got early wickets regularly for the Lankan Lions. Malinga bowled superbly as he defended 13 runs in the Super Over against the New Zealanders and gave away just 7 runs. He also grabbed a 5fer against England to kill their chase in another Super Eight game. Herath was called in specially to play against the Pakistan team who have a known weakness against left arm spinners. Herath duly responded with a man of the match performance!!!

Misses

1. Though the match against South Africa was reduced to a 7-7 farce but the Lankans should have won that, especially when South Africa managed only 78 off their 7 overs. To go at 11 an over for a 7 over period with all 10 wickets intact must not be that difficult a task but the Lankans struggled to even lay bat on ball as they lost by a huge margin of 32 runs!!!

2. Lasith Malinga and Ajantha Mendis blew hot and cold as both of them leaked runs. Malinga bowled the most forgetful spell of 4-0-54-0 in the final against the West Indians as Marlon Samuels absolutely laid in to him. Ajantha Mendia had horrible figures 4-0-48-1 and 4-0-40-0 against New Zealand and England respectively.

See the previous post's in Hits and Misses,

Team South Africa
Team New Zealand
Team England
Team India
Team Australia
Team Pakistan