As the tournament enters its third phase, there is enough
evidence to believe that the action on offer is likely to get a lot more
exciting, and the cricket will operate on a higher plane. The last four teams
now take on each other in a lead up to the unveiling of the World Champion.
New Zealand has entered the semis without much
trouble. But they know that the path hereon isn’t going to get any easier. As
they take on Sri Lanka
for the final berth, they know they are up against a team that has been as commanding
and confident as they have been. As we all know by now, Sri Lanka has
shown enough character and ability to hold on to their title chase throughout
the long and testing tournament. Technically speaking, both the teams, more or less, apply
similar strategies and are on par with each other in terms of talent.
Let us have a look at what stats have to say about the
match.
The Lankan Lions
For Lanka, Jayawardane,
Jayasuriya and Chamara Silva seem to hold the reins of their batting, with their averages hovering around 22-23
points above their overall team’s average. Of the trio, Jayasuriya seems to
be the greatest danger for Kiwis as he has maintained a whopping 50 – 100 conversion rate of 67% this World cup. The bottom
line is clear, get Jayasuriya early and cheap and set Lanka on the path of
rebuilding the innings.
Vaas, Muralitharan and Malinga lead the Lankan bowling
attack on both counts wickets and good economy rate. For Vaas and Murali have
been bowling at less than 4 runs an over, while Malinga and Murali have grabbed
15 and 19 wickets respectively so far. Dilshan and Jayasuriya are yet to taste
bowling success and thus remain the target points in the Lankan bowling attack.
The Kiwi performance
so far:
Styris, Fleming and Franklin
form the backbone of New
Zealand’s batting, outdoing the team’s
batting average by 59, 10 and 31 points respectively. What makes Fleming
dangerous is his good conversion rate of 25%. He is a captain who has the
potential to stand up and deliver when it matters the most. Styris, the
Robinhood, is in the form of his life, and needs to be kept in check and not
allowed to settle down.
New Zealand bowling, though economical, lack
the attacking edge and has had limited success this tournament. The
extraordinary dependence on Bond and Vettori doesn’t augur well for the Kiwis,
and if either of the two fails to deliver, the Kiwis bowling attack will look
the way it did in their game against the Aussies.
On paper, Bond, Oram
and Vettori are the most potential bowlers for Kiwis with 12, 9 and 15 wickets
in bags for each.
Facing off
All the bowlers of New Zealand are in the 50 most
economical bowlers list for the world cup as compared Lanka’s exception of one
bowler – Malinga. Malinga remains a wild card for Lankans – swinging between
wayward mediocrity and match-swingin 4-in-4 hauls.
The key difference between the two batting line ups is
undoubtedly Sanath Jayasuriya. He
has an overall strike rate of over 100
this World Cup. The battle between Bond and Jayasuriya is likely to have a large
weighing on the eventual result of the game. As against that, none of the frontline Kiwi batsmen have a
strike rate of more than 90.
Lankans hold a potent
weapon in the form of the ability to accelerate at any given point in
time…which the Kiwis haven’t shown so far this World Cup.
For Lanka, Jayasuriya,
Jayawardane and Sangakara hold the key partnerships responsibilities, while
for the Kiwis, this responsibility is shared by Fleming and Styris.
Lankan have, so far, maintained a good control over extras
and therefore seem to give away very little ‘unforced errors’ to the
opposition, unlike the New Zealanders who have been generous with their gifts.
The Final Word
The Lankans got the better of Kiwis in their Super Eight
encounter. Points to be noted from the match are inability of Kiwis to keep
Jayasuriya and Sangakara in check and failure in the batting department for
Kiwis with very important disappointment by Fleming. Amend these mistakes and
we expect a very close tie.
New Zealand have so far performed better in both batting
and bowling as compared to Lankans with potential batting ability of 262 as
compared to 244 and bowling ability of 201 as compared to 204. Also Lankans
have mainly relied on big individual performances(22) as compared to Kiwis(17).
On papers, Kiwis seem to be more disciplined team. But on a stage like the semis,
emotions and spirits take over all the other aspects. Which is why winners can
never be predicted for such matches.