1st Quarter Final - South Africa v Sri Lanka (18th March)

[RossTaylorsBox]

"[Semi-final against NZ] We've been working really hard for this, it will depend how we play on the day."

LOL, someone investigate Tahir.

 

[kiwiviktor81]

If we do meet them in the semifinal, hopefully SA can't put together two performances like that in a row. Although, it was more a case of SL being bad. I think that was the heaviest caning of all the matches I've seen in this World Cup, and I've seen about 20.

 

[JediNudist]

If we do meet them in the semifinal, hopefully SA can't put together two performances like that in a row. Although, it was more a case of SL being bad. I think that was the heaviest caning of all the matches I've seen in this World Cup, and I've seen about 20.

Dunno. NZs thrashing of England by 8 wickets. Both matches were lopsided. Only one side in it from the first ball.

 

[SteveNZ]

SL tried to be too cocky with their changes and it came to bite them back.

Yeah, so this is what I wanted to find out about. Any justification for moving a guy down who'd scored a pair of 50s and a big ton (all v top eight opposition) for a guy who averages 23 as an opener? Seems like one of the most horribly unnecessary tactics of all-time.

 

[Tec15]

An epic choke by Sri Lanka. They just completely collapsed on the occasion. And after winning the toss too. Sanga played one the worst World Cup knocks ever. He just completely froze under the pressure.

A nice to riposte by SA to those hoping for a choke. Good that they stuck by De Kock and backed him to come good.despite all the armchair selectors calling for his dropping.

 

[Zinzan]

If we do meet them in the semifinal, hopefully SA can't put together two performances like that in a row. Although, it was more a case of SL being bad. I think that was the heaviest caning of all the matches I've seen in this World Cup, and I've seen about 20.

Yeah, SA were very good, but SL made them look unbeatable.

Definitely feel SL were worse than SA were good, and by a decent margin.

 

[Zinzan]

Holy ***, didn't realise Sanga was as ridiculously slow as 6 off 42 balls at one stage. Struggling to think of any instance in which that would ever be acceptable batting first.

 

[weldone]

Why didn't they select Herath on this pitch? (not that would change the result)

 

[viriya]

Sanga goes through the whole WC without getting a single 50.. what a fail.

Also he just needed 4 more runs to finish with an ODI average of exactly 42... double fail.

 

[Dan]

Why didn't they select Herath on this pitch? (not that would change the result)

Injured. Out of the squad.

 

[kiwiviktor81]

Dunno. NZs thrashing of England by 8 wickets. Both matches were lopsided. Only one side in it from the first ball.

Yeah but I expected that we'd beat England by a margin like that. Much more surprised by today's result (I gave SL a 40% chance of winning pre-match).

 

[Salamuddin]

Not terribly surprised with the result. Sri Lanka were never really world cup contenders - this group of Sri Lankan players had their sunshine moment last year when they won the t20 world championship. Time for large scale rebuilding.

SA can go all the way I feel. I still think they are a very flawed team but flawed sides have won the world cup before. If SA meet NZ, I think they have a pretty decent chance.
I think SA would find it much harder to beat Australia at the MCG though so so would be good if the Aussies can be tripped up before then.

 

[AndyZaltzHair]

when Sanga came down to bat, idea probably was not to go for anything risky and see off the initial burst even if he played quite a few dots in the process. Thiri on the other side was playing his shots and scorecard started to move somewhat. Dont see any reason at that point that Sanga also needed to strike. So guess he played few more dots, tried to carry the innings and accelerate later. But from then on Thiri fell and others collapsed in a heap. It's easy to make him scrapegoat but lets hear what he could have done given the situation

 

[Maximas]

Also he just needed 4 more runs to finish with an ODI average of exactly 42... double fail.

Only viriya could make such a post at such a time ahaha

Not terribly surprised with the result. Sri Lanka were never really world cup contenders - this group of Sri Lankan players had their sunshine moment last year when they won the t20 world championship. Time for large scale rebuilding.

Yep, bowling completely ran out of steam and the selectors didn't commit to continuing with the old guard or moving forward with the young quicks, a complete farce that ended with Malinga and Kula in the team as it should have been but also two complete noobs, granted Herath was injured but still. Batting was the big surprise today, no explanation for why Dilshan, Mahela, Matthews and to some extent Sanga failed all on the same day, this whole campaign was based on that not happening and it did so...

 

[viriya]

when Sanga came down to bat, idea probably was not to go for anything risky and see off the initial burst even if he played quite a few dots in the process. Thiri on the other side was playing his shots and scorecard started to move somewhat. Dont see any reason at that point that Sanga also needed to strike. So guess he played few more dots, tried to carry the innings and accelerate later. But from then on Thiri fell and others collapsed in a heap. It's easy to make him scrapegoat but lets hear what he could have done given the situation

Definitely not Sanga's fault. He wasn't edgy, just playing very safe. SL's batting looked better that it actually was cos Sanga + Dilshan did their job so many times in the group stages.. The Kusal promotion proved to be a disaster move - everything could've gone differently if Thiri opened (on hindsight).

 

[Riggins]

Sri Lanka changing the opening combination of all things is pretty staggering.

 

[kiwiviktor81]

I might be almost alone here, but I didn't think Sanga played that badly. His strike rate was low not because he played and missed a lot or hit it to fielders, but because he left a lot of excellent balls in the channel outside off and defended astutely. If SL had played out their overs it might be different, but without his innings the SL scorecard would look abominably bad.

 

[Oduodu]

Hmm yes, the perfect time to bring this issue up again.

why didnt they play with that side right from the start ??

we might have beaten india ??

 

[Tec15]

If SL had played out their overs it might be different, but without his innings the SL scorecard would look abominably bad.

The SL scorecard looks abominably bad even with his innings. He just completely bottled it today. The pressure got to him.

 

[wellAlbidarned]

I might be almost alone here, but I didn't think Sanga played that badly. His strike rate was low not because he played and missed a lot or hit it to fielders, but because he left a lot of excellent balls in the channel outside off and defended astutely. If SL had played out their overs it might be different, but without his innings the SL scorecard would look abominably bad.

6 off 42. You can't defend that.