Sri Lanka might have won the World Cup Qualifier without dropping a game, but they were nowhere near convincing enough and have a lot to work on before the World Cup, writes Naman Agarwal.

Ten teams. Six Associates. Four Full members. Two spots. The World Cup Qualifier was always going to be a cutthroat event, where victory would mean different things depending on whether you played Test cricket or not.

As an Associate, you were expected to provide tough competition and cause the odd upset. Qualification would invoke shock, surprise, and acclaim. Ask the Netherlands. And as a Full member, you were expected to win and qualify for the World Cup. Not doing so would result in humiliation. Ask the West Indies.

The Qualifier exceeded its expectations, providing high-quality, if chaos-filled. There were upsets; all-round performances that would last the test of time; batting records; and balls at a speed unheard of at the Associate level.

Amidst all this, Sri Lanka managed to keep their calm and went about their business in a clinical manner, or so you would think looking at their 8-0 record in the tournament.

But when you look beyond their title and the undefeated campaign, you will find gaping holes, and how they were plugged, given the quality of the opposition they faced – a luxury that they won’t have in the World Cup.

Frequent batting collapses

109-8 in 15 overs. 42-6 in 10.1 overs. 96-6 in 25.1 overs. 53-7 in 12.1 overs.

These were some of the collapses that Sri Lanka suffered from across the tournament. While most of them came towards the end of the innings, the third one mentioned above came at the start, against the Netherlands in the Super Six.

Regular collapses prevented Sri Lanka from running away with games as frequently as they should have done being the superior team. They gave the opposition opportunities to come back into games.

Sri Lanka managed to win each game in the end, thanks largely to their bowling and the inexperience of the Associate teams under pressure. Finding their way back after such collapses against the top teams in the World Cup will not be as easy.

Finishing problems

At the Qualifier, Sri Lanka’s run rate of 6.08 in the last 10 overs (41st to 50th) was the worst among all teams. Even Nepal (6.27) and the USA (7.06) struck at a quicker rate.

Part of the reason behind that is that Shanaka, Sri Lanka’s only batter with reliable finishing abilities, failed to turn up. His aggregate from the five innings he batted in turned out to be lower than the highest score of rank tail-ender Maheesh Theekshana.

Shanaka scored 12 runs across five innings and couldn’t hit a single boundary. Wanindu Hasaranga took some burden off his shoulders, striking 91 runs in 71 balls, but his batting is unreliable. Sri Lanka need to find someone around their captain who can be relied upon and specialises in providing finishing touches to the innings.

At No.6, they have Dhananjaya de Silva, who has an ODI strike rate of 80. While he will be useful in the World Cup in India, Sri Lanka ideally need to shift him up at five and find someone more explosive to support the captain at six or seven.

Hasaranga and Theekshana won’t be mystery spinners at the World Cup

The two spinners shared 43 wickets in the Qualifier to finish as the top two wicket-takers in the tournament. Hasaranga started with three consecutive five-fors, while Theekshana finished it with three successive four-fors.

While this bodes well for Sri Lanka, they need to be wary of the fact that most Associate players would not have played a lot of Hasaranga or Theekshana before, and would have found it hard to pick variations out of their hands.

That is not a luxury Sri Lanka will have at the World Cup.

Hasaranga’s returns against the top teams in ODIs are underwhelming, while Theekshana has not played a lot of ODI cricket against the bigger teams. They will need to be on their toes and up their game even further come the main event.

The positives

Openers Pathum Nissanka and Dimuth Karunaratne ended the Qualifier as the second- and third-highest run-scorers respectively. Sadeera Samarawickrama had a decent run as well, scoring two half-centuries and finishing with an average of 43.60 and a strike rate of 95. Sahan Arachchige made a fifty in his first ODI innings.  All of them batted in the top four.

These are promising signs heading into the World Cup. They will also be delighted at what Madushanka brought to the table. A left-arm seamer who swings the new ball always provides the added advantage to his side. Madushanka might have booked a place for himself in the first XI of Sri Lanka for the World Cup with his performance in the Qualifier.

Last but not least, Sri Lanka can be proud of emerging undefeated from a tournament where some other heavyweights suffered humiliating, legacy-defining defeats. Yes, it was expected of them, but the fact that they delivered on the expectations, pulling through from crunch situations after landing themselves in a soup multiple times, is one of the biggest positives they can take into the World Cup later this year.

That Sri Lanka had to compete in the Qualifier was humbling enough. Now that they have won it, they will go into the main event with a fire under their belly. The last two times the ODI World Cup was held in the subcontinent, Sri Lanka reached at least the final. They have a few cracks to taper over before they begin thinking on those lines again, but if they can do that, they can afford to dream a little bigger.

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