Too many flaws in Sri Lanka's cricket that need fixing

Time is running out in Women's Cricket World Cup

- By Sa’apI THAWFEEQ

Hasini Perera and Harshitha Samarawickrama need to contribute more than 30s and 40s

ONE thing that has been in favour of Sri Lanka is that they had to play the three toughest sides in the ongoing ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup to begin with.

They have got over that hurdle with two losses — to India and England — and a no-result against Australia, but for them to turn those defeats into victories in the remaining four matches, Sri Lanka have some inadequacies which they need to overcome pretty fast.

What we saw in Sri Lanka’s defeats against India and England is that they dropped catches at vital stages of the game that had a great bearing on the final result. Against India, four catches were put down that helped India recover from 124-6 and post a challenging score of 269. On Saturday, against England, when their Captain Nat Sciver-Brunt was on 3, Udeshika Prabodhani dropped a catch straight to her at midwicket off Tnoka Ranaweera. What a costly miss it turned out to be, for Sciver-Brunt went onto score a run-a-ball century (117) and take England past the 250-run mark — a figure they didn’t seem capable of achieving at one stage when they were 168-6 after 35 overs. These crucial lapses on the field have had a telling effect on the Lankan side.