A Kiwi Reading of the Lankan Womens’ Victory

Jamie Siddons‘ clenched jaw and fierce stare had said it all before the words came out; he was “pretty confident” his team would play a “hell of a lot better” next game after their 87-run defeat at the hands of England on the opening night of the T20 World Cup.

Whatever Siddons, the straight-talking former South Australia captain who is now head coach of Sri Lanka, said to his team – and word has it that it was simply about getting the basics right – they delivered.

Against a stunned New Zealand in Southampton on Tuesday night, Sri Lanka’s bowlers kept the target surmountable, their fielding – led by wicketkeeper Kaushini Nuthyangana‘s three catches – outshone a hapless batting effort, and Nilakshika Silva‘s half-century was the highlight of a tenacious batting performance.

Sophie Devine and Melie Kerr both scored 45 for New Zealand, off 30 and 36 balls respectively, but their inability to convert that to a more significant score proved costly, though not as costly as their fielding lapses.

Nilakshika’s 54 off 37 balls was just her second fifty in 116 T20I appearances and involved key partnerships of 50 with Kavisha Dilhari, and an unbroken 48 with Nuthyangana, which allowed Sri Lanka to chase down the target of 151 with two balls to spare in a thrilling end.

Nuthyangana was also excellent behind the stumps. She took a great diving catch low to her right to remove Izzy Gaze on the third ball of the match, was assertive in demanding a review for a caught behind off Brooke Halliday, and was vindicated, and then she ran nearly 20 metres to her left and almost tripped over incoming fielder Mithali Ayodhya to collect a leading edge which removed Izzy Sharp for a duck.

But this was arguably Nilakshika’s most important innings, standing out in Sri Lanka’s maiden victory over New Zealand in eight meetings between the two sides at T20 World Cups. She lifted her side after they had slumped from 45 without loss to 55 for 4 and Sri Lanka eventually left the defending champions’ hopes of reaching the knockouts in jeopardy.

Nilakshika had also scored 55 not out off just 28 balls against the same opponents in their washed-out group-stage meeting at last year’s ODI World Cup in Colombo, which Kerr remembered well. “We scouted her and know she’s a good player,” Kerr said. “She’s a good player of spin and pace and she hits all around the ground. She batted beautifully.

“That’s the thing with cricket, you give people a chance, you give them two chances, yet you can’t do that. Unfortunately we did, but she did play beautifully.”

New Zealand were indeed left to rue dropped catches for a second match running at this tournament. They spilled six against West Indies in a seven-wicket defeat at the same venue on Saturday and against Sri Lanka they dropped three, including Nilakshika on 1 when she top-edged a sweep off Kerr to short fine leg and was put down by Bree Illing.

“It’s disappointing,” Kerr said. “The West Indies game and today’s game, if we take our chances, we probably win both games by about 50 runs. I don’t think there’s much of an issue with our batting group and even our bowling group. We’re creating chances and no one means to drop them, but we’ve dropped a lot. There’s a lot of people like myself that can put their hand up and say that. It’s disappointing because people say catches win matches and we’ve been on the wrong side of that in the last few games.”

Kerr was at a loss to explain the rash of mistakes in Southampton, but she remained upbeat about her side’s chances of progressing with matches against Ireland, Scotland and England to come.

“I thought today was an opportunity to bounce back and show our character and how good we are as a fielding group,” she said. “That’s what won us the last World Cup two years ago. Sitting here today after two bad days in the field is disappointing.

“It’s really disappointing to start a World Cup with two losses. I guess for us today and moving forward, four wins gets you through to a semi-final. Three makes it a little bit harder, but there’s still a possibility, so we’ve got to believe in that and trust that. Most important is to turn up for the next three games… there’s nothing to lose now.”