What Mahela Needs To Do To Win Us Games

Make no mistake, Sri Lanka’s best batsman has been batting like a dream in this tournament. He has a hundred a ninety and some other very good scores given the context of the games. Unlike many times in his career he has not gotten out cheaply and has gotten out trying to accelerate the scoring. Only in the 4th ODI I thought he could have batted out the quota, but on 94 with only 4 wickets down, you can’t fault him for going for it.

The problem is not that he’s getting out when he is. The problem is that when he does, there’s sweet bugger all nothing after him. And Angelo alone is not gonna be enough.

That we need MJ to bat out to 50 overs if he’s playing at no.4 is now becoming even more obvious. He has got to guide it home and the batsmen at the other end have to take the risks. Mahela has got to realise that even though he has no confidence in the batsmen coming in after him, he cannot afford to take the undue risks. Because the chances of us scoring 20 – 50 runs more if he hangs around till the end is MUCH greater than the lower order conspiring to get those runs if he gets out.

It’s a simple game of probabilities.

For example he got out in the 45th over in the 4th ODI leaving SL 250/5. The rest of the batting, including Thisara, Jeevan and Sachithra, made only 26 runs and were bowled out before 50 overs. So unless he’s there, things will go to pot, as they did today in the 5th ODI as well.

Today’s dismissal was unfortunate. At more than 10 runs required an over, he had to take risks. Dilshan was batting well, but chasing 360 someone had to go big, and more often than not that is Mahela’s lot.

The only problem with doing that is that the Grand Old Man doesn’t back himself to hit the bowler through the line or get under the ball. As a result bowlers know that he’s always looking to score behind the wicket which makes attacking the stumps and making his game high risk with good field placings, pretty simple for a decent captain. McCullum is more than a decent captain.

When the PP was taken Nathan McCullum was brought on, and realising the need to go for runs Mahela almost holed out third ball of the over. Ross Taylor obliged with the most simple catch he’ll ever drop in his life and for a moment I thought luck might just be on our side. But with a team of this ineptitude and selection and coaching of enormous ridiculousness, luck alone is not enough.

As if that chance wasn’t indication enough of the suicide mission in looking for runs only behind the wicket, MJ tried to paddle sweep Trent Boult. Boult (what an awesome name), is bloody quick. Mahela was late on the first ball of the over which he tried to pull, and then was late on the third ball which he tried to sweep. I think the idea was right. But moving across and exposing all three stumps to a left armer whose natural angle should give the means to play the shot without exposing all the stumps. It was the right idea, and the right shot. Just the wrong bowler.

We saw AB do the same during his thunderous 149, but that was almost always to right arm over the wicket bowlers who had to hit him before they hit his stumps. And outside the line of off, he’d never be given out. So it’s actually a really low risk shot against the right arm bowler. Against one of the best left armers in the world, not so low risk. We don’t need 150 off 50 balls. We need 120 off 90, which MJ can do with his eyes closed.

So until Mahela starts looking for options in front of the wicket, especially to spin bowlers, he is going to put himself at high risk. Which the team canNOT afford. He has to start using his feet to the spinners and getting under them, instead of using just the sweep and late cut. He’s good enough to do it. He really is. But good as he is, he needs to practice those options in the nets. Boundaries have to be cleared at practice, and left arm bowlers (Johnson and Boult will be CWC opposition) need to be faced at practice before the shots are tried in the middle.

This behind the wicket thing, and attack the first overs of the PP like there’s no tomorrow, is designed for disaster. Today we picked up 43/3 in the PP. I think Mahela and a trained monkey are good enough to get 45/0 off the power play. But you need to bat the whole thing to find out.

Doing the same thing and expecting different results, is insanity, someone smart once said. Let’s stop the madness.