Online Reporter
Tinashe Kusema
Zimpapers Sports Hub
THEY say “the silent breath of a wounded lion is more dangerous than its roar” and the Zimbabwe Chevrons would be wise not to overlook the threat posed by Sri Lanka, when the two teams meet for their second T20 match of the ongoing Pakistan Tri-series this afternoon.
To say that Sri Lanka’s visit to Pakistan has been nothing short of a nightmare would be a grave understatement.
The former World Cup champions arrived in Pakistan just before Zimbabwe with a three-nil One Day International (ODI) preceding the Tri-series. Things only got worse when a bombing incident shook up the Sri Lanka squad and threatened to derail the entire tour.
As many as eight Sri Lanka players, who were part of the ODI tour, expressed their desire to return home after expressing security concerns following the deadly bomb blast in Islamabad which killed 12 and wounded 27 outside a court earlier this month.
The development came on the eve of the second game in the three-match ODI series after which the Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) told their players to remain in Pakistan or risk facing a “formal review”.
They issued a statement saying they had instructed the team to go ahead with their tour despite an unspecified number of players asking to return home.
“If any player, players, or member of the support staff return despite SLC’s directives, a formal review will be conducted . . . and an appropriate decision will be made,” the board said. The series went on with Pakistan taking all three ODI games (3-0) in a series whitewash. Sri Lanka also faced a barrage of injuries and changes heading into the Tri-series as Legspinner Vijayakanth Viyaskanth was added to the T20I squad as cover for all-rounder Wanindu Hasaranga, who has a hamstring injury.
The 28-year-old picked up the hamstring niggle during the second game of the ODI series against Pakistan and subsequently missed the third ODI as Sri Lanka suffered a 3-0 defeat. The Asians have also been forced to go at it without their regular T20I captain Charith Asalanka after he was forced to fly back home with an illness.
Dasun Shanaka has since been roped as captain overseeing two heavy defeats to both Zimbabwe (67 runs) and the hosts Pakistan (seven wickets).
But a wounded lion is still a lion.
And, Zimbabwe did not do themselves any favours with their lifeless performance against Pakistan, going down to the hosts by 69 runs on Sunday. The win guaranteed Pakistan a spot in this weekend’s final but, more importantly, dented Zimbabwe net run-rate and effectively brought Sri Lanka back into the game.
A win for Zimbabwe today would book their berth in the final but a loss for Chevrons would give the impetus to Sri Lanka who will still have a game in hand.
The loss to Pakistan was a game that once again exposed Zimbabwe’s managed weakness as the Chevrons toiled to chase down 195 runs. Only two batters, Ryan Burl and skipper Sikandar Raza, managed to reach double-digits figures and repeat of the same could spell doom for the Chevrons.
Still, Burl remains optimistic that Zimbabwe can indeed seal their place in the final alone rather than rely on the hosts.
“Our plan will be to win a game of cricket, that’s obviously the short answer,” said Burl.
“The result between Pakistan and Sri Lanka later on is kind of out of our control and we can only control our next game which is against Sri Lanka.
“It’s about adjusting to conditions quickly; you know we have obviously seen Sri Lankans also kind of struggle a little bit with the bat in both games as it is not the easiest of wickets to play on here in Pakistan.
“The batters that have spent a lot of time out in the middle have shown that getting used to the conditions does make things easier. So going into the match (today), we just have to adapt to conditions a little bit quicker, give ourselves a bit of a platform to go harder like did against us and hope for the best,” he said.
Burl refused to let the result against Pakistan get him down as he backs his teammates to come back stronger and more resilient.
“I think as any cricketer that’s playing right now, we are striving to get better and better and we can’t always control the results. What we can control is our attitude to turning up for training and turning up during matches.
“How we go about things, we have kind of got blueprints about how we want to play our cricket and as long as we keep kind of ticking those boxes, doing the right things then results will take care of themselves.”
