Sixes are a regular utterance when Thisara Perera recounts his fondest memories on the cricket field. ”Early on in my career, I loved the 2011 World Cup final, because I was able to end our innings with a six. Then there’s the 2014 World T20 and that winning six. I’ll never forget that,” he preened. ”I also hit the biggest six by a Sri Lankan – 123 metres in Perth.”
Thanks to those lusty blows, Perera accomplished the fourth best career strike rate in ODIs (112.08) among batters with at least 2000 runs. His form was patchy, but hitting ability unquestionable.
Chasing 320 against New Zealand in 2019, Sri Lanka were staring down the barrel at 128/7. With nothing to lose, Perera swung for the fences to rustle up a 57-ball hundred, the third-fastest for Sri Lanka and one of the best ODI innings in a losing cause.
Selectors axed Perera following an ordinary World Cup that year, and his departure left a void. Since 2019, Sri Lanka’s Nos. 6, 7, and 8 have collectively struck at 122.72, the ninth-worst among the top-ten T20I nations.
Leading into the 2021 World Cup, Sri Lanka had won just seven of their last 30 completed T20Is and lost 10 out of their 13 completed ODIs. While the horror show was a consequence of the instability rendered by the youthful overhaul of their white-ball squads and the six-month long absence of Danushka Gunathilaka, Kusal Mendis and Niroshan Dickwella owing to bio-bubble breach, Sri Lanka had enough time to organize a balanced batting unit come the 2023 ODI World Cup in India. That, unfortunately, hasn’t proved to be the case for the islanders.
The lower order’s development has paled in comparison to the top order’s, even as Sri Lanka did their fair share of experimentation under Mickey Arthur and then Chris Silverwood. So loud was the finishing department’s cry for solidity that top-five players like Dinesh Chandimal and Charith Asalanka who were settled into their respective batting positions had to be yanked and dropped lower down the order. However, Sri Lanka are yet to pick out from their flesh the thorn that is the inability to consolidate the starts provided by the top-order.
A 125-run opening stand was squandered as they lost 10 wickets for just 84 runs against Australia in the 2023 ODI World Cup. Sri Lanka were 140/1 after 14 overs in a chase of 214 only to lose nine wickets for 30 runs in the recently-concluded T20I series against India. Likewise, from a flappy launchpad of 130/2 after 15 overs, seven wickets went down for just 31 runs.
Dasun Shanaka, Sri Lanka’s designated finisher over the last few years, has struck at 119 in 48 T20I innings at No. 6 and 110 in 20 outings at No. 7. He is capable of producing blizzards, most notably the 25-ball 54 against Australia that snatched victory from the jaws of defeat, but those dazzling performances have been the exception than the norm. He bagged a diamond duck and a golden duck in the India T20Is.
Expected to deliver late cameos, Wanindu Hasaranga blows hot and cold too. It is more a case of Sri Lanka wishing that he comes good rather than a feeling of conviction marking his trips to the crease.
In part due to the lower-order lethargy, Sri Lanka have hit just 238 sixes in 69 ODIs since 2021. India, on the other hand, have smoked 430 maximums in 68 games within that timeframe. England have 424 sixes in 66 T20Is while Sri Lanka have hit merely 311 in 67 T20Is from 2021 onwards.
This statistical gulf could be assuaged in the coming years given Lanka Premier League has launched the Power Blast rule, much like BBL’s Power Surge. The new rule in the LPL will force the fielding captain to bring one extra fielder inside the circle during the Power Blast overs, thus incentivising batters to go for the big shots. Along expected lines, the results have come through in the first season itself, with the boundary tracker reading 724 fours and 372 sixes in the 2024 season as compared to 589 fours and 222 sixes in 2023.
But for now, Sri Lanka have a major conversion problem. Even in the warm-up games ahead of the 2023 ODI World Cup, the foundation laid by the top-order was rarely built upon. Against Bangladesh, Sri Lanka scored only 131 runs after the 20th over. Versus Afghanistan they went from 240/2 in the 30th to 294 all out.
The non-cooperation from the lower-order hurts Sri Lanka beyond its direct implication as the knowledge of the lower-order not pulling up their weight can put the top-order into a safety-first mindset, which is not at all ideal in a team environment like Sri Lanka’s where players can be a smidgen selfish at times due to places being consistently under strain.
In the nascent stage of their development as an international team, Sri Lanka were posed with the challenge of trying to compete effectively against countries with wealth of experience, larger talent pools and deeper pockets. They reasoned that they were setting up to fail if they follow the herd.
So Sri Lanka chose to think out of the box. Ever since, they have pursued a deliberate policy of eschewing unorthodoxy, instead looking to innovate and improvise whenever possible. They have both an eye and affinity for players with unique techniques, and tend to fastrack the X-factor personnel over those who conform more closely to the sport’s received wisdom. Muttiah Muralitharan, Lasith Malinga, Ajantha Mendis and Tillakaratne Dilshan, the inventor of the Dilscoop, were all anomalies who went on to have successful, narrative-bending careers.
The first time the world saw the impact of this left-field approach was at the 1996 Cricket World Cup, where Sri Lanka deployed attacking opening batters to exploit the fielding restrictions at the start of the innings. In that era 50 or 60 runs in the first 15 overs of an ODI were considered adequate. Sri Lanka scored 117 runs in their first 15 against India, 123 against Kenya and 121 against England. Player of the Tournament Sanath Jayasuriya and Romesh Kaluwitharana redefined scoring patterns to remarkably push the envelope of one-day cricket.
Teams batting first were crowned winners in all five World Cup finals up to that point batting first, but Sri Lanka went against the grain and opted to bowl versus the mighty Australians. In what was another emphatic vindication of their maverick mindset, they chased down a total of 241 to secure the biggest prize in the game.
Can Sri Lanka, reflecting upon their historical positives, find an ingenious solution to their finishing woes? Their heavy-lifting top order would hope so.
