World Cup: Sangakkara & Company hold the edge against New Zealand-29/3/11

World Cup: Sangakkara & Company hold the edge against New Zealand

(GOOD WISHES...I HAVE FEELING THAT SRILANKA WILL BE IN FINAL...WILL PLAY WITH INDIA FINALLY ON 2/4/11....WELL WAIT AND WATCH....I HOPE INDIA SHOULD CONCENTRATE HARD TO WIN!!!...VIBHA)

29/3/11(SO FINALLY SRILANKA WON...CONGRATES BUT FOR FINAL WE WISH INDIAN TEAM TO WIN AND YUVRAJ TO PLAY HIS NEXT "TWO MAN OF THE MATCH INNINGS"...AND "SIX SIXERS" AND "HATTRICKS".)

Michael Holding | Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Succeeding in cricket has a lot to do with adaptation. Look at the innings Jesse Ryder played against South Africa. He adapted very well.

Ryder has a reputation of being a bit of a flashy stroke-maker but against South Africa in Dhaka, he adapted his game to suit the conditions and match situation.

It’s all well and good being known as a flashy batsman but you need to be able to get down and dirty and tough it out. I think there a few players in the game today who carry reputations that precede them and they need to learn how to adapt. They can take a cue from how Ryder played in Dhaka.

This game is where New Zealand may need to bank on Jacob Oram and Scott Styris a lot. The pair has been around for a while and has a lot of experience.

Now they need to produce, especially Styris. New Zealand sides of the past, like the one today, have rarely had massive stars.

Instead, they’ve been about players who all contribute in their own ways, a little here and a little there. When you put these individual parts together, they all add and exceed the whole. Not a lot of outstanding players, but they all produce together. That’s been New Zealand’s strength.

Now that they’re in the semifinals, New Zealand need to get more out of Oram and Styris. Oram has admitted that he’s the fittest he’s been for some time and that last match was proof that his body is in working order.

Styris has retired from Tests for a few years now and has no excuse for not producing the goods. There is no other form of cricket to tire him; since he’s put everything into one-day cricket and is representing New Zealand at the World Cup, you’d expect more out of him.

This could be his time. How Oram and Styris perform against Sri Lanka could be vital to the side’s success. With Daniel Vettori clearly not at his best, owing to the injury he’s coming off, senior players become important.

Vettori is struggling but New Zealand need him on the field. The players look up to Vettori as a leader. In that regard, his thinking, knowledge of the game, ability to deal with pressure situations and his overall mind-set are vital.

New Zealand’s bowling has carried them so far and I think Allan Donald has had a role to play where Tim Southee, in particular, is concerned. Donald will not be able to change much with how the older bowlers perform, as it’s tough to get them to change at that stage.

But with Southee, who is a young bowler, he seems to have had an effect. Southee has been consistently taking wickets and he’s been bowling at good pace. That could be a result of Donald’s working with him on his action and physical fitness.

Southee looks to have put on a few pounds to his frame and he looks sturdier. He looks an improved player. But more than physically, I think where Donald is probably working with New Zealand’s bowlers would be in dealing with their mind-sets.

He knows a lot about fast bowling and will have stressed on the thought process of a fast bowler.

It’s tough to spot weaknesses in Sri Lanka’s unit, but I do feel that their bowling is not as dynamic as other sides in the World Cup.

They restricted England to a low total but England’s batsmen didn’t venture out of the crease. Against Sri Lanka’s spinners, batsmen will have to use their feet.

There’s no point looking to just score just on the off-side by dabbing into gaps or the leg-side by bringing out the good old sweep.

You’re going to need to be inventive and also score down the ground. Teams that don’t do that are going to struggle. I think if New Zealand manage to do that, they can exert pressure on the likes of Muttiah Muralitharan and Ajantha Mendis.

Muralitharan is vastly experienced but at the end of his career, he isn’t nearly as threatening as he used to be. Mendis is not a big spinner of the ball, so even though you as a batsman might not be able to pick his deliveries easily, hitting straight over his head down the ground should not be as difficult as some batsmen make it seem.

New Zealand will have to be very positive in handling Sri Lanka’s spinners. I think Sri Lanka will again go in with three spinners because a fair pitch is expected, and it’s a tactic that kept England quiet. With a similar track expected, the same approach will probably be followed.

The real danger is Lasith Malinga. He’s the one who can destroy New Zealand. He’s fast but is very clever with his variety. He’s got a very good slower ball and the yorker. New Zealand will have to be very careful against Malinga.

Sri Lanka look like favourites but then so did South Africa in the quarterfinals. I expected South Africa to beat New Zealand but look what happened. New Zealand have been a consistent team in World Cups, as five semifinals prove.

Going into their sixth semi-final, they look a balanced side but Sri Lankans have the edge.

The writer is a former West Indies speedster