We played enough against England, now able to react to different situations: SL coach Sridhar

Fielding coach R Sridhar on Saturday said Sri Lanka have moved on from their home 0-3 drubbing by England in the run-up to the T20 World Cup and believed that his side is now better equipped to react to different situations in Sunday’s Super Eights match against the Three Lions here.

England whitewashed Sri Lanka in a three-match T20I series just seven days before the start of the ongoing T20 World Cup, but Sridhar did not count that as a deterrent in producing a good outing against Harry Brook’s side. “At this stage of this tournament, it’s a lot different from what a bilateral series is. I mean, in bilateral series and private leagues, there’s not as much pressure as there would be in a World Cup Super-8 game.

And it is for all teams. It is for all teams, whether it is England, whether it is Sri Lanka, whether it is India or Pakistan, whoever it is, when you’re playing a Super 8 game, you will not play with the same freedom as you would in a bilateral or a private league,” Sridhar said in the pre-match press conference.

“So, the pressure will be the same for both teams. The teams which do the things correctly under pressure, the teams which make fewer mistakes, are the teams that are likely to go through,” he added. Despite the heavy reversal, the former India fielding coach said there were a lot of positive takeaways from the series against England.

“We played, I remember the first game. We were bundled out for 130-odd, and there are a couple of learnings from that as a batting unit. We learned immediately in the next game; we posted a score of 180, 190, I guess. Then there was a bit of a rain interruption, and we saw some good batting at the back end from Tom Banton and the rest of the team, which took the game away.

“So, that was a learning, but we don’t have the same bowlers now. (Wanindu) Hasaranga, who played that game, is injured. Matheesha (Pathirana), who played that game, is injured. He’s not available. So, slightly depleted in the bowling front. But at the same time, we’ve taken the lessons forward.

“I’m not talking about the third game because that is not the kind of pitch guess we’ll be playing on tomorrow. So yeah, we played enough against this team to be able to react to different situations, to different batters. We saw them play in India as well, at the Wankhede where the ball was gripping a bit. So yeah we got the plans in place,” he said.

Sridhar said the bowlers need to execute their plans better to restrict the explosive English batting line-up.  “England team obviously is one of the best in the world. They have some big power hitters. So, we would be relying on our bowlers to kind of execute the plans with more clarity and try and come back.

“There are going to be moments when you’re going to be hit for a six, four, again and again but we’re going to try and come back and look for that one-dot ball, look to finish the over well, and look to complement our partner in the bowling, stuff like that, so that we can have a very competitive game.

“I mean the team, they know what is required from them at this stage and like all good teams do it’s very important to reflect learn and move on whether you had good game or whether you had a loss, it is important for the team to move on and focus on what they need to do for the next game,” he said.

Sridhar said Sri Lanka were a bit complacent in the defeat against Zimbabwe in their last group match. “I think that was a good lesson — Zimbabwe game. I think there could have been a little bit of complacency after the score we put up on the board on that pitch. But that was again a fantastic lesson to learn and yes, we were below par in terms of fielding inside the inner ring,” he said.

“That is something which has been spoken about already and this ground will probably prove a different challenge because the outfield being under covers for so many times and so much of activity happening on the ground it’s going to be a challenge to be really flash and brilliant on this ground so we’ll have to look at the strategies we adapt as a fielding team on this outfield,” he added.