Sri Lanka destroyed England in CWC 2023 Match
Kumara and his mostly inexperienced Sri Lankan teammates mixed speed with aggression and discipline against the defending champions.
Lahiru Kumara introduces himself on Twitter by saying he’s “a strongly built right arm quick bowler.” Plumber Lahiru. The origin of the Gasman nickname and the person who gave it to him are both unknown. He was known for being able to bowl quickly throughout the day. Others believe it’s because of his massive build, which makes him resemble a Marvel superhero.
Whatever his roots, he bowled ten mean overs of relentless aggressiveness and animosity against England, becoming his nation’s Gasman. His greatest asset has always been his pace when he got his hands on a cricket ball. The route he took was by happenstance. When he was in his teens, he played hockey, but his mother destroyed the hockey equipment when he got a cut on his forehead. He simply entered the nets at his school and began to accelerate quickly after that.
The previous time that India traveled to Sri Lanka for a Test series, bowling coach Champake Ramanayake would talk highly of a big bowler who was practicing in the nets. He would say, “See, he is easily clocking 140 kph; he could be touching 150 kph in a couple of years.” He had already made his Test debut in Zimbabwe by then.
It was evident where he got his rhythm from. from those shoulders like an oak barrel chest. The run-up is just a nice, easy walk. Like Lasith Malinga, his nation’s most renowned white-ball sensation, the leap is nonexistent. However, as he loads up, his enormous shoulders whirr into motion, creating a terrifying tempo. He doesn’t have a high arm action or stand too tall, yet he strikes the deck hard enough to create a noticeable bounce. All English batters were rushed and harried by his pace and bounce, and he stayed in the 140 kph range most of the day, with the exception of when he tried the slower balls and cutters.
However, he was able to hemorrhage a lot of runs in the past since he frequently failed to balance his pace with discipline and direction. In the one other match of the tournament, he was exposed by Australia, giving up 47 runs in four overs. In his 27 prior appearances, he has given up 6.54 runs per over, leaving coaches unsure of whether to select him or not. To be able to hit decent lengths, I thus put in a lot of spot training every day. Before the World Cup, this was the main worry, he would subsequently add.
Also, he is incredibly prone to injuries. More broadly, this has been the state of affairs for the new generation of fast bowlers in Sri Lanka. While most are not the epitome of discipline and are plagued by ailments, there is no lack of talent. However, on Friday, he and his colleagues, who were mostly from Sri Lanka, combined ferocity and discipline with a fast speed.
The slower yet more bouncy seam movement that Kumara produced off the surface made him more lethal. Jos Buttler was foxed by him with a hint of away movement that produced an inside edge, despite Buttler’s broad but imprudent drive. Then he would use his stock ball, a nip-backer, to blast Liam Livingstone’s pad. His entire movement positions him ideal for the back-bender to the right-handers. With a quick movement of the wrists, the ball is propelled off the surface by a devious skid.
In Cape Town, where he snagged a six-four, Hashim Amla had been eliminated by a more well-known in-ducker. He would subsequently acknowledge that it was this wicket that gave him confidence in his ability to bowl in Test matches. But they would be rare occurrences, interspersed with protracted injury interruptions and his own inconsistent play.
He was a man enraged, a riot of intense feelings. He would drum up unrelenting on-your-face aggression, shout, snarl, scowl, and gnarl. Thus, he went from being an enigma to becoming his country’s best bowler in the course of a match. He saved his best for Ben Stokes, whom he regularly outperformed with the angle and away seamers. Eventually, he swallowed him with a short ball. Once more, Stokes underestimated how quickly the ball would go and was unable to apply enough force to his stroke. Kumara gave the sky a victory kiss as she celebrated and posed for the photographers. He would say, “My favorite wicket was Stokes.”
Not just Kumara, but all of Lanka’s bowlers gave a brilliant performance. The opening ball of the game was bowled by left-armer Dilshan Madhushanka, who was playing in his eleventh ODI. He produced swing into the right-hander and had Jonny Bairstow trapped leg before the wicket, but the replays later revealed there was no wood. The exorbitant stats are insufficient to describe the agony he inflicted upon the England batsmen using the new ball.
Similar to Kumara, Kasun Rajitha has also faced backlash for his lack of focus during his 30-match ODI career. However, he also created pressure, struck oppressive lengths, and bargained for the ball wickets of Chris Woakes and Jonny Bairstow.
The experienced Angelo Mathews was keeping them all together. He calmly performed a retro shift, no longer the icon of his country. The movements are not as sporty as they once were, and the waistline has grown. The dense curls have become thinner. However, he delved deeply into the abundance of knowledge to generate the initial breakthrough. When Mathews hit the opening ball, Sri Lanka’s bowlers had started to fade following a strong start.
With a traditional away nibbler that was only 125 kph, he devoured Dawid Malan, forcing Malan to commit and kissing his edge with the away movement. Subsequently, he executed a crisp run out, hurling a swift pass from point to the wicketkeeper Kusal Mendis, who caught Joe Root just beyond the crease.
From that point on, Maheesh Pathirana, the frugal trickster, and Sri Lanka’s pacemen took a firm hold on the game and made sure they didn’t blow the lead, as they had done on numerous occasions previously. In the competition, they have already yielded 428 and 345. A challenge awaited, on a field that Australia had devastated 367/9. However, Sri Lanka, the new unpredictables, bowled out the world champions for the lowest total on this field with a disciplined yet aggressive display. A man who goes by the name “the Gasman” was at the center of it all.
