From The Pavilion

rkpny wrote: ↑

Tue Feb 23, 2021 6:48 am

With that, I am going to take a break from NATs. Hopefully someone (paulc or levosace?) will step in and take us to the next level.

I'd like to thank all the Managers who have trained the NAT players and my assistants - TopManager, Weldone and Lesvosace for all their help.

Thank you for having me this season. It's been fun. It has been a bad run of luck but that is how it goes sometimes.

I'm happy to support Paul in the election. I appreciate the support from within the communtiy to run. It's always an honour but as we have some other great candidates I'm happy to support or assist for now. Paul's a great manager. I don't really know hadders or the other guy (sorry for forgetting your name) that well. I'm sure they are good managers as well.

Whoever wins will have my support in whatever way they need it.

The other guy at least runs a team playing in SL so I'm fine with that.

Thanks for your votes and support guys.
Really hard luck for weldone who was part of the very competent previous team and for a few minutes seemed to have won this election.
Hard on hadders and the other candidate whose candidatures were deleted due to lack of a forum post.

For assistants my priorities are always (i) continuity (ii) interest shown eg. as election candidates (iii) fresh blood.
Lesvosace has agreed to continue lending his extensive experience and distinctive style.
Weldone has decided that his future is with India and that Sri Lanka was a stepping stone to help him to that ultimate goal.

So that means we have two spots opne - anyone interested?

The 2 world cup winning sri lanka managers working together. What can possibly go wrong?

Lesvosace wrote: ↑

Mon Mar 01, 2021 8:30 pm

The 2 world cup winning sri lanka managers working together. What can possibly go wrong?

well when you put it like that...at the very least we're going to need an umpire.

I remember SL management dream teams in the past with Qadir, sector, walkertexasranger, powerbug and the likes.
I'm not sure how successful they ever were.

paulc wrote: ↑

Mon Mar 01, 2021 9:30 pm

Lesvosace wrote: ↑

Mon Mar 01, 2021 8:30 pm

The 2 world cup winning sri lanka managers working together. What can possibly go wrong?

well when you put it like that...at the very least we're going to need an umpire.

I remember SL management dream teams in the past with Qadir, sector, walkertexasranger, powerbug and the likes.
I'm not sure how successful they ever were.

You're the umpire that's why you get the big bucks. I'm just a low paid assistant.

First friendly --> first win.
I accidentally put a poor batsman in at no.3 but got away with it!

Rescued by wristspinner Oshini with a 5 for

Canada Sri Lanka
Batting - Top Order 14,325 12,774
Batting - Middle Order 13,052 13,800
Batting - Tail 6,041 5,658
Bowling - Seam 13,881 (40) 14,398 (30)
Bowling - Spin 14,731 (10) 14,862 (20)
Fielding/Keeping 17,125 18,031
Overall 249,263 250,282

paulc wrote: ↑

Wed Mar 03, 2021 9:06 pm

First friendly --> first win.
I accidentally put a poor batsman in at no.3 but got away with it!

Rescued by wristspinner Oshini with a 5 for

Canada Sri Lanka
Batting - Top Order 14,325 12,774
Batting - Middle Order 13,052 13,800
Batting - Tail 6,041 5,658
Bowling - Seam 13,881 (40) 14,398 (30)
Bowling - Spin 14,731 (10) 14,862 (20)
Fielding/Keeping 17,125 18,031
Overall 249,263 250,282

High hopes for that young fellow

Lesvosace wrote: ↑

Wed Mar 03, 2021 9:46 pm

paulc wrote: ↑

Wed Mar 03, 2021 9:06 pm

First friendly --> first win.
I accidentally put a poor batsman in at no.3 but got away with it!

Rescued by wristspinner Oshini with a 5 for

Canada Sri Lanka
Batting - Top Order 14,325 12,774
Batting - Middle Order 13,052 13,800
Batting - Tail 6,041 5,658
Bowling - Seam 13,881 (40) 14,398 (30)
Bowling - Spin 14,731 (10) 14,862 (20)
Fielding/Keeping 17,125 18,031
Overall 249,263 250,282

High hopes for that young fellow

Yeah. He is pretty much ready for prime time

yeah Oshini is something. Had to add him to the squad at 22 I think!

bura wrote: ↑

Fri Mar 05, 2021 5:00 am

yeah Oshini is something. Had to add him to the squad at 22 I think!

Just to make sure he doesn't vanish

These are so rare that had to keep constant eye on him.

A win in game 2 as well with uneven/windy proving perfect for our bowling mix.
There's a nice right-up on the Bangladesh forum for those who are interested in reading more.

Bangladesh 141-6/20 overs - Sri Lanka 142-5/18.2 overs
Sri Lanka by 5 wickets

1 more game before selection closes for the first tour.

Friendly game 3 and another win against Bangladesh with another great write up on the Bangladesh forum. Squad for the first tour is picked and pitches are known:

Hard, flat, flat, flat, dry. Not great since dry was the most likely pitch and spin bowling is our strength but we’ll give it a whirl.

after 3 wins on the bounce we lost our 4th friendly to Ireland on St. Patrick's day which may not have been the best of scheduling.
Nonetheless Lesvo's allrounder Bowen had a stormer taking 4 wickets and getting us close to defending the measly total of 116, the bats suffering in difficult (uneven/humid) conditions.

With hard and windy weather in our first tour game next week, coincidentally against Ireland, followed by 3 flat pitches, its likely to be very different on tour.