Sri Lanka U20 National Discussions

[paulc]

looks like we didn't qualify for the world cup - any idea what happened, concentrating on the next seasons?

[Angolvagyok]

looks like we didn't qualify for the world cup - any idea what happened, concentrating on the next seasons?

Hey Paul.

From a purely match point of view we were struggling being behind on MR most games we played in the first few tours. Had some super close results and if a few of those had gone our way I think we would have consolidated in D2 and made the WC, but it wasn't to be.

It's been a bit of a learning curve for me with the tactics, but I feel I've started to get the hang of them in the last few tours, when we finally managed to get some success in OD D3, promoting to D2. T20 different story, 2 wins only, and it's a division we're desperate to get promoted in.

I've put a post up in the election forum, as I'm going for the job, and if you want more in-depth answers feel free to ask over there, I'll be more than happy to answer.

[paulc]

adequately answered in the election forums also - thank you.
Let's get behind Tim in the election and next seasons.

[Lesvosace]

I hope you can get things moving in the right direction

[Chezza]

I hope you can get things moving in the right direction

Not much is going to change unless we start seeing a sharp rise in youth recruitments in strong academies.

We have one of the weakest talent pools at U19 level. Angolvalok has been a big contributor to players, just as yourself. But across all ages our best bowlers are often mediums who aren't even as good as the other teams fasties.

We went something like 20 consecutive games getting outrated in Div 2. We've actually done quite well considering the lack of talent within the sri Lankan setup.

[Chezza]

Also to add to this I've had combined 7-8 seasons now of 2 teams with deluxe academies and fair to say I've pulled maybe 1 player who will be Nat worthy. So alot of us with strong academies have had to overpay for good Sri Lankans which hasn't been ideal

[Angolvagyok]

Thanks for the votes all (if anybody voted ). Back in SK now and will do a bit of a write up of where we are this weekend.

[Angolvagyok]

Hey all. Don't want to give too much away before the tour selection is finalised so will be updating once the squad is locked in. Some very useful pops this week, so thanks again to all of you doing an amazing job training SL youngsters.

[Lesvosace]

good luck with the first tour

[Angolvagyok]

Hi everybody.

Apologies for the slight delay in getting this accouncement up, been a very tough last week. I'll put this out now and share my thoughts on the tour, then write again tomorrow evening regarding how the future is looking for the Sri Lankan Under-20s. Should also add their have been some epic pulls the last few weeks, whoever is in charge in 3 seasons will have a good time.

Squad to tour

BATS
Ariyaratna Amerasinghe - Ella XI
Risad Anurasiri - Albino Lion Cubs
Sanjeev Ferdinands - Rittenhouse
Risad Ganegama - Figgiuputuna
Gamini Samsudeen - The Flaming Balls of Fury
Sujeewa Wijetunge - WY Wildboars

WKs
Nimal Lakmali - SBClub
Vijitha Vonhagt - Ella XI

ARs
Priya Moberly - SBClub
Muthu Varuna - bluekipper8878

Bowlers
Aravinda Aboobucker - LFS - Ireland Cricket Academy
Mangala Hamer - RM - 3301
Piyankara Ingram - RF - SBClub
Lalith Masmulla - LFS - The Bengals
Chamindra Mirzaa - RFS - Dreamers Nepal
Chandrasiri Pushpakumara - LM - Figgiuputuna
Ajith Ranasinghe - LFM - Rittenhouse
Tiran Shanmuganathan - RWS - Ella XI

Pitches are out and we have Sticky, Green, Sticky, Sticky, Slow

So as of right now I'm not really sure what to think. We are a bat light, but both WKs and ARs are at the same level as the last bat to tour would have been. I guess I will be rotating the ARs and WKs pretty heavily. While that's a concern, I can't help thinking the pitches and the order they come in is really going to help keep the bowlers fresh. We've probably got one Medium too many, but our bid had Slow and Green as the first and second choices, and we've ended playing more thatn half the tour on the third choice. Such is life, I guess.

As I say, I'm not really sure how I feel about the selection after the pitches were announced, I don't think I'll be sure until we're going into the third match and I can see how the rotation is going.

Please feel free to share any thoughts, concerns or suggesgtions, I'll be delighted to read them.

Thank you all very much for developing these players, there's a tiday team in there, and I hope I can get it right when it comes to tactics.

[Angolvagyok]

Good win today against the USA to kick off the first tour.

Winning the toss on Sticky/Windy and bowling first we got them to 32-3 after 10, and with wickets falling at regular intervals after that we managed to restrict them to 174-10. Stars of the show were Moberly with 9.3-1-44-4 and Shanmuganathan with 10-4-15-1.

Chase started off well with Ganegama 62(121) and Ferdinands 37(75) reaching 66 before we lost our first wicket, but as is to be expected in these conditions, we lost a few cheaply. I was getting a little worried at 138-6, but those men Moberly and Shan turned up again to see us over the line with Moberly making 33(32) and Shan 12(16).

On to Bermuda tomorrow on Green/Windy and an opportunity to use all the Meds I brought in the expectation of having a few slow and green wickets.

[Angolvagyok]

Good evening all, happy to report another win for the Sri Lanka U20s today against Bermuda.

Put in by Bermuda after losing the toss, we got off to another decent start, Ferdinands 37(58) and Wijetunge 72(86) took us to 103-1 and we just accelerated from there really, all the following bats besides Push having a strike rate over 100, Varuna chipping in with what would turn out to be a very important 28(16). After getting to 295 I was very confident of victory.

Bermuda came in and when they reached 180-2 off 33 overs I was getting a bit concerned. We managed to keep the RRR high, but 8 drops never help. Varuna managed to get the big wicket of centurion Alves in the 45th, leading to them needing 15th off the last, and Wijetunge made up for his earlier drop by taking two runouts as we ended up winning by 5.

The high scores have messed up the fatigue of the bats a bit, and it's become clear that I should have taken one more. Having said that, we're 2-0 and have a chance to rest the most important guys to have them fit and firing in the last two games.

We move on to play West Indies tomorrow on Sticky/Overcast, game starting at 05.30 FTP time.

[Angolvagyok]

Short update tonght as I struggle to write much about losses that wind me up.

Putting WI in to bat, we were doing well with them 121-8, then their 9th and 10th wickets share a 44 run stand, with them eventually reaching 165 all out.

A hat-trick in the middle of our innings reduced us to 46-5 and although Moberly and Masmulla fought back a bit we were all out for 142.

Onto NZ tomorrow, again on Sticky/Overcast.

[paulc]

That hattrick killed you, but its a freak event. Overall a very positive start!