ICC World Cup 2019: Sri Lanka – Statistical Review

Sri Lanka had their moments in the World Cup 2019 but hardly threatened to scamper into the final four and make it to the semi-final. Their best moment of the tournament came when they took down the World No.1 and the hosts England in a low scoring game. They sneaked through to a win against Afghanistan out of nowhere and held nerves against a Windies fightback in the later part. They did come up with a chance against Australia but a middle-order collapse led to them falling short.

All the stats and numbers from Sri Lanka’s underwhelming campaign in the World Cup 2019:

2 – Dimuth Karunaratne against New Zealand in the first game became only the 2nd player to carry the bat in a World Cup game. Ridley Jacobs carried the bat for the Windies during the 1999 CWC game against Australia in Manchester.

Karunaratne is also only the 2nd captain to carry the bat in an ODI match. Upul Tharanga, the other Sri Lankan to carry the bat in an ODI, was leading the team when he remained unbeaten against Pakistan during the series hosted by UAE in 2017.

In the same game, Dimuth became the first player to carry the bat on three different instances in the List A cricket. All three instances by Karunaratne have come while captaining the team. In the game against South Africa later on, Karunaratne became the first captain to be dismissed on the first ball of a World Cup game.

21y 87d – Avishka Fernando became the 3rd youngest centurion in the history of World Cup when he scored his maiden ODI ton against the Windies at the age of 21 years and 87 days. Only Paul Stirling (20y 196d in 2011) and Ricky Ponting (21y 76d in 1996) were younger than Avishka at the time of their maiden CWC hundred.

56 – Lasith Malinga finished off his World Cup career with 56 wickets; the 3rd most by any player. Only Glenn McGrath (71) and M Muralitharan (68) have taken more World Cup wickets than Malinga. He also became the quickest to the milestone as he needed only 26 matches. Glenn McGrath and Muttiah Muralitharan needed 30 games apiece while Wasim Akram bagged his 50th CWC wicket in the 34th match.

115 – Kusal Perera and Dimuth Karunaratne’s 115-run partnership against Australia was their first century opening stand coming in a World Cup defeat. It is only the 4th century stand for the first wicket that came in an unsuccessful CWC chase.

Angelo Mathews and Lahiru Thirimanne added 124 runs against India in the last game. It is the other century stand by the Lankans in this tournament and unfortunately, it also ended up on the losing side.

232/9 – The total of 232/9 Sri Lanka defended against England is the 2nd lowest total which the Lankans have successfully defended in a World Cup game (Complete 50-over game). They won by six runs while defending 228/6 against the Windies during the 2003 edition game in Cape Town.

338/6 – Sri Lanka’s total of 338/6 against Windies was their highest against a Test-playing nation and their 3rd highest total against any side in the World Cup. They made 398/5 against Kenya in 1996 and 363/9 against Scotland in 2015. Their previous highest CWC total against the full-member nation was 332/1 against Bangladesh in the 2015 edition.