Sri Lanka: We are in the World Cup year and the excitement has taken its toll on the fans. The ICC Cricket World Cup 2023 will take place in India later this year. The ICC announced an ODI Super League after the last World Cup and those teams which will secure the top 8 positions in the points table will qualify directly for the World Cup. The remaining five teams will play and qualifier round along with associate nations to book their berth for the marquee tournament.
Seven out of the 8 teams have qualified for the Cricket World Cup 2023. India, Australia, Afghanistan, New Zealand, Pakistan, England and Bangladesh have found themselves in charts of direct qualification. With one vacant place left, there’d be tough competition between South Africa, West Indies, Ireland, Zimbabwe and the Netherlands.
Sri Lanka suffers disappointing 2-0 ODI series loss against New Zealand
After the enthralling Test series, New Zealand and Sri Lanka locked horns in the three-match ODI series. The tour turned out to be disappointing and heartbreaking for the Island nation as they suffered a whitewash in both the series as they were eliminated from the race of two major ICC events in the World Test Championship Final and Cricket World Cup 2023.
The Sri Lanka batting line was up was left in shatters during the ODI series as they displayed a shocking display. In the first game, they bundled out New Zealand for just 274 runs and it was expected that they would win the game. But in a shocking turn of events, they were rattled for just 76 runs and lost the game by massive 198 tuns.
The second game was washed out due to the rain and it was expected that Sri Lanka would put in a better performance. But they yet again falter with the bat, which saw them suffering another defeat. Opting to bat first, they lost the first 5 wickets for just 70 runs. Pathum Nissanka held the fort for his team with the gritty half-century but he was run out for 57 runs.
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Skipper Dasun Shanaka and Chamika Karunaratne made handed contributions of 31 and 24 respectively as Sri Lanka posted just 157 runs on the board. Matt Henry, Henry Shipley and Daryl Mitchell picked three wickets each as they made a mockery of the visitors’ batting lineup.
With the ball, Sri Lanka kept things tight and took 4 quick wickets. But Will Young played a staggering knock of unbeaten 86 runs and was well supported by Henry Nicholls, who scored unbeaten 44 runs as New Zealand completed a comfortable 6-wicket win to hand Sri Lanka a 2-0 series loss.
Sri Lanka fails to qualify directly for the Cricket World Cup 2023; will play qualifiers now
The ODI series loss against New Zealand has eliminated Sri Lanka from the race for direct qualifications into the Cricket World Cup 2023. They have now slipped to the No.9 spot and will play in the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup Qualifier in June along with 5 Associate teams from which 2 teams will progress to the World Cup. Notably, Sri Lanka will be playing an ODI WC Qualifier for the first time in 44 years.
In the ICC’s ODI Super League points table, Sri Lanka has won just 7 games from the 24 matches and has just 81 points with 14 losses. The ODI qualifiers will take place in June and July 2023 in Zimbabwe.
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