| An honourable
draw
After two days of cricket at Lord’s Sri Lanka
seemed to be heading towards their second successive defeat, having
lost the last one at home in Kandy to Pakistan. By lunch time the
next morning the writing seemed to be on the wall.
Sent to follow on they lost Jehan Mubarak quickly. His second failure
in the game which added to the misery. Amidst all this there was
another storm brewing in Colombo. A change in the selection Committee
and its Chairman had been brought about. Ashantha De Mel, the man
in charge created an immediate uproar by getting Sanath Jayasuriya
to step out of retirement and obviously causing a stir in London.The
merit of decisions are left to be seen. The decision of Jayasuriya’s
comeback just a couple of months after waving goodbye and de Mel’s
decision to stick him straight into the cauldron of test cricket.
If anything, the timing was not right. Often incidents such as that
doesn’t help a team particularly when they are in a far away
land and battling with their backs against the wall.
On this occasion it seemed to be the required catalyst. At least
it seemed so. Or maybe a combination of that and the butter fingers
of the Englishmen.!
Sri Lanka’s recovery began through left hand Upul Tharanga
and Kumar Sangakkara. When faced with such a huge deficit and nearly
eight sessions of cricket remaining it is hard to plan much. Simply
play each ball on its merit and go on from one over to the next,
until the end of the session is reached.
Rain and bad light was also a help. Particularly on days four and
five play kept getting disrupted and with it the hope of saving
the game kept getting better. Nevertheless, it was the 109 run second
wicket partnership between Tharanga and Sangakkara that set the
wheels in motion. Tharanga must have enjoyed scoring a half century
on his first appearance at the Home of Cricket! What a proud moment
for him. Yet again he has indicated that he is capable of joining
Sri Lanka’s next brigade of quality batsmen together with
Jayawardena and Sangakkara.
Two more good partnerships further helped the cause. The third wicket
put on 59 runs and the fourth added 113 runs. Skipper Mahela Jayawardane
had a hand in both. By scoring a second test century at Lord’s
he has joined a select band of batsmen and now seems to be making
more out of every batting opportunity.
One of Sri Lanka’s batting problems of recent times has been
many wickets falling in a heap after a partnership and that triggering
a collapse. It happened in the first innings with Samaraweera, Dilshan
and Kapugedara getting out for ‘ducks’ in quick succession.
That was averted this time. Mahroof and Dilshan contributed half
centuries at the lower middle and then Kulasekera and Vaas held
the lower order together. Very encouraging from a batting point
of view.
The bowlers took a caning. They toiled for 143 overs to pick up
just six wickets. Muralitharan bowled 48 of those overs for three
wickets and Vaas picked up two. There is Lasith Malinga, Nuwan Zoysa
and Malinga Bandara in the squad to try out. They have to think
carefully whether the extra batsman is necessary. Maybe adding strength
to the bowling could be the better option.
England too would do their homework before the next test match.
They have had a taste of their opponents and must now know they
cannot be rolled over easily. England will throw in all at the second
test match. For now, Sri Lanka can be satisfied with achieving an
honorable draw.
|
