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Thursday Dec 12, 2024
Friday, 23 November 2018 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
By Madushka Balasuriya
Down an unassailable 2-0 in the series, on the cusp of being handed just their third home series whitewash, and with their main attacking spin threat ruled out over a suspect action, Sri Lanka might have been forgiven for double guessing their spin-heavy strategy.
But with the third and final Test against England set to start today at the Sinhalese Sports Club (SSC), it seems the home side will be sticking to what they know best.
“Everyone should try and stick to their strengths at home and we think our spinners are the advantage for us. We’ve asked for something that favours the spinners and we’ve got one that’s like the Pallekele pitch,” revealed stand-in Captain Suranga Lakmal on the eve of the game.
“When we’ve played in Sri Lanka, our strength has always been our spinners. But unfortunately in the last two games they didn’t get as many wickets. The England batsmen played really well, though I think if we bowled a little better we would have been able to win those games.”
While this may seem like a simplistic analysis of things, it is nevertheless accurate. Though with Rangana Herath now retired and Akila Dananjaya unavailable until his action is cleared, Sri Lanka’s task of bowling “a little better” has gotten significantly more arduous.
Indeed, Sri Lanka are for the first time in a long time looking a little light in the spin department. Dilruwan Perera is their most senior campaigner with 33 Tests under his belt, but after that there is considerable daylight; Malinda Pushpakumara has three Test caps, Dananjaya’s likely replacement Lakshan Sandakan has 10 while there is also the uncapped Nishan Peiris vying for a spot. Lakmal though feels his team have enough to pose a threat.
“We’re definitely missing Rangana Herath and Akila Dananjaya. They are the ones who bowled really well in the last three or four matches, so that’s a big loss. But we’ve got two options [in Peiris and Dananjaya], and I trust we’ll be able to cover that loss with the replacement player.” Lakmal’s confidence is not completely unfounded though; over recent home Test series Sri Lanka have beaten both Australia and South Africa on the back of outstanding performances from their spinners. And even in this series, there have been moments where Sri Lanka have been in strong positions to only let the visitors off the hook.
England were 103/5 in the first innings of the first Test and 176/7 in the first innings of the second. On both occasions they recovered to post scores in and around the 300 mark. While this can be attributed to the visitors’ newfound sense of adventure in their approach to playing spin, Sri Lanka will nonetheless rue several missed chances in the field as well as poor discipline from their spinners when put under pressure by England’s aggressive overtures.
“In Pallekele there was a dropped catch and if we had taken that the match could really have changed. Their last three batsmen in both games were able to contribute to partnerships worth over 100. We’re trying to stop that in this game,” explained Lakmal.
“We can’t be making spinning pitches and letting their tail get runs. We have a plan to stop them. We gave the spinners a lot of overs at the tail in the previous games because the pitch suited them, but as a seam bowler, maybe there will be a change in this match. In the last two matches the final five scored about 250 - so we’ve got to change that.”
To compound matters for the home side, while their opponents’ approach was thriving, their own batsmen were struggling to gain even a semblance of a foothold. Only once in the series have Sri Lanka managed to pass the 300 barrier - England by comparison have done it thrice - and that too owed a great deal to a late-order salvo from Roshen Silva.
Lakmal acknowledged that the batsmen do need to do better and suggested that his team may look to take some pointers from their opponents’ proactive mindset, which he feels has seen them become one of the top players of spin bowling.
“Our batting is in a little lull at the moment. The England batsmen, however, are playing really well, and if you look at the world, the next best players of spin after India are England. Although we didn’t get 20 wickets, I thought our spinners bowled okay. As a captain I am satisfied with their efforts.
“Their batsmen don’t let our spinners bowl in one spot to them. They sweep in both directions - the normal sweep and the reverse. They do that from the first ball of their innings. That’s something we should learn from when we play in Sri Lanka in the future as well.”
