Hurting to see this surrender: Tillakaratne
PALLEKELE After their fighting show in the second innings of the second Test at the Sinhalese Sports Club ground, Sri Lankan supporters would have been hopeful of a better display by their batters in the third Test. It proved to be a false dawn, however. The home team crashed to a new low in the first innings of the final Test when they were bundled out for 135 in less than three hours, their essay lasting just 37.4 overs.
Lack of application was the bane, and when compared to someone like Hashan Tillakaratne, their batting coach, it becomes more glaring. The former left-handed batsman had once batted for nearly nine hours in an innings against West Indies in the 2001 Test at the SSC ground.
Admitting it was hurting to watch his batsmen fall so cheaply, Tillakaratne was at a loss for words to explain the abject surrender.
“It’s a disappointing day, we batted so poorly today. There are so many things that you can say when the team is not doing too well… this is the time we must back these guys and give them confidence,” said Tillakaratne.
HIGH-RISK SHOTS Throughout, the Sri Lankan batsmen have focused their strategy on the high-risk crossbatted shots against Indian spinners, and except for the second essay at SSC it has spelt doom. Asked about it, Tillakaratne said, “When you play Test cricket these shots are highly uncalled for, they looked very immature.”
Asked specifically about Niroshan Dickwella’s dismissal, stumped off Kuldeep Yadav, the batting coach said, “We did practice these shots especially to counter R Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja but that shot was highly uncalled for, it was not on.
“They are playing against the No 1 side in the world, I am not seeking any excuses, these boys are well experienced but they do a lot of mistakes while batting, they are a little down in confidence and I am sure they will put up a good fight tomorrow.”