SRI LANKA’S BATTING WAS BRAINLESS... AND FARCICAL
THAt performance was not good enough for a proud cricket nation like sri Lanka. there are lots of words to describe their batting yesterday: brainless, crazy, farcical. take your pick.
i had a lot of sympathy for them and the way they played in south Africa recently, because the amount of injuries they suffered contributed to their defeats.
there was an equal amount of sympathy when they lost their influential captain Dimuth Karunaratne before yesterday’s toss — due to a recurrence of pain in his hand after damage incurred in Johannesburg — because he is someone who can bat long.
But when you win the toss and implode for 135 on a good pitch — make no mistake there was nothing wrong with the surface — there is no sympathy.
they looked like a side that hadn’t prepared properly, one that had no idea how to bat in the longer format, and their innings was littered with so many soft dismissals it was untrue.
remember, some of these dismissals were from experienced batsmen such as Lahiru thirimanne, Kusal Perera, Dinesh Chandimal and Angelo Mathews. these are not lads who have played just a handful of games.
sri Lanka’s scorecard was a hall of shame. Perera played a reverse sweep to Dom Bess’s second delivery in the test series, then Mathews and Chandimal fell in quick succession.
All the dont’s of batting, they did. When Chandimal picked out the fielder at cover, it was like Mathews’ wicket two balls earlier had never happened.
to make matters worse, he’d survived a chance to England debutant Dan Lawrence in the same region at the end of the morning session, so to chip it up in the air again just after lunch was criminal.
At this level, you need to read the match situation. When you have lost a wicket, take your time, face some overs before you look to get off and running again.
Not many sri Lanka batsmen could walk off and say, ‘that was a pretty good delivery that got me’. None of them gave themselves a chance.
Unfortunately, it’s representative of a general malaise in test match batting. People are no longer willing to bat for lengthy periods of time, occupy the crease and churn out a score.
the partnership at the end of the day between Joe root and Jonny Bairstow showed the sri Lankans the way.
OK, we are talking about two seasoned cricketers. But they provided a lesson in the tempo required in a five-day game.
Five days is a bloody long time. i don’t know why everyone is in such a hurry. You don’t have to go into your shell, but neither should you be frenetic. Far too many modern batsmen, brought up on a white- ball- heavy diet, are taking riskier options when, if you just knock it around and run well between the wickets, a score will come.
i could understand the performance if it was spinning square and bouncing on day one. then you need a policy of, ‘ i’m gonna get some before you get me’. But it wasn’t like that at all. Only one or two deliveries turned and you have a couple of inexperienced spinners in the opposition in Bess and Jack Leach. Why bring them into the game? Why gift them wickets? Why boost their confidence? Why not sit on them and make them work hard for their successes.
People mention intent when they discuss a player such as india’s Cheteshwar Pujara, but he makes opponents pay by putting a high price on his wicket. Look at Kane Williamson, the best test batter in the world; he just grinds you down. Not everyone has to be a Williamson, but you do have to find a tempo for test cricket.
it’s what players of sri Lanka’s past, such as sidath Wettimuny to Arjuna ranatunga, Aravinda de silva, Marvan Atapattu and Hashan tillakaratne, all did.
Even the great Mahela Jayawardene and Kumar sangakkara used to knock it around, take their time over a score.
All those players named were talented but they were also very bright. You only have to listen to Mahela and Kumar to realise just how bright. Unfortunately, yesterday was not bright at all.
Yes, you have to give players some leeway right now, as far as living in bubbles goes, and the fact they went from their own Lanka Premier League twenty20 competition, then headed to south Africa without any first- class cricket — but they didn’t look in the frame of mind for test cricket.
i felt we were spoilt last summer when England, West indies, ireland, Pakistan and Australia were able to put on such highquality cricket, despite not playing for a long time. Here, we saw the other side of such a lack of match practice in the build-up. sri Lanka were very poor.
You hear the phrase, ‘Well, that’s the way i play’, far too often these days. Quite simply, it’s not good enough, because in tests you have to play the situation that the game dictates.
in five days, the situation changes, fortunes can go up and down, so you have to think about the way you play — and play differently.