HASH ATTACK
Cometh the hour, cometh Amla
THE last time SA won a test in Sri Lanka, the island’s civil war was nine of its 26 lingering years away from over, the tsunami that would kill more than 200 000 people in 15 countries was more than three years away, and South Africans had elected a president who refused to believe HIV causes Aids.
The world was a different place on August 2 2000 when SA sneaked to victory by seven runs in Kandy. Almost 14 years on, Sri Lanka is at peace but in the grip of a bullying government, the graves of tsunami victims flash past passengers on the train from Colombo to Galle, and President Jacob Zuma has his own weird ideas on how to avoid HIV infection.
SA have drawn two and lost three tests in Sri Lanka since that bright day in the bosom of the Knuckles mountain range, when Nicky Boje burgled the wicket of Muttiah Muralitharan — caught behind, allegedly — to end a compelling match.
On Wednesday the rivalry will continue in Galle in the first of two tests. Sri Lanka no longer have Muralitharan, but they have something they did not have in 2000.
“Belief,” said Lance Klusener, whose undefeated 118 was SA’s major innings in Kandy in 2000. “They believe they can win, and not just at home. They compete.”
SA discovered that when Sri Lanka beat them at Kingsmead in December 2011, and victory at Headingley last month earned the Sri Lankans their first series win in England.
The Proteas are also without some things old and with something new. There is, South Africans know only too well, no Graeme Smith to give the innings a bullet-proof start, no Jacques Kallis to shut the opposition out of the game, and no Mark Boucher to ram SA’s superiority down the opposition’s throats.
There is, however, a spanking new skipper. Seldom has a SA test captain taken so much uncertainty onto the field with him as Hashim Amla will when he steps across the boundary on Wednesday.
Amla is a strong man, and he will need to be in this series. For one
But in the last couple of years either the spinners have got better or we aren’t improving any more
thing, as Klusener said: “Sri Lanka used to only have Muralitharan, now they have a handful of worldclass bowlers. You could always make a plan to try to deal with Murali from one end and score runs from the other. But you can’t do that any more.”
Now Sri Lanka win with the immaculate left-arm stodge of Rangana Herath, their podgy, mustachioed banker-cum-spinner who never seems to turn a ball but can’t help getting people out. How SA handle Herath and the other slow bowlers would be key to the outcome of the series.
“We’ve stagnated in how we are playing spin, or in how we want to play spin,” Klusener said. “We improved for a while, but in the last couple of years either the spinners have got better or we aren’t improving anymore.”
Conversely, SA’s fast bowlers should expect to have to sweat blood for their wickets.
“The Sri Lankans will try to neutralise Dale Steyn and Morne Morkel,” said Daryll Cullinan, another veteran of the 2000 series. “They will not risk losing at home. Mahela Jayawardene and Kumar Sangakkara are two of the better batsmen in the game, and they don’t want to play on a green top — they want another 100. Each. So, for SA to win, the pitches need to be what Sri Lanka don’t want.”
Sri Lanka have won 12, drawn six and lost four in the 22 tests played in Galle, where SA went down in the first test of the 2000 tour and drew in August 2004.
“Galle is like a road,” Cullinan said. “It’s simply not a good test venue. Murali was the only one who could turn the ball on it and take wickets there.”
The Sinhalese Sports Club (SSC) in Colombo, where the second test starts on July 24, has “more pace and bounce, but it can still get very flat”.
Visiting teams have won six of the 36 tests played at SSC, among them SA in 1993. SA drew the third test there in 2000, but lost in 2004 and 2006.
Amla’s name will, Inshallah, never be connected to war, tsunamis or wrong-headed politicians. But, if he finds a way to win in Sri Lanka, he will earn his place in any set of headlines.
If Hashim Amla finds a way to win in Sri Lanka, he will earn his place in any set of headlines