March 19th 2017 will go down in history as the darkest day in Sri Lankan cricket as world’s youngest cricketing nation Bangladesh stunned the hosts to record their maiden Test win over Sri Lanka at P. Sara Oval yesterday. Chasing a target of 191, the tourists lost six wickets to complete a memorable victory in what was their 100th Test match. The series was leveled 1-1 as Sri Lanka had won the first Test in Galle comprehensively.
The Sri Lankans were cocky and their attitude shocking. Day four began with Sri Lanka still 75 runs behind. The batsmen below number six were told to relax and arrive at the ground at 9:30am, 30 minutes prior to start of play. It was as if the Sri Lankans were 300 runs ahead.
Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) tinkered with the P. Sara Oval wicket for this game. They called for a slow wicket hoping for a high scoring draw to complete a series win, but were outsmarted by a man who had plied his trade all his life at Tamil Union. Chandika Hathurusinghe is his name.
The Bangladeshi coach had spent several seasons at P. Sara Oval playing First Class cricket under the watchful eyes of cricket’s finest gentleman S. Skandakumar and he knew the wicket here like the back of his palm.
While Bangladesh’s win is hard to grasp, it brought the Sri Lankans down a peg or two. The blame game will start soon. But there will be no casualties. After all we are Sri Lankans.
The hosts collapsed in dramatic style on day four after lunch losing five wickets for 47 runs after a brilliant spell of left-arm reverse swing bowling from Mustafizur Rahman. Sri Lanka never recovered despite the best efforts of Suranga Lakmal and Dilruwan Perera.
Sri Lanka’s lead was 139 at stumps on day four. The overnight pair extended it to 189 as they were involved in a record 80 run stand for the ninth wicket. Perera went onto complete a half-century and Lakmal posted his career best score. But Sri Lanka needed much more. The stand ended when Perera was run out attempting a single on a miss field. That reminded an adage from old cricket coaching manuals, ‘Never run on a miss-field, unless there’s a run and half of it.’
Captain Rangana Herath took two wickets in two balls to reduce Bangladesh to 22 for two. But the third wicket stand of 109 runs between Tamim Iqbal and Sabbir Rahman sealed the fate of Sri Lanka. Tamim was outstanding as he smashed 82 off 124 deliveries with seven fours and one six. Off-spinner Perera kept operating over the wicket for the left-handed Tamim. The moment he came round the wicket, Sri Lanka got the breakthrough. The hosts were short of fresh ideas.
Fielding has been an area that the Sri Lankans had been long neglecting. The time the team dedicates to play football at training is far greater than the time they spend fine tune fielding skills. Catching made the difference in this game. Upul Tharanga’s drop of Shakib Al Hasan proved to be costly. He was put down on 11 and went onto posts 116.
Perhaps the downward trend in cricket is nothing surprising. We have been asking for it for some time. The highly competitive provincial tournament has been put to rest. Instead we continue to dwell with the bloated club tournament diluting the standards.
The 14 teams that we had playing First Class cricket was way too many.
This season, Hon Thilanga Sumathipala in his wisdom gave away First Class status to more teams. Currently we have 24 First Class teams. That’s more than the First Class teams they have in Australia and England put together.
Increasing First Class status was very much the need of the hour. Now Hon. Sumathipala can dole out more money for more clubs. That ensures that his vote base at the next AGM is secure.
Source: The Island