Sri Lanka arrived in South Africa dreaming of a place in the World Test Championship final, but now that they have been defeated 2-0, that dream is almost certainly gone. There is particular regret that Sri Lanka were able to play at the two venues that would have suited them best, Durban and Gqeberha, and still failed to seriously push the hosts as they had done in 2019.
Head coach Sanath Jayasuriya analysed the defeat, attributing it largely to the inability of the batsmen to push from higher-scoring starts. This was particularly evident in the first innings at Gqeberha, when each of the first five got to at least 20, but only one got over 50. And Pathum Nissanka, who made a half-century, did not push to triple figures, although he had the chance.
‘The batsmen have to convert their scores into hundreds: 30 and 40 are not enough,’ Jayasuriya said. ‘It’s tough with these wickets, but at least two batsmen have to score hundreds on a tour like this. We didn’t manage that. We only scored two 80s. I think the batsmen by now know the value of away hundreds, having recently played in a place like England as well. We missed this time.
‘Although there was a lot of effort from the senior batsmen, I think if you assess them individually, they will realise it was not enough.’
This was also the first series in his Test career in which Kamindu Mendis failed to score of substance. He made scores of 13, 10, 48 and 35, with his average plummeting from a Bradmanesque 91.27 before the series, to 74 at the end.
‘Kamindu Mendis is a key player,’ Jayasuriya said. ‘In every Test match he has almost been in the running apart from this series. If you saw how he batted in this series, he was still with a lot of confidence. Especially in his last innings, you saw that. You can’t expect a batsman to make 50 or 100 every innings, that’s why you have six or seven batsmen. As a player, he is a quality player. If he has shortcomings, he works with the batting coach to understand them.
‘I know the opponents are quite worried, and South Africa was too. Now, he will have to work hard to counter it. But I love watching a player like him in the team: he scores on every run-a-ball and plays positively. What I told everyone is to play their natural game and play positive cricket’.
On Gqeberha’s defeat per se, he felt that the game was lost in key periods. The first of these was the second morning, in which South Africa had scored 89 runs through their last two partnerships.
‘In that first innings, after getting eight or nine wickets, we gave them about 40 runs more.
Another period was the third morning, when Sri Lanka lost five wickets, having finished the previous day 116 runs short and with seven wickets in hand. ‘We could not afford those wickets. We could have taken a big lead in the first innings and we let the game slip a bit that morning.’
And then on the fourth day, there were a couple of instances where Sri Lanka failed to turn their momentum into a definite lead. They had had South Africa 282 for 8 at lunch but allowed the No. 9, 10 and 11 batsmen to crash out for another 35 runs. Later that day, they had also been 117 for 3 before losing two quick wickets.
‘Those extra 25-30 runs from their tail also hurt us in the second innings. In the second innings when we conceded two extra wickets in the evening session. If we had the chance to go in today just three down, that would have made a big difference to our batting unit. It was in those little spots that it got out of hand.’
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