Sri Lanka captain Dimuth Karunaratne praised the efforts of his young players after the team’s stunning series win over South Africa. The Sri Lankan side was given little chance to compete in South Africa leave alone winning. But they created history in Port Elizabeth, sealing the second Test by eight wickets to wrap up the two match series 2-0 having won the opening game in Durban by one wicket.
Top order batsman Oshada Fernando and left-arm spinner Lasith Embuldeniya made their debuts in the opening game and Karunaratne praised their efforts.
“We backed Oshada. I thought more than Sandakan, we would be able to get something more out of Embuldeniya, and he did well, whether batting or bowling. He didn’t show any fear. He played as if he’d already played 50 or 60 Tests. That’s what we wanted – for a youngster to come and perform well. That makes things really easy for the team. It’s a young team. We don’t have many big players. It’s really easy with a young, inexperienced team, because when you tell them to do something they do it quickly. If we have a plan, they’ll do that without a fuss.”
The main trait that enabled Sri Lanka to an emphatic series win is the team’s ability to compete when the odds were against them and both in Durban and Port Elizabeth their fighting spirit stood out.
“There was a lot of pressure when we came here. Dickwella and I talked and decided that we needed to change things in the side. Everyone was in fear and in their shells. We wanted to change that. Whatever happens in terms of winning or losing, we wanted to change that frame of mind, and get the team out of that mindset. So Dikka and I spoke to the management and said: give them their freedom. Let them do what they want,” explained Dimuth.
“The Head Coach and the Manager backed us. When we went out to eat, there was no rule. Even if there was a rule, they let us manage it. We’ve been out of Sri Lanka almost three months. The family is in Sri Lanka, and we don’t have friends here. If you’re just going to sit around in the room, you tend to over think things. Before the match, we tried to do things differently. Instead of just going to training and then going and staying in our rooms, we went out as a team for meals.”
“We went out to parks and water parks and had fun. We needed that belief in each other, and we needed to gel. We did that side of things well. That’s what needs to build up. I think it will get better, because when you win like this, that faith in each other improves as well.”
Sri Lanka had squandered an opportunity having bowled out South Africa for 222 in the first innings as they conceded a lead of 68 runs. But an outstanding spell of seam bowling by Suranga Lakmal helped them bowl out the hosts to 128 in the second essay and the target of 197 was knocked off with relative ease with Kusal Mendis and Oshada Fernando smashing unbeaten half-centuries.
“There were times when I thought maybe the team was on the verge of letting the game slip, but I shouted out and tried to keep everyone together. I wanted everyone to hang in the game. A lot of the time what we wanted to do was reduce the number of runs and dry them up. We bowled good areas, closed off their big shots. As a batsman I know how the opposition batsmen think, so I tried to apply that. I know that when runs dry up, batsmen can commit mistakes.”
Despite the absence of Embuldeniya in the second innings with a dislocated thumb, the seamers did an outstanding job and part-time spinner Dhananjaya de Silva chipped in with three wickets to bowl South Africa out cheaply.
“The bowlers gave me the kind of bowling that I asked for. We didn’t have any big plans in our heads. We went out with full freedom. We let the bowlers go to their plans – we didn’t say do this, or do that. It’s a thinking game. It’s not something that you should monitor too much. If people think on their own and play, that’s how we get better. The freedom that we gave, the players used that really well. When they wanted to change the field, they did that,” Dimuth went on to add.
He elaborated that the same theory applied for the batting group. “The batsmen were the same. When they wanted to play a shot, they did that. There was no fear that we would say something if they got out, because we’d fully backed the team. The coaching staff and I had backed them. I’m really happy that we backed them, because I was able to get the maximum from them.”
Dimuth also spoke about the mental strains after successive series defeats. “It started when we lost the series against England at home. We thought we’d be able to win that one without any trouble. But after we lost, and then we started losing overseas, that gave us nowhere to go. There was no hope. It was as if we couldn’t win anywhere in the world. That was the biggest burden. So players had mentally gone out of the game, when we lose and lose and lose. That love of the game had disappeared. And if you’re not enjoying things, then it’s difficult. In the Australia series, the wickets that we played on, and the bowling that we faced – a few of us got injured and got hit – we were in a lot of fear. It’s with all that fear that we came here.”
“There was one positive, which was that in the past Sri Lanka had done well in Durban. But we didn’t have any big names. But then we thought because it turns here, we can do something. And because these two wickets are slower, we would be able to perform as batsmen. But we had wanted to compete every session, every hour.”
