ThePapare.com’s readers through our Facebook poll have voted the national cricket team’s stunning win in Durban last year as the nation’s greatest win in Test cricket. This Test match is further proof for the glorious uncertainties of the great game.
South Africa failed to deliver the last nail on the coffin and Kusal Janith Perera played the innings of his life. Sunil Gavaskar had an interesting take. “If this had been played by an Australian or an Englishman, it would have been hailed as the greatest innings of all time. But Perera is only a Sri Lankan,” the former Indian skipper, who minces no words, said in a recent tv show.
Behind the bowler’s arm – Rex Clementine
Rex Clementine has played a long innings for Sri Lanka cricket as a top journalist covering over 100 Test matches
It is always a good feeling to win in South Africa because the cricket is tough and hard. You get four fast bowlers who average a speed at 140kmph, bowling at your throat all the time. As former captain Hashan Tillakaratne, the first Sri Lankan to score a hundred in South Africa, told our Legends segment, the Proteas from the slip cordon constantly remind you that the only drive you get in South Africa is from the hotel to the ground and vice versa.
The Durban win set the stage for a memorable series win which was achieved a week later at St. George’s Park in Port Elizabeth, an historic venue where the first Test match had been played outside Australia and England. It was also the venue to host the first rugby international in South Africa. Sri Lanka became the first Asian nation to win a Test series in South Africa.
Often, South Africa’s cocky mentality prove to be their undoing. I mean, who else would leave out Alan Donald from a World Cup quarter-final? The story is that the Proteas, the pre-tournament favourites in 1996, were so sure of beating a struggling West Indies, they wanted Donald fresh for the semi-final clash! The rest as they say is history as Brian Lara smashed a match winning hundred.
In the summer of 2019, Sri Lanka and Pakistan were touring South Africa. Cricket South Africa thought that Pakistan posed the bigger threat of the two teams and reserved Centurion, Wanderers and Newlands for them while slotting the Sri Lankans to coastal towns of Durban and PE. This was a tactical blunder because if you ask any Sri Lankan cricketer from Arjuna Ranatunga to Lasith Embuldeniya to pick two venues in South Africa where they would like to play – Durban and PE would feature, invariably. The reason being that these are the two venues with least bounce in South Africa. Traditionally, players from sub-continent have done well in both these venues.
Most of the younger generation wouldn’t have watched the Oval Test of 1998 which in fact was our first Test win on English soil. Constantly being given one off Tests in England, the trend continued even after Sri Lanka had become World Champions. This was Arjuna’s opportunity to say that we deserved to be treated better. And what batting that was. An airborne Sanath Jayasuriya cutting Angus Fraser over point for six will be a memory that you would take till your last.
However, the win that had it all and full of fascination was the victory at Headingley in the summer of 2014. Here was an even cricket contest that literally went to the last over of the game. Well, to be precise to the penultimate delivery of the game.
Often in these sensational wins you get carried away and forget the nitty gritties and what happened behind the scenes. Here’s a few forgotten bits and pieces.
The tour of England was a couple of weeks after Sri Lanka had won the World T-20 beating India in the finals. Head Coach Paul Farbrace had been in charge for two months and was strategizing for the England series. During the World T-20 in Bangladesh, he was offered the Assistant Coach’s position of England which he accepted, leaving Sri Lanka high and dry. Together with him he carried Sri Lanka’s strategies against England that summer. This fired up some of the senior players of the side.
The other aspect that angered most was that the England and Wales Cricket Board had cut down one Test match from Sri Lanka giving them only two games. The reason being that India were touring later that summer and they had been allocated the additional Test. More cricket against India means more money. So for the summer of 2014, India were playing five Tests in England whereas Sri Lanka were playing only two. Players didn’t want more motivation than this to bring out their best.
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Sri Lanka managed to snatch a draw from the jaws of defeat at Lord’s in the opening game. The likes of Niroshan Dickwella will do well to watch this game and realize the importance to keep your reviews intact as last man Nuwan Pradeep was saved by a review.
The second Test was keenly fought and Mathews’ who was in red hot form was trying to build a sizeable lead when Dhammika Prasad, no mug with the bat, walked in. The instructions were loud and clear – just hang in there. But Prasad attempted to put away the first ball he faced and was caught at third man. As he walked away having picked up a duck, the dressing room decided to give him the cold shoulder. From that moment, not a single player spoke to Prasad. This fired up the fast bowler and the end result was him going onto pick up five wickets in the second innings to set up a memorable win.
There are of course other Test wins that are memorable. The Asian Test championship final victory in Lahore 2000, the team’s first ever Test win overseas – Napier 1995, a come from behind win in Faisalabad 1995, Murali’s match bag of ten wickets setting up a thrilling win in Wellington 2007 and of course Barbados 2018 when Sri Lanka became the first Asian country to win in that island.
