Sri Lanka Head Coach Sanath Jayasuriya was happy with the fightback his batters showed on the second day of the third Test against England at The Oval and urged them to play positive. After a good start, the tourists failed to counter the moving ball and slumped to 93 for five before a 118-run stand between captain Dhananjaya de Silva and Kamindu Mendis rescued them.
It helped that England were forced to restrict to spin after tea and both DDS and Kamindu moved along nicely posting half-centuries as Sri Lanka reached 211 for five in reply to England’s 325 all out before bad light brought an early end to day’s play.
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“Both batters have done well batting under pressure. Losing so many wickets wasn’t good for us. These guys have shown character. They know that they are the last two recognized batters. DDS has taken lot of responsibility while Kamindu has been so remarkable for us since his comeback. Batting at six and seven is tough. It’s overcast and the ball is moving around when they came to bat. But they negotiated that period and then cashed in when the spinners came on. That’s proper Test match cricket.”
Kamindu has been the in form batter on tour with a hundred and two half-centuries. Jayasuriya was asked when he will move up the order as lot of people feel that at number seven his talent is wasted.
“Everyone is talking about it we know. We have had a few chats. He has scored all those hundreds at number seven and we know that he should come to bat at four or five. We have been chatting about it and we’ll see how it goes.”
It was Pathum Nissanka who gave Sri Lanka a blazing start making 64 off 51 balls with nine fours. He looked set for a big hundred but was dismissed trying to be over aggressive becoming Josh Hull’s maiden Test wicket.
“I always say that we need to play our natural game. We know that the ball is nipping around and they are a good attack. Adapting is the key. Our batsmen have been told to play their natural game. Don’t play with two minds. If there is width go for your shots. Pathum gave us a good start. But disappointingly he didn’t convert it into a big hundred. You have to trust your natural game.”
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It was not only the batters who put up a good show but the bowling unit did well too. England were well placed at 221 for three at stumps on day one but were bowled out for 325 in the second morning with the last six wickets falling for 35 runs.
“I think after what happened on day one, we pulled ourselves back into the game. The bowlers bowled the first session very well. Glad we had got our lines right. The quicks were brilliant and DDS supported them well. It was a bold move to bring him on at that stage.”
