When Sri Lanka walked back into the dressing rooms on 277/9 after the 1st Day’s play in the 2nd Test against South Africa, they would have been a little disappointed at the progression of their innings, given that the opening pair of Danushka Gunathilake and Dimuth Karunaratne had put on 116 for the 1st wicket.
With Akila Dananjaya, playing in just his 3rd Test, and Rangana Herath at the crease and facing up to Keshav Maharaj, who had already accounted for 8 of the 9 wickets to fall during the day, not many expected the Sri Lankan innings to last too long into the 2nd day.
“After winning the toss we were looking at 270 to 300 runs. When the game goes it will be hard to bat in the third and fourth innings on these kind of surfaces. I am happy that we are where we are at 277 for nine. Had we been 275 for six we would have been happier.” – Thilan Samaraweera – SL batting coach
Then day 2 came around. Maharaj and World Number 1 Test bowler Kagiso Rabada had the 2-over-old ball in hand. Not to under estimate either Dananjaya’s nor Herath’s skill with the bat, but things were supposed to be done within the 1st 15 minutes-half and hour.
Dananjaya leaning back and ramping Rabada over the slip cordon was the 1st sign that the pair weren’t going to go quietly. What followed was an exhilarating yet not so unfamiliar sight for Sri Lankan fans. Their tail had begun to wag yet again.
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Looking at the numbers from the past 2 years, Sri Lanka has been bailed out by the 8th, 9th or 10th wicket pairs on at least 10 occasions in winnings causes. When Sri Lanka were reduced to 7/60 in Dubai late last year, Kusal Mendis and Herath put on 35 runs to give Sri Lanka something to bowl at and Sri Lanka managed to claim a 68-run win.
In the 1st game of the same series, another valuable partnership between Niroshan Dickwella and Lakshan Sandakan for the 9th wicket, yet again in the 3rd innings of the game, saw Sri Lanka claim a tense 21-run win. The 30-odd scored may not seem like a big number on paper but in the end, it was the difference between winning and losing.
Photos: Sri Lanka vs South Africa – 2nd Test | Day 2
Photos of Sri Lanka vs South Africa – 2nd Test | Day 2 Title Sri Lanka vs South Africa – 2nd Test | Day 2
Similarly, on day 1 of the 1st Test in Galle against the Proteas, Sri Lanka were reduced to 176/8 after winning the toss and batting first, when Dimuth Karunaratne was joined at the crease by stand-in skipper Suranga Lakmal. The pair put on 48 for the 9th wicket before Karunaratne and Lakshan Sandakan added a further 63 for the 10th wicket as Sri Lanka finished on 287. Sri Lanka went from a dire situation to what ultimately proved to be a match-winning 1st innings score, because a couple of tail enders managed to stick it out in the middle.
Sri Lanka were in a considerably better position at the end of Day 1 in this Test but the 74-run partnership between Herath and Dananjaya, which is incidentally the 2nd highest partnership for the 10th wicket for Sri Lanka, put the game out of the reach of the Proteas. More than the runs on the board, the fact that the visitors had to spend more than an hour in the field, when they would have no doubt come in with the expectation of wrapping things up in at least half that amount of time, put Sri Lanka immediately on the front foot. The Proteas were demoralized, the heat didn’t help and it showed in their batting.
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Not once in the South African innings, apart from when Faf Du Plessis took Herath and Dananjaya for a few boundaries on his way to 48, did they look like they would post a competitive 1st innings score. And much like Galle, it took just 34.5 overs for them to surrender a considerable lead to the Lankans.
One may look at South Africa’s 124 and think that the 74 runs added by Sri Lanka’s last pair didn’t really make too much of a difference in the end but it did give Sri Lanka the much-needed mental edge when coming into bowl.
Sri Lanka’s top order is not one that would give an opposition nightmares, but with the way the tail has batted over the past couple of years, you could say they will give a few opposition captains at least some headaches.
