Sri Lanka arrived in South Africa dreaming of a World Test Championship final spot, but having now been crushed 2-0, that dream has almost certainly faded. There is special regret that Sri Lanka got to play on the two venues that would have best suited them – Durban and Gqeberha – and still could not seriously push the hosts, as they had done in 2019.
Head coach Sanath Jayasuriya broke down the defeat, putting it largely down to the failure of batters to push on from starts to bigger scores. This was especially evident in the first innings at Gqeberha, when each of the top five got to at least 20, but only one passed 50. And Pathum Nissanka, who did make a half-century, did not push on to triple figures, though he had the chance to do so.
“Batsmen have to convert their scores into hundreds – 30s and 40s aren’t enough,” Jayasuriya said. “It’s tough on these wickets, but at least two batters have to score hundreds on a tour like this. We didn’t get that. All we got were two 80s. I think the batters by now know the value of hundreds on the road, having played in a place like England recently as well. We missed that this time.
“Although there was a lot of effort from the senior batters, I think if they assess themselves individually, they will realise it wasn’t enough.”
This was also the first series in his Test career that Kamindu Mendis failed to make a score of substance. He made scores of 13, 10, 48, and 35 – his average plummeting from a Bradmanesque 91.27 before the series, to 74 by its end.
“Kamindu Mendis is a key player,” Jayasuriya said. “In every Test match almost he was in the runs, aside from this series. If you saw the way he batted in this series, it was still with a lot of confidence. In his last innings especially, you saw that. You can’t expect a batter to hit 50 or 100 every innings – that’s why you have six or seven batters. As a player, he’s a quality player. If he’s got shortcomings, he works with the batting coach to figure those out.
“I know that oppositions are quite concerned, and South Africa were as well. Now, he will have to work hard to counter that. But I love watching a player like him in the team – he scores at a run-a-ball, and plays positively. What I’ve told everyone is to play their natural game and play positive cricket.”
On the Gqeberha loss itself, he felt the match had been lost in key periods. The first of these was the second morning, on which South Africa had put on 89 runs via their last two partnerships.
“In that first innings, after we got eight or nine wickets, we let them have roughly 40 runs too many.
Another period was the third morning, on which Sri Lanka lost five wickets, having ended the previous day 116 runs behind, and with seven wickets in hand.
“We couldn’t afford those wickets. We could have got a big first-innings lead, and we let the match slip a bit on that morning.”
And then on the fourth day, there were a couple of instances in which Sri Lanka did not quite turn their momentum into a definitive advantage. They’d had South Africa 282 for 8 at lunch but allowed the No. 9, 10, and 11 batters to crash 35 further runs. Later that day, they’d also been 117 for 3 before losing two quick wickets.
“That 25-30 extra runs from their tail also hurt us in the second innings. In the second innings, when we gave two extra wickets in the evening session. If we’d had the chance to come in today only three down, that would have made a big difference to our batting unit. It’s in those little places that it got away from us.”
Andrew Fidel Fernando is a senior writer at ESPNcricinfo. @afidelf
