The rise and fall — a postmortem
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We saw the fall and rise of the Aussies during the conclued series - Pic by Amila Gamage
The 1960’s classic “Puff the Magic Dragon” is a song that was written about the friendship of “little Jackie Paper” with an ageless dragon called “Puff” which lived in a mythical place called “Honalee” by the sea. Yet, little Jackie Paper as he was human was subject to aging and he gradually grew out of that bondage, but the ageless “Puff” always remained the same. It was a direct sweet song sans any subtle meaning, but, as the song became a colossal hit, the media tried to insinuate that the song was all about veiled references to smoking marijuana (grass). The word “paper” in the name of Puff’s human friend Jackie Paper was said to be a reference to rolling papers.
Yes, that is how speculation can ruin a perfectly innocent topic? But, there are instances how a good story could be sullied by the very authors themselves. For the past two months the Lankans had their own ups and downs on an unprecedented scale. It all began with an after-thought.
Just before the first Test between Australia and Sri Lanka, the Lankans were in that familiar down syndrome and at the last minute adding to the woes, medium pacer Suranga Lakmal was deemed unfit and the quick-fix was to bring in a total stranger to big time cricket — Lakshan Sandakan who is known to bowl a good left arm “Chinaman”. His inclusion was a stroke of genius by chief selector Sanath Jayasuriya.
Then when the Lankans went into bat, it was no surprise and as expected the home-team crashed to 117 all out. Then the visitors who made a huge din about their preparations against the spin friendly wickets in Sri Lanka were all out to a not so impressive 203 – a glimmer of hope.
Then the next semi-collapse 4 for 86, pointed to another inevitable, but, Chandimal believed in himself and the abilities of young Kusal Mendis and the rest is history. Yet, while the script was being re-written there were enough self-appointed heroes. Everyone wanted to be so-and-so of that one or the other in the Sri Lanka camp. Starting with ever popular Sri Lanka Cricket Secretary Mohan de Silva, it was a matter of what we did and what we intended doing in the future and that was being aired on TV at a dizzy frequency.
Then the podium was full of brave heroes paying homage to ‘Mathews and his men’. Then we could have a peek at what went right in the Lankan camp. First the Test series: There were two inflection points in the entire series. The first was bringing in Sandakan to pair off with Rangana Herath who himself had a few things to tell about the selector who decided to drop him a few matches before that. While Sandakan’s start was a dream and the end was a whimper it was sufficient to subdue the faltering Aussies for the time being. Rangana in his own customary manner answered his critics with his bagful of achievements. At the same time off spinner Dilruwan Perera gained the most from the opportunity provided though many thought he could never be a Murali or a Harbhajan.
This was followed by the dream run of Kusal Mendis and the resolve of Chandimal. Definitely it was the defiant approach and ability of Mendis that turned it around, at the same time that was also the point that young Dinesh Chandimal also graduated as a real senior professional of the Lankan batting frame. Once the team got its sea legs, the whole team ran in unison and then the biggest secondary achievers were batsman Dhananjaya de Silva and Dilruwan Perera who derservedly ended up as the man-of-the-match in the second Test match at Galle. Mostly the most significant was that during the three-match series, Jayasuriya and his band of selectors neither tinkered nor tampered much with the composition. Thus, Mathews shone as a leader exhibiting diverse skills.
What about the down points in the three-nil whitewash accomplished by the Lankans? In spite of playing under their own tinkered spinning conditions, the openers were woefully off target. The only occasion that the openers came right was in the second inning of the third Test. Stand-in opener and night watchman Dilruwan Perera became a victim of Starc’s raw pace in the fourth ball of the second innings. Then faltering Dimuth Karunaratne joined Kaushal Silva and together they put on 36 runs for the second wicket. Prior to that, the selectors even had to take a chance with the skills of Kusal Janith Perera who also found the raw pace of Starc too hot for his liking. The Lankan top was bare and it remained the same till the waltz was over and this proved that the Lankans cannot cope with good fast bowling of Mitchell Starc’s class.
Then it was the bowling of Sandakan. Without pressure, he bowled beautifully and even the critics of the Jayasuriya system was agape with this young man’s skills. But, the dream was short lived, after the first inning that he bowled, he bowled to live up to a legacy. Nevertheless, Sandakan showed a lot of promise, if he is willing to take up the challenge, in real international cricket on an even scale. When the Lankans won the second ODI after losing the first, the team still looked a combination that was worth a revival. Alas with the injury to Mathews, the Lankans lost the plot and the series. The little Lankans were akin to a bunch of kittens that were mewing in search of the hidden queen. The selectors say they are looking for the right combinations. But, the pattern of that action is rather quizzical.
The selectors drafted in two young seamers — Asitha Fernando and Vishwa Fernando who shone during the Pakistan ‘A’ series in England. Vishwa bowled two overs, but Asitha bowled none and they were dumped. Even in the ODIs, the openers issue is still a persistent crisis. But, the selectors now will have to ascertain who will now partner Dhananjaya de Silva who seems to have taken a liking for that job. But, there too they nearly made a bunny of young Avishka Fernando who faced two balls for a zero in a Starc blitz. The ODI combinations count to around twenty five in this series and that is a little too staggering and a cardinal sin when the team is facing the world’s best ODI outfit that is on a mission of vengeance and they were merciless against any Lankan weakling.
Though the Lankans lost the two limited over bouts against the Australians, the public still believes in them. It proves that in spite of the losses, the whole series was a sellout. But, the selectors and the authorities must not get the wrong clue that the messiah has arrived. We still have a long way to go and the Test series win was only a light purple patch. Yet, we must strive to build upon it. Knowing the failures against the fast bowling of the Australians on spinner friendly wickets the Lankan must look for countermeasures. For instance just see how besides Starc who bowled with absolute tenacity, the others learned how to exploit Lankan wickets by taking the pace off the ball.
This means even the Lankans will have to come out with stuff that could surprise the African cricketers with the wickets which are meant to beat our inherent skills. Initially the inbound West Indian A tour must be played on fast bouncy tracks so that the Lankans especially Karunaratne, Silva, Avishka Fernando and of course Dhananjaya de Silva could learn to score on them. Then the Zimbabwe tour in October should be taken very seriously and should be a prelude to the December-end South Africa tour which will be followed by a triangular involving Australia and India in early 2017, before the ICC Champions Trophy in England where the Lankans are pitted against India and Pakistan along with South Africa.