According to Mathews
The ability to rebound from adversity is a skill all successful sportsmen and women possess. Angelo Mathews was devastated after he was stripped of captaincy and dropped from the ODI side after the Asia Cup debacle. He did not not deserve such treatment for what was a failure of the whole team. Sri Lanka were eliminated from the first round of the tournament; that, too, losing to Bangladesh and Afghanistan.Mathews vented at the coach, the selectors and the board for making him the scapegoat but showed remarkable resilience, responding this week with a counter-punch century and thereby letting his bat do the talking.
Spending seven hours and forty-five minutes in the middle and sharing a match-saving unbeaten 274 runs for the fourth wicket with Kusal Mendis (141*), Mathews scored a 120 not out as Sri Lanka recovered from a dreadful 13 for 3 to finish on 287 for 3 before rains put an end to the first Test against New Zealand in Wellington.
“It was a bitter pill to swallow,” Mathews said of his sacking. “But that’s history. It didn’t have any impact on me and I did what I have done over the past 10 years of my career to prepare myself for the current series.” Mathews celebrated his century with ten push-ups and by flexing his muscles, an action directed at coach Hathurusingha who had publicly questioned his fitness and commitment.
In his last four Test matches since the Asia Cup, Mathews scored four half centuries (52, 53, 88 and 83) and a century (120*) at 60.85, in defiance of critics who liberally doubted him.
“I have not made any changes to the way I do things,” he said.
“I trained the same way as I have done over the years. New Zealand is not an easy place to bat in because of the challenging conditions and, against a top quality bowling attack, it was not easy. But I think my experience playing against the same attack at the same ground helped me a lot,” Mathews told the Sunday Times from New Zealand.
While he has put the hard yards in training for the tour opener, he has sought advice from batting maestro Kumar Sangakkara in handling those tough conditions.
“He made a double century in his last tour to New Zealand and I thought to have a chat with him to get his advice on how he went about it, the thought process, etc,” he said. “He spoke to me about the shot selection and how to tackle each different bowler and that helped me to a great extent in compiling my inning.”
When Mathews came to bat at the fall of Dimuth Karunaratne’s wicket in the second innings, Sri Lanka were 13 for 3, still needing 283 runs to avoid an innings defeat.
“They really came hard at us that evening,” he related. “We had about seven overs left and they were tempting me with the short ball. But I thought I will not poke my bat even if I get hit on the body. There were few hits on to my body, but it’s worth when you look back.”
Mathews said it was the most critical moment in the game and he and Kusal Mendis only wanted to hang in there and bat the next day. The duo not only negotiated that crucial window well, they batted out the entire fourth day to give Sri Lanka a strong chance to save the match.
“It was a good wicket to bat on,” he said. “The next day, I started more positively and we managed to negate the threats of their bowlers and hang on.”
Mathews was full of praise for young Kusal Mendis, saying he played “an absolute blinder”.
“He has played little over 30 Tests so far but he batted like someone who has the experience of having done 70 to 80 matches,” he reflected. “He showed a lot of maturity in that innings.”
Commenting on the resumption of bowling after long lay-off (to manage his workload), Mathews said the plan had always been to start bowling during this series.
“The plan was always to start during the New Zealand series in order to make myself available for bowling during the World Cup,” he said. “I feel really good and will now keep bowling which is what I have done for several years before the injuries put a temporary end to it.”
Asked whether he was disappointed not to have been picked for the next season of the cash-rich Indian Premier League (IPL), Mathews said he was not surprised by it.
“You can only have 20 overseas players,” he noted. “And even though I am batting well, I have not been bowling. So it’s not a huge surprise for me. Besides, I take a lot of pride in representing my country and scoring runs and I will keep doing that as long as I can.”