The Galle Fortress breached
The Galle Fortress was breached by the touring Australian team, who capitulated Sri Lanka to a 2-0 defeat. Sri Lanka scored 900 runs for the loss of 40 wickets while Australia scored 1068 runs for the loss of 16 wickets.
What was the cause of this debacle? Playing on doctored wickets in simple language, underprepared. By nature Sri Lankan batsmen are wristy stroke players. They favour true wickets. A good example was last summer in England at the Oval. They dominated England to win the third Test by 8 wickets. Sri Lanka scored 482 for 13 wickets and England scored 481 for 20 wickets.
Our fast bowlers took 18 of the 20 wickets that fell, proving a point that they could win matches. Pathum Nissanka scored a brilliant 122 not out in the second innings adding to his first of 64, showing that our batsmen are better players on true wickets than on doctored ones.
So why do we doubt our batsmen and sacrifice them for one spinner to decide the fate of a Test match. We have performed very well outside Galle. Even the world record for the highest partnership is held by Mahela Jayawardene and Kumar Sangakkara at the SSC in Colombo. The P. Sara Oval in Colombo and Pallakelle also boast of good batting wickets.
We should move away from the myth that Galle is the Fortress and prepare our cricketers to play on ideal pitches which offer equal assistance to batsmen and bowlers. Have pace and bounce for fast bowlers and turn for spinners on the fourth and fifth days. This type of wicket does not heavily favour batting or bowling sides.
Finally we should not blame the curator as he only carries out instructions of the team management. I trust these observations are taken in the true spirit of the game.
Wishing Sri Lanka Cricket all the success in the future
Kumar Boralessa