Can Sri Lanka roll back the years?

Rangana Herath is congratulated by team mates after taking 9 wickets in the match in 2011

Vishwa Fernando and Kusal Perera celebrate after taking Sri Lanka to an improbable win at Durban in 2019

Oshada Fernando and Kusal Mendis during their crucial 163-run partnership at Gqeberha in 2019

• Looks to repeat their success of 2019 in Rainbow Nation

By Sa’adi Thawfeeq

Of the three Test wins Sri Lanka has achieved in South Africa, two of them have come at Kingsmead, Durban which could be termed in cricketing parlance as Sri Lanka’s famous hunting ground.

For it was here in 2011 under the captaincy of Tillakaratne Dilshan, Sri Lanka first achieved their maiden Test win on South African soil when they beat the host by 208 runs in a Boxing Day Test.

Although Thilan Samaraweera and Kumar Sangakkara struck centuries in the first and second innings respectively, the match belonged to left-arm spinner Rangana Herath.

With the ball turning, Herath varying his flight and angle to relentlessly probe the South African batsmen’s techniques was rewarded with match figures of 9/128 which included 5/79 in the second innings where South Africa chasing a target of 450 folded up for 241.

The win was celebrated in more ways than one for it was Sri Lanka’s first for nearly 1½ years since the retirement of Muttiah Muralitharan.

The Test was also memorable for a 22-year-old debutant Dinesh Chandimal who scored twin fifties and affected 4 dismissals (3ct, 1st) behind the stumps and was also involved in a run out, and left-arm pacie Chanaka Welagedera who skittled through South Africa’s top order in the first innings taking five wickets to open the gates for Sri Lanka’s historic win.

Prior to Sri Lanka’s arrival in South Africa, they were written off and when they lost the first Test by an innings and 81 runs at Centurion, the critics were more or less proved right. But after Sri Lanka turned tables on South Africa in the second Test at Durban there was much respect for the team, that this was no ordinary side that could be dismissed with a wave of the hand, but meant business. Sri Lanka however lost the third and final Test and with it the series 2-1 but proved that they were no mere pushovers in Test cricket. The South African tour also brought to an abrupt end head coach Geoff Marsh’s 2-year contract with Sri Lanka Cricket which lasted just four months.

Eight years later Sri Lanka led by Dimuth Karunaratne repeated that Durban success again with an incredible one-wicket win in a Test match that see-sawed till the last on the fourth day. The Test was made memorable by an epic innings of 153* off 200 balls from Kusal Perera who single-handedly guided Sri Lanka to victory with last man Vishwa Fernando. Fernando stuck it around for 73 minutes and 27 balls for 6* out of a last wicket stand of 78 which was a record in a successful chase in Test cricket. No one in their wildest of dreams would have backed Sri Lanka to win the Test after they were down to 226-9 chasing a target of 304. Perera’s knock was one for the ages and has been rated as one of the greatest innings in Test cricket. Vishwa in addition to his resolute batting skills captured four wickets in each innings for eight in the match and left-arm spinner Lasith Embuldeniya making his Test debut took 5/66 to dismiss South Africa for 259 in the second innings.

When they left the shores of Sri Lanka, the team was not expected to win a series in South Africa but that’s what they did. Sri Lanka again made heads turn when they beat South Africa in the second Test by eight wickets at Port Elizabeth (now known as Gqeberha) to win the series 2-0 and make history. They had gone to where no Asian team had gone before by winning a Test series in Rainbow Nation. Architects of that win were seamers Suranga Lakmal, Vishwa Fernando and Kasun Rajitha who between them took 13 wickets and Oshada Fernando (75*) and Kusal Mendis (84*) who figured in an unbroken third wicket stand of 163 to make short work of the target of 197.

Since their loss to Sri Lanka in 2019, South Africa has played a Test match only once at Durban against Bangladesh in 2022 and won by 220 runs with spinners Keshav Maharaj (7/32) and Simon Harmer (3/31) routing the opposition for 53 in the second innings. At Gqeberha they have played twice, losing to England by an innings in 2020 and beating Bangladesh by 332 runs in 2022.

Durban and Gqeberha are once again the venues for Sri Lanka’s two Test matches on the current tour. The first Test begins at Durban on 27 November. The big question is, can Sri Lanka repeat their success of what they achieved five years ago? If they do, they are well within reach of a place in the World Test Championship final next year.