Chamari’s batting reminded me of Aravinda and Sanath: Coach Ratnayake

By Sa’adi Thawfeeq

The extraordinary batting exploits of Sri Lanka Women’s cricket team skipper Chamari Athapaththu in the third and final WODI against South Africa at Potchefstroom on Wednesday revived memories of the batting of two former Sri Lankan cricketing legends Aravinda de Silva and Sanath Jayasuriya said Head Coach Rumesh Ratnayake.

Ratnayake who has been witness to so many exceptional innings during his career both as a player and as a coach rated Athapaththu’s match winning knock of 195* as amongst the best in the world.

“She keeps surprising us. I’ve said this many times before. I think it is the best innings I’ve seen from her,” said Ratnayake. “It was like in the past Aravinda batting or Sanath Jayasuriya beltering, it was something like that. Maybe even (TM) Dilshan sometimes had knocks like this. I can rate it amongst the best in the world. Who would have thought a girl could score nearly 200 in a fifty-over match. She was just one hit away.”

“But I like to state that we don’t talk of 100s, 200s or 50s here. Chamari unselfishly gave partner Nilakshi de Silva to get to her 50 rather than get to her 200. It was an amazing innings, virtually single-handed but she needed good smart partners at the other end to help her out. Nilakshi’s innings was a fabulous one. It was invaluable and as valuable as Chamaris’ knock because that was the one that rotated the strike, even though her strike rate was not all that great. She knew her role. Thankfully it worked out. It’s not easy in cricket.”

Sri Lanka’s run chase was in two phases. Vishmi Gunaratne helped Athapaththu put on 90 for the first wicket and after a minor collapse when three wickets fell for 17, Nilakshi joined Athapaththu in a record-breaking fifth wicket stand of 179 to carry the team to victory.

After South Africa had racked up 301-5, Ratnayake said that in the dressing room it looked like the end of the world for the girls. 

“I said, why are you down? Lift your heads. They scored 301 runs and we have a chance of creating history by squaring the series. That’s what we spoke of in the morning before coming for the match. Now there is another chance to chase the highest score, so why don’t we go for it. You are the ones who are going to make history.”

Ratnayake described the wicket as a belter and it was no surprise that over 600 runs were scored on it. 

“We have seen the pattern in South Africa. In the night the wicket eases out. The wicket binds very well because it is cold but bearable. We knew that. It was good when they were batting even though we bowled extremely poorly. As a work in progress that’s one area we have to improve on.”

Sri Lanka in fact made several changes to their team for Wednesday’s game which meant that all 17 players in the squad got to play at least one international match. 

“We put players in the deep end. We went with just one fast bowler whereas we should have gone with three,” said Ratnayake. “I had to rest the other two because I have to manage them for the main tournaments. We rested our wicket-keeper too and one of our main batters Harshitha Samarawickrama who is injured.”

Ratnayake said that after South Africa had run up 300 plus they were very confident of victory.  

“They thought they had more or less won the match. That’s a psychological thing. If somebody scores 300 runs they can’t be faltered for not thinking like that. But those are the dangers which can happen. At the end of the match the South Africans were really demoralised, their faces showed it. But overall they were good sports people and we had an amenable relationship with them.”

The Sri Lanka team left South Africa for Abu Dhabi yesterday to take part in the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup Qualifier.