Chandimal determined to make most of it

Dinesh Chandimal seemed untroubled with his thumb injury and batted with great resolve

• Keen to make an impact on what would probably be his last England tour  

MANCHESTER: For several of the senior players in the Sri Lanka team this current tour of England will be their last because you don’t know when the next tour to Old Blighty will come.

The last time Sri Lanka made a Test tour to England was in 2016, so it took us eight years to get invited for another Test series.

One of the three senior players who is determined to make full use of the present tour is 34-year-old Dinesh Chandimal who displayed courage, guts and determination to craft out an innings of 79 batting for nearly six hours (358 minutes) with a smashed right thumb to ensure that Sri Lanka did not go down to England in the first Test without a fight. Such was his commitment to the team.

When he was hit on the hand by a brutish delivery from Mark Wood and was forced to retire with his score on 10 everyone feared the worst, but thankfully X-ray turned out that he had aggravated an injury suffered six months ago and that there was no fracture.

Nevertheless, with painkillers Chandimal came out to bat at the fall of the sixth wicket at 190 with Sri Lanka only 68 runs in front. With Kamindu Mendis, Chandimal added 117 valuable runs for the seventh wicket making the England bowlers increasingly frustrated as the partnership grew and the overall lead also with it.    

“This is the fourth time my thumb has been broken. I thought this time too, it was gone. The doctor told me that it was the previous injury. I told the doctor that I wanted to bat, and he gave me an injection. I told the manager too that I wanted to bat. Probably it is my last tour to England. So, I was determined to play,” said Chandimal. “I had the same injury six months ago. In the X-ray, it said it had aggravated. Hopefully I will be fit for the next game.”

The right-hand middle-order batsman has been to England twice before and scored a hundred on the last tour in 2016 – 126 in the second Test at Durham against the likes of Anderson, Broad, Woakes, Finn and Moeen Ali.

One of Chandima’s goals is to play a season of English County Cricket. “The last few years I wanted to get a county deal. I have not got it so far. If I can do well in this series, hopefully I will be picked by one of the counties. It is my dream to play a season of County Cricket.”

Chandimal, a former Sri Lanka Captain was happy the way the team fought back from poor positions in both innings to make England fight for victory.   

“It was a good fight back by the boys. We were probably short by 50 runs. We keep saying that. We need to learn and rectify,” said Chandimal. “The tail didn’t contribute in the second innings. If they had done, we could have got there. When you come to England it will take time to get used to conditions.”

“We are over the moon as a team as to how we fought back. On the first day and first half hour we lost three wickets and then DDS (Dhananjaya de Silva) and Milan (Rathnayake) dragged us out of trouble. Asitha (Fernando) and Prabath (Jayasuriya) were brilliant for us.”

Asked at which point the game slipped away from Sri Lanka, Chandimal replied, “In the first innings if we had scored 300 runs it would have been great. We lost three wickets in the first half hour. Very difficult when that happens. But we recovered after that. Then again there were a few lapses. On the third morning we let it slip away from our hands. Can’t blame the bowlers actually. They bowled two hours and 45 minutes back-to-back sessions the previous day.”

“We have not done that in the last ten years. Weather was tough too. But they gave their best. These things can happen. We played well as a team. On previous tours too we have struggled to compete in England in the first game. But this time it is different. I am sure we can give a good fight at Lord’s. Hopefully we will win a game.”