Jayasuriya bowls Sri Lanka to their largest Test victory

Man of the match Prabath Jayasuriya appeals for an LBW decision during the third day of the first cricket Test match between Sri Lanka and Ireland at the Galle International Cricket Stadium in Galle on 18 April 2023 – AFP 

Ireland’s Harry Tector walks back to the pavilion after his dismissal during the third day of the first cricket Test match between Sri Lanka and Ireland at the Galle International Cricket Stadium in Galle on 18 April 2023 – AFP 

• Ireland suffers first innings defeat

Minnows Ireland suffered their first defeat by an innings in Test cricket when Sri Lanka beat them by an overwhelming margin of an innings and 280 runs with two days to spare in the first Test played at the Galle International Cricket Stadium yesterday, to go one-up in the two-Test series.

The margin of victory was Sri Lanka’s largest in Test cricket, improving on the innings and 254-run win over Zimbabwe at Bulawayo in 2004.

The match in fact ended in the final session of the third day with Ireland being bowled out for 143 and 168 in reply to Sri Lanka’s mammoth first innings total of 591-6 declared.

The left-arm spin of Prabath Jayasuriya proved too much for the Irish batsmen to counter as they succumbed to him on ten occasions in both innings giving the bowler match figures of 10 for 108 to give him the Player of the Match award. Jayasuriya spun a web around the hapless Irish batsmen who had no answer to his wily spin finishing with career best innings figures of 7 for 52 in the first innings and following it up with 3 for 56 in the second.

Apart from Jayasuriya, it was another left-arm bowler who caused misery to the Ireland batting. Seamer Vishwa Fernando achieved the initial breakthrough for Sri Lanka scalping Murray Commins and Captain Andrew Balbirnie in both innings to put Ireland on the back foot. After that it was a case of pure survival against the wiles of Jayasuriya and the off-breaks of Ramesh Mendis who was forced to play second fiddle as Jayasuriya took the centre stage with his prolific wicket-taking ability at Galle. Of the 43 wickets he has taken so far in his short Test career of six matches, 39 has come at Galle from four Tests.

Sri Lanka didn’t take too long to capture the remaining three Irish wickets in the morning, wrapping up the innings in 37 minutes for the addition of 26 runs. That left Ireland trailing by a massive 448 runs in the first innings.

Without any hesitation Sri Lanka enforced the follow-on, the first time they had done so since 2015. On that occasion too, the venue was Galle, and the opponents were West Indies who eventually lost the match by an innings and six runs following big hundreds from Dimuth Karunaratne and Dinesh Chandimal and a ten-wicket haul by left-arm spinner Rangana Herath. Angelo Mathews was the captain.

The morning session turned out to be another good one for Sri Lanka as they captured eight wickets for 67 runs with Ireland limping to lunch with half their side out for 41 and trailing by a massive 407 runs. But the afternoon saw some Irish grit as they lost only three wickets whilst adding 94 runs in the session largely due to a 60-run partnership off 129 balls for the sixth wicket between Harry Tector and Curtis Campher.

Tector, a well-organised cricketer whom Ireland look to their future, put up a resolute performance with Campher (30) to stall the inevitable. In the first innings Tector scored 34 and added 70 for the third wicket with James McCollum. Playing spin and pace quite well and using the depth of the crease, Tector went onto score 42 priceless runs off 95 balls (4 fours) when his innings came to an unfortunate end. Tector had come to terms with the challenges in the middle when he attempted a quick run that was never there and slipped in mid-pitch, and failed to beat the return from Karunaratne from extra cover to wicket-keeper Sadeera Samarawickrama.

Following Tector’s dismissal there was not much resistance from the tail as Sri Lanka wrapped up the Ireland second innings for 168, with Ramesh Mendis picking up four wickets to become the joint fastest Sri Lankan bowler to 50 Test wickets (11 Tests) with another off-spinner Dilruwan Perera who also achieved the landmark at Galle against Australia in 2016. 

Outstanding at forward short-leg was Nishan Madushka, a wicket-keeper/batsman who pulled off some astonishing catches in that position – three in all, just when Ireland was settling into their batting. His performance reminded one of another former Sri Lankan stalwart Hashan Tillakaratne who also started off as a wicket-keeper and excelled in the position of a close-in fielder.

The match turned out to be a one-way contest ever since Sri Lanka won the toss and piled up a score in excess of 500. With no proper first-class structure in place Ireland were left to learn the harsh lessons of Test cricket the hard way. Being only their fifth Test match since being elevated to Test ranks in 2017, it has been a whole new learning curve for the Irish.

The second Test starts at the same venue on 24 April.