Kusal Mendis helps Avishka keep his place in team

Player of the Match Kusal Mendis receiving his award

Michael Bracewell

• “That double century stand changed the game” – Bracewell

By Sa’adi Thawfeeq

DAMBULLA: Under pressure with scores of 5, 9 and 34 in his last three white ball innings, Avishka Fernando with his place in the team on the line, eventually came good in the first ODI against New Zealand to score a fluent century and partner Kusal Mendis in a record-breaking double century stand and help Sri Lanka win the contest by 45 runs under the DLS method at the Rangiri Dambulla Cricket Stadium on Wednesday.

The team’s policy of wanting to give a good run for all the players finally paid off. Avishka lost his opening partner Pathum Nissanka in the third over, but found an ally in Kusal Mendis, who helped him to his century.

“I told Avishka if you play down a few dot balls not to get rattled by it because it was not an easy wicket for a new batsman to settle down immediately,” said Mendis who took the Player of the Match award. “I told him that runs will come from my end and for him to play his normal game without putting too much pressure on himself. He did that for a long period that is why he was able to get to his hundred.”

“I think Avishka will score more runs against the fast bowlers. The wicket did not play as quickly as we expected. Moving forward he will play his normal game. In the middle overs he played the fast bowlers well. Towards the latter part of his innings, he was playing his normal game.”

“After reaching our hundreds one of us was prepared to go on the offensive. After Avishka got out, I took on the responsibility to bat as deep as possible.”

Mendis went onto score a career best 143 enabling Sri Lanka to notch up their second highest total against New Zealand – 324-5 before rain cut short the innings with 4 balls remaining. Mendis’ contribution was the highest individual score made by a Sri Lankan against New Zealand surpassing the 140 scored by Sanath Jayasuriya at Bloemfontein in 1994 and Thisara Perera at Mount Maunganui in 2019.

“Very happy that I was able to achieve a win for my team with the century. After the first wicket fell, I had a chat with Avishka to rotate the strike and play.”

Despite his extraordinary batting talent Mendis has always been under the radar for his inconsistency. But 2024 has been a stellar year for him, his innings making him the leading run-getter in ODIs for the calendar year with 668 runs (avg. 47.71), which is 2 runs more than team mate Pathum Nissanka (666 runs, avg. 66.60) and his Captain Charith Asalanka (592 runs, avg. 53.81). The three of them occupy the top three positions in the batting.

“You could say that I didn’t get runs due to the pressure of captaincy during the Cricket World Cup, but after I relinquished it also it took some time for me to get back to my normal rhythm. I was told by the coaches that there was nothing wrong with my batting but to play the way I have been doing in T20Is and ODIs,” said Mendis. 

New Zealand set a revised target of 221 to chase from 27 overs and got off the blocks in aggressive fashion with Will Young and Tim Robinson posting 88 in 14 overs, before Maheesh Theekshana with his double strike in one over got rid of both openers and put a brake on their scoring.

“We knew it was difficult to bowl New Zealand out inside 27 overs so our plan was to keep the runs down as much as possible and increase their asking rate even if we don’t get wickets. The bowlers did an excellent job despite the wet conditions,” said Mendis.

With skipper Charith Asalanka also chipping in with two top order wickets, Sri Lanka had plenty of bowling options to go to if needed.

“We have enough bowlers in our squad including part timers to pick to suit the condition of the wicket, so there is no great pressure,” said Mendis.

New Zealand all-rounder Michael Bracewell said that it was the double century partnership between Avishka Fernando and Kusal Mendis that changed the game. New Zealand however began their run chase well, but collapsed once the opening stand was broken to finish on 175-9.

“Sri Lanka bowled well, and we let them score a few too many runs. It was a difficult wicket to start on. It was hard for the guys to come in and score straight away. Chasing 221 off 27 overs was always going to be a tough ask. We gave it a pretty good shot, but we could have piled on a few more runs in the middle overs,” said Bracewell who struck a valiant 34* off 32 balls before running out of partners.

“Cricket a funny game and partnerships are hugely important. We saw that partnership in the first innings of 200 runs that’s what changed the game. You guys played exceptionally well. When you look at the fine margins of how our guys got out and things like that, obviously there is scoreboard pressure to come in and get going straight away. It was a nice sort of challenge. That’s part of the job of coming in the lower order. We didn’t get it right tonight, in a couple of days we will be looking to resurrect that again.”

“The majority of the time the wicket is favourable for spin in Sri Lanka, but their batsmen still can play well a lot on it and put you under pressure. We saw that today. The batsmen played really well. We have to keep coming up with different answers and throwing different things at the Sri Lankan batsmen throughout the series to try and break those partnerships a little bit early. As we saw today, the partnership was a big one and really put Sri Lanka in a great position.”