Lanka look to spin Windies out of series

 Spin bowling Coach Piyal Wijetunge in conversation with Captain 

Charith Asalanka

Dunith Wellalage, a rare gem at 21

•  Second ODI at Pallekele today

Sa’adi Thawfeeq reporting from Pallekele

Sri Lanka will continue with spin for the remaining two matches of the ODI series against West Indies, playing on the visitors’ weakness against the turning ball on dry surfaces.

It was with spin that Sri Lanka conquered the West Indies to win the T20I series 2-1 for the first time against them, and they extended that approach to the ODI series as well, winning the first game on Sunday by 5 wickets to take a 1-0 lead. They will go into today’s second ODI at the Pallekele International Cricket Stadium knowing that a win here would seal the three-match series in their favour, and deprive West Indies of yet another opportunity of winning an ODI series on Lankan soil. The four ODI series played here has ended in 3 losses and 1 draw for the West Indies.

“Our strategy from the T20Is is to play with spin if we are to win,” said Sri Lanka’s spin bowling Coach Piyal Wijetunge. “That’s why we have been playing with 3 spinners from the T20I series. The West Indies have a weakness against spin when the ball spins a lot, and we are also taking into account the home advantage.”

In the context of playing two leg-spinners in the first ODI, Wijetunge said, “We have 4 spinners in our squad. We set our combinations according to the opposition and the wickets we are playing on. So, we thought of having 2 leg-spinners in the side. To an extent it paid off.”

“Although there are two right-arm leggies, both are different from each other. Wanindu (Hasaranga) is not the conventional type leg spinner, whereas Jeffrey (Vandersay) is a conventional leg spinner. Wanindu gets his wickets mainly through variations, Jeffrey with his conventional leg-spin. They are both different types. We had a reason to play two leggies against West Indies because they have shown a weakness against them. The other reason is in his last ODI against India, Jeffrey took 6 wickets, so we couldn’t keep him out.”

Wijetunge, a former Sri Lanka left-arm spinner gave credit to the High-Performance Centre (HPC) at the R Premadasa Stadium for churning out quality spinners to the national team.

“It’s a gradual process. Actually, the credit should go to the HPC, they do all the hard work and keep on improving the spinners. The next set are almost ready to take on the baton. The 4 spinners in the squad are quite young, they have many more years to play for Sri Lanka. In the recent past we had 3-4 spinners who could do the job for us.”

One of the players who has been impressive with every match has been left-arm spin all-rounder Dunith Wellalage.

“He is a good player and an all-rounder we’ve got after a long time,” said Wijetunge. “He has a lot of skill. He is still raw, only 21 and he is only learning how it is to play at international level. His skill levels are very good. A spinner actually matures at the ages of 27-28. For him to be performing at such an early age I think he has a good future ahead of him. He is still not an end product. He has plenty of work to do. We can get a lot out of him in the future. He is a good asset.”

When asked how the Sri Lankan spinners would bowl on tracks not conducive to spin when they go overseas, Wijetunge replied, “Every country plays to their home advantage. If you go abroad, it’s the role of the bowler that changes. If it is a fast bowlers’ wicket the spinner’s duty is to hold up one end for the fast bowlers to be effective. We saw it in England where Prabath Jayasuriya did the job for us in the 2 tests he played. He also took 8 wickets.”

“It’s how you train the players. You may have to change your seam angles when you go abroad, to simulate them we need to have similar conditions at home. Currently we are not in a position to do that, because the soil we have here the ball spins a lot. We are trying to practice as far as possible according to the conditions we would get abroad, but it is not perfect.”  

Opening batsman Pathum Nissanka who missed the first ODI due to a quad strain practiced yesterday, but Wijetunge said a final decision on his fitness has to be assessed before he can play.

“We have not done our selection yet. After training today only we can see his fitness levels for tomorrow’s match. With the physio’s report if he gets the green light, he will not have a problem getting into the side. We have not done an assessment of him yet.”