Lanka take series with 2-0 sweep of Ireland

 Sri Lanka’s players pose with the trophy after winning the series at the end of the second and final cricket Test match between Sri Lanka and Ireland at the Galle International Cricket Stadium in Galle on 28 April – AFP

Sri Lanka Captain Dimuth Karunaratne with the Nippon Paint trophy for winning the series against Ireland 2-0

Ireland’s Harry Tector is clean bowled during the fifth day of the second and final cricket Test match between Sri Lanka and Ireland at the Galle International Cricket Stadium in Galle on 28 April – AFP

• Records 100th Test win

On a Galle International Cricket Stadium pitch that was strangely unhelpful to the spinners even on the fifth day of a Test match, fast bowler Asitha Fernando used his unique skills to rattle Ireland’s batsmen into submission and help Sri Lanka record an innings and 10 runs win to wrap up the second cricket Test after lunch and with it the two-match series 2-0.

More so, what was so sentimental about that victory is that it was Sri Lanka’s 100th Test win in their 311th match since first playing their inaugural Test against England in February 1982. It was Sri Lanka’s first series win at home since beating West Indies 2-0 in 2021.

Ireland began the final day requiring 158 runs to make Sri Lanka bat again with eight wickets in hand, and would have expected another trial by spin against Prabath Jayasuriya and Ramesh Mendis, the two bowlers who subjected them to an innings defeat in the first Test inside three days.

But Sri Lanka came out with a different ploy to unsettle the Irish batsmen. While Jayasuriya bowled from one end, the ball was thrown to Asitha who set the tone for the day by unleashing a barrage of hostile missiles at the Irish. He got the ball to bounce at the batsmen to soften them up. It was aggressive fast bowling, menacing and intimidatory. He retired the Irish captain Andrew Balbirnie at 24 by hitting him on the grille and then Harry Tector on the helmet.

It was the most unlikely opening Sri Lanka got, for an over later, Paul Stirling who replaced Balbirnie fell for one offering Kusal Mendis a low catch to extra cover which he held diving forward to give Jayasuriya his 50th wicket in his seventh Test making him the second fastest to the milestone after Australia’s Charlie Turner who did it in six Tests. Jayasuriya in fact is joint second with Tom Richardson (England) and Vernon Philander (South Africa) – both of them fast bowlers. He is however the fastest to 50 Test wickets by a spinner beating West Indies left-arm spinner Alf Valentine who took eight Tests.

Asitha’s first spell of the morning yielded one wicket for 14 off seven overs, picking up the wicket of Lorcan Tucker who defended a short ball onto the stumps off his body.

Ireland lost three wickets in the first session including that of first innings centurion Curtis Campher for 12. Mendis who took that wicket then added the scalps of Balbirnie (who returned to bat at the fall of Campher’s wicket) for 46, Andy McBrine (10) and Graham Hume (0) after lunch to register his fourth five-fer in an innings.   

At 161-8, Ireland was not prepared to throw in the towel as yet, as Tector, one of their brightest stars single-handedly took on the Lankan bowlers to carve out a Test best score of 85 off 189 balls (8 fours, 3 sixes). The tall right-hander using his reach to great effect defied the Lankan bowlers for 277 minutes forcing Captain Dimuth Karunaratne to bring back Asitha for another spell. The bowler once again obliged his captain by sending down two searing yorkers to dismiss Tector and last man Ben White off successive deliveries to end the match.   

Sri Lanka were tactically tested in their bowling on this Galle pitch and they had to be thankful to Asitha for doing the demolition job for them against an Ireland side that pushed them all the way, fighting hard in brutally hot and humid conditions over the five days. Jayasuriya with eight wickets in the match was named Player of the Match and Kusal Mendis with an aggregate of 385 runs (avg. 192.50) was named the Player of the Series. 

Player of the Match Prabath Jayasuriya

Player of the Series Kusal Mendis