Long gap between tours to England impacts Sri Lanka

Dhananjaya de Silva and Dinesh Chandimal made fighting fifties 

• Captain keen to have his players get county contracts

LORD’S: Sri Lanka’s batting woes are not just about not being able to spend time in the middle, but the gap that exists between making tours to England and playing county cricket.

After another four-day defeat in the second cricket Test to England at Lord’s which eventually sealed the three-match series 2-0 in England’s favour, Sri Lanka Captain Dhananjaya de Silva was quick to point out the problems facing his players in encountering England.

Sri Lanka’s last tour to England was eight years ago and that is a long time for any team to come and get adjusted to English conditions. Since their first tour to Old Blighty in 1984, this is the longest period Sri Lanka has had to wait to tour England and the long wait is certainly rubbing on the team.

Only four members of the 18-member side have toured England before but the gap between tours is so big that even the experienced players are finding it difficult to encounter the change in conditions and the mode of England’s fast bowling attack.   

“The gap is too much. The more you play here you adapt well to conditions. We don’t have many players playing county cricket as well. Then at least they can share that experience. It is a big drawback, yes,” said de Silva at the end of the second Test which Sri Lanka lost by 190 runs after being set a massive 483 to chase.

“Playing in these conditions will be good for the batters. If the batters can come and play county cricket that will be good. I would like to play county cricket, personally.”

Dinesh Chandimal also expressed his desire to play at least a season of county cricket before he calls it quits.

“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.”

In recent years the counties have shown interest in signing up only Sri Lankan bowlers notably seamers Asitha Fernando and Vishwa Fernando.

Sri Lanka had only one 4-day warm-up match before the start of the Test series which according to De Silva was insufficient.

“It is better when you play a few more games. The more time you spend out in the middle in England the better prepared you are. We have not done that and we have paid the price.”

Fifties from experienced duo Dimuth Karunaratne and Dinesh Chandimal and the skipper de Silva was insufficient to save Sri Lanka from defeat as they were dismissed in the second innings for 292.

Sri Lanka’s biggest problem has been in their inability to put up a competitive first innings total on the board. In the first Test they made 236 and in the second 196 which led to their defeats.   

“I said in the last game also that we need to do well in the first innings whether we bat or bowl. You cannot actually play catch up in Test match cricket. We made that mistake at Old Trafford and we did it again here. If you do well in the first innings, things get a lot easier,” said de Silva. “A minimum of 320 is a must. While bowling too we let the game slip away from us. Batters need to focus and play long innings in order for us to do well.”

On his decision to put England to bat first under sunny skies at Lord’s, de Silva said, “Our batsmen were struggling and we thought we should do something different. But that didn’t work out. We did well to reduce England to 216-6. Then after tea things started drifting away from us and we didn’t do things enough to pull back the game. Once the ball had got soft, it became easy a bit and Joe Root smartly started rotating the strike and put the loose ball away to the boundary. We lost the grip of the game after that.”

The failure of the top order to see the new ball off has been affecting Sri Lanka’s batting. Within the first 10 overs Sri Lanka has been losing at least 2-3 wickets and this has put immense pressure on the middle order.

“The new ball is the key. England attack with the new ball and once the ball gets older it is easy for batting. The top order needs to be solid. Either you have to stay at the wicket or play some shots. We need to chat about that,” said de Silva.

Sri Lanka had problems facing the pace of Gus Atkinson and Chris Woakes who together have captured 21 of the 40 wickets to fall so far in the series. Atkinson especially has been a thorn in their side not only with the ball but with bat also scoring a maiden Test and first-class century at Lord’s, to continue his excellent form in his maiden season of Test cricket.  

“Obviously he (Atkinson) has pace and he is able to move the ball both ways. He has troubled us. We knew what to expect from him when we came from Colombo. We haven’t done well against him,” said De Silva.

SCOREBOARD

ENGLAND 1st Innings 427

SRI LANKA 1st Innings 196

ENGLAND 2nd Innings 251

SRI LANKA 2nd Innings

(continued 53-2)

N. Madushka c Root b Atkinson 13

D. Karunaratne c Smith b Stone 55

P. Nissanka c Root b Stone 14

P Jayasuriya c Brook b Woakes 4

A. Mathews c Woakes b Bashir 36

D. Chandimal c Lawrence b Atkinson 58

D. de Silva b Atkinson 50

K. Mendis c Duckett b Atkinson 4

M. Rathnayake c Smith b Atkinson 43

L. Kumara c Stone b Woakes 10

A. Fernando not out 0

Extras (b-4, lb-1) 5

Total (all out, 86.4 overs) 292

Fall of wickets: 1-19 (Madushka), 2-43 (Nissanka), 3-60 (Jayasuriya), 4-115 (Karunaratne), 5-174 (Mathews), 6-192 (Chandimal), 7-200 (Mendis), 8-273 (De Silva), 9-288 (Rathnayake), 10-292 (Kumara).   

Bowling: Woakes 19.4-8-46-2, Atkinson 16-4-62-5, Bashir 23-1-78-1, Root 4-1-9-0, Potts 11-2-34-0, Stone 12-0-56-2, Lawrence 1-0-2-0.