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Kamindu Mendis has taken over the captaincy of Sri Lanka ‘A’ for the second unofficial test against South Africa ‘A’
By Sa’adi Thawfeeq
Pushed into making four forced changes in the first 4-day unofficial test due to players going down with a flu, Sri Lanka ‘A’ will be back to full strength for the second 4-day unofficial test commencing at the P Sara Oval against South Africa ‘A’ today where they will be looking to seal the two-match series having won the first by a thumping margin of 160 runs at Pallekele.
Sri Lanka ‘A’ has replaced out of form skipper Nipun Dananjaya with Kamindu Mendis who will lead the side which sees five changes. Batsmen Nishan Madushka, Minod Bhanuka and Pasindu Sooriybandara will replace Nipun Dananjaya, Nuwanidu Fernando and Janith Liyanage, while in the bowling left-armers Vishwa Fernando and Praveen Jayawickrama take the place of Promod Madushanka and Lasith Embuldeniya.
Dananjaya has had a string of low scores to his name from the ODIs till the first unofficial test – 1, 8, 0, 13 & 11.
Sri Lanka ‘A’ has also added 23-year-old left-arm spinner Shashika Dulshan to the squad although he will not be in the playing eleven.
Although spin friendly, the Pallekele wicket was not all that difficult to bat on although South Africa ‘A’ were dismissed for scores of 131 and 185 in reply to Sri Lanka ‘A’s 325 and 151.
“The wicket was a little dry on one side. It started spinning from the first day but it was not a difficult wicket to bat on. Mind you it was not only the spinners who took wickets, 12 wickets were taken by the fast bowlers. The wicket was spin friendly but a decent one,” said Sri Lanka ‘A’ head coach Avishka Gunawardene.
Giving reasons for the match ending inside three days, Gunawardene said, “In the first session of each day the conditions helped the bowlers and both sides lost wickets. It was the same in the ODIs as well with the team batting first.”
Gunawardene said he expected more runs on the P Sara Oval pitch than in Kandy. “The wicket is not green but looks hard so there could be more runs scored. Traditionally, the Oval has helped the fast bowlers a bit more. If the weather is going to be cloudy it will help them.”
On the threat that South African ‘A’ left-arm spinner Senura Muthusamy represents, Gunawardene said, “He has played Test cricket, it’s nothing taken away from him, but I don’t think our batsmen handled him well. He looked a decent spinner but didn’t look very threatening. His line and length were immaculate. The batsmen tried to put him away on too many occasions rather than giving him due respect. That’s probably what happened. He rarely bowls a bad ball and he tests the batsmen’s patience.”
Muthusamy ended up taking a match bat of 12 wickets and will be keen to add to that tally in today’s game unless the Lankan ‘A’ batsmen handle him the way he should be.
