Beating a top ranked team like South Africa was always satisfying said former captain Angelo Mathews after Sri Lanka had moved to within five wickets of winning the second Test at the SSC and with it the two-match series 2-0.
“South Africa has been a very good side for the past so many years and they are ranked number two. They are a good travelling side as well. Pleased with the way we have played so far. We have worked really hard for it and we are looking forward to wrapping it up tomorrow (Monday),” said Mathews at the end of the third day.
“It is going to be a huge achievement for us as we are an inexperienced side. Beating the number two team in the world is something special. We will enjoy that. But we have a job at hand tomorrow morning. The first couple of wickets are going to be crucial. If we can knock off a couple early then we can enjoy the victory,” he said.
“It is never easy for a foreign team – especially non-sub-continent sides to come over here and play. It is vice versa when we go to South Africa, England and Australia. It is tough for us. That is the challenge the visiting team has. The home team plays to their advantage.”
Mathews praised the spinners whom he said had been ‘fantastic for the last so many years’.
“Against Australia a few years ago our spinners – Rangana, Dilruwan and Sandakan bowled extremely well. They will exploit the conditions and they are seasoned campaigners. Rangana obviously is one of the leading wicket takers in the world. Dilruwan has played lot of games and he has done well both home and away. They know what they are doing,” said Mathews.
The SSC Test so far has been dominated by the Lankan spinners who have captured all 15 South African wickets to fall so far.
Apart from the spinners the batting of Dimuth Karunaratne has been the other key factor to Sri Lanka’s success in the series. The left-handed opener stands head and shoulders above everyone in the batting averaging 118.66 for his 356 runs scored in the series with one century and three fifties.
“Dimuth has been fantastic for us coming up with some big scores. I have been with him since school. I know him in and out and he is a strong character. He doesn’t easily give up. The way he has batted in the last year or so has been brilliant,” said Mathews.
“He was outstanding in the UAE when he got those huge runs in both games. Once again he showed that on difficult wickets he can score runs. If you all recall, on a difficult wicket against India he scored a hundred as well here. He has been fantastic over the last 18 months. He has added lot of stability into our lineup.”
ELGAR’S THIRD INNINGS
South African opener Dean Elgar said he could not recall what really happened when he was given out and asked to return and resume his innings yesterday.
Elgar was given out caught behind the wicket off Dilruwan Perera but it later turned out to be a no-ball and he was called back. Usually a batsman is asked to wait until the umpire checks the no-ball but in this instance he was not asked to wait so he made his way to the dressing room.
“I really know what happened. I was actually in the change room already, and I was told to go back out because it was a no-ball. I was quite happy with that. That’s never happened in my career, so it was something I had to deal with very quickly. I had to face the next ball. You don’t have much time to think about anything else, so I just had to reset the mind and get on with my third innings,” said Elgar describing the strange incident.
“I think there was a communication problem between the umpires and the third umpire, and they were struggling to relay the message to the on-field umpires that it’s a no ball. Amla didn’t know anything, and neither did I.”
Elgar admitted that South Africa had been outplayed by Sri Lanka in the series.
“It’s been a totally different kind of tour for myself personally and the team as well. I think a lot of things have to boil down to the particular conditions that we’ve been playing under. I do find, this time round in Sri Lanka the wickets have been a lot more challenging to the batters,” said Elgar.
“I think we’ve had the tougher of the two conditions. That’s not an excuse by any means. We have been outplayed and outclassed in this series, and I’ll be man enough to say that Sri Lanka have been better than us in this particular series,” he said.
“I think Sri Lanka capitalised on the starts that they’ve had. Most of their batters have got in and really made us pay - especially the two openers, who have had the best of the batting conditions. They’ve always been very much ahead of the game, and ahead of the series. At times it’s made us look a little bit amateurish, and made them look a far superior side in these conditions, which we’re very mindful of.”
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