Sri Lanka’s acting head coach who is also their batting coach Thilan Samaraweera praised the efforts of South Africa’s bowlers especially left-arm spinner Keshav Maharaj who took a career best eight wickets on the first day of the second Test match at the SSC grounds yesterday.
“You have to give credit to South Africa’s bowlers. The three seamers in this hot and humid condition did well to send down 45 overs. Maharaj was really superb. He bowled good areas and created pressure and delivered some good balls to dismiss our top order,” said Samaraweera at the end of the day.
“We knew that with the new ball it was easy to score runs. But after lunch we knew it was going to be tough. The one hour period after lunch where they were looking to reverse swing the ball and more spin came to play as well. You have to give credit to the opposition. We had maybe two soft dismissals. They were on the money. The openers and Dhananjaya de Silva were superb. Dhananjaya has gone through lot of tough times and he did well to top score today,” he said.
Samaraweera said that it was too early to assess how much of spin there is on the pitch but expected all three Lankan spinners to play a part today. “The pitch is spinning, but you have to wait till South Africa bats.. After that I can tell you whether the wicket is spinning or not. At the moment it looks like spinning. Lots of credit for Maharaj, who bowled really well,” said Samaraweera.
“If we bowled in the right areas, one will spin and one will go straight. That is the beauty of home advantage. When the game goes on it will be hard to bat on the third and fourth innings on these kinds of surfaces. Never underestimate our third spinner Akila Dananjaya he is a quality bowler.
I am sure all three spinners will come to play tomorrow. “The last six or seven overs the pitch behaved differently. Their part-time off-spinner was getting a lot of bounce. At the moment we are very confident, but we have to bowl in the right areas and if do that, we can take wickets,” he said.
MAHARAJ UNDERPLAYS BOWLING EFFORT
South African left-arm spinner Keshav Maharaj underplayed his superb bowling performance of 8 for 116 saying that accolades meant a lot more when a Test match is won and hopefully he will be able put on another similar performance in the second innings and be on the winning end of it.
“I am a little bit fatigued, but I should wake up fresh tomorrow after having a lovely meal tonight - probably two meals. It is different bowling longer spells in the subcontinent to what you’re used to back home.
Heat plays a massive factor here. There’s a lot of pressure from around you. I was a bit fatigued at the end of my spell,” said Maharaj who turned his arm over for 32 of the 86 overs bowled for the day. Commenting on the pitch Maharaj said, “I did get a little bit of assistance off the wicket. It is a little bit different here than in Galle, because the ball skids on. There’s a chance of getting lbws and also the top edge when the batsmen sweeps. I also beat some of the batsmen in the air, with the ball dipping on them.”
Sri Lankan spinner Rangana Herath is a master of that dipping ball and an enthralling contest could be on the cards when South Africa bats today. Maharaj said all the hard work he put in over the years is finally paying dividends.
“I’ve always prepared the same for every Test match. I think it was written in the stars by God that things worked out this way. In these last few days I’ve pushed extremely hard just to keep that rhythm going from the second innings of the last Test match. I know that for me personally, I like to be zoned out before a Test, bowling with just Hendo and Prasanna (coaches) after hours aided my performance today.”
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