LEEDS, Sunday – Dhananjaya de Silva broke into international cricket three years ago as a middle order batsman and part time off-spinner and his role for the future looked assured until the ongoing 2019 Cricket World Cup where he has suddenly turned himself into a frontline spinner for the team.
Lasith Malinga was the key figure with four wickets, but Sri Lanka would not have won against England here on Friday with his contribution with the ball alone.
After Malinga had creamed off the top order it was De Silva’s turn to turn the screws on England. He got the key wicket of Moeen Ali caught at long-off by Isuru Udana and then hastened Sri Lanka’s victory charge by sending back Chris Woakes and Adil Rashid in one over as England slid towards a shocking defeat.
De Silva finished with career best figures of 3 for 32 off eight overs and he was happy with his contribution towards the win.
“The game was slipping away from us and I am glad I was able to take three wickets in two overs and contribute to the win,” he said.
“Not just the death bowling, I think Malinga is quite good with the new ball as well. Even today he took two wickets for us. He is our key weapon. If our batsmen score runs and give him something to bowl he will do the job.”
De Silva was initially picked for the role of a bowling all-rounder for the World Cup ahead of Akila Dananjaya who after undergoing remedial changes to his bowling action became unproductive.
“I am supposed to bat at number seven usually sometimes I have to bat lower than that. I am glad to make contributions with the ball but my main role is bowling,” said De Silva who is happy that the team has got momentum going for them after two washouts and a defeat against Australia.
“The momentum has been good for us. All of us want to win the next two games. If we keep fighting and keep working hard we will progress,” said a confident De Silva.
Sri Lanka’s next two matches are against South Africa and West Indies at Chester-le-Street Durham on June 28 and July 1 respectively. Their final game is against India at Leeds on July 6.
Did England underestimating Sri Lanka fire the team up?
“A few things had been said I heard. It motivated us. We were not here to just take part but to compete and win well,” said De Silva.
“England was playing well when they came to Sri Lanka and we struggled to compete. This was a tough wicket. We bowled tight and kept the pressure. This was not a 300 wicket. We thought that if we could get 260 to 275 that would be great. We could not get there but it was a superb bowling effort. England did not do well on the slow wicket and that helped us,” he said.
Sri Lanka captain Dimuth Karunaratne said that his team would take a lot of confidence out of the England win.
“They are number one ranked team and we can take a lot of confidence with that win. We still have a few grey areas but if we keep doing our basics right, then there’s no reason why we should not do well moving forward,” said Karunaratne.
“We have our opportunities. We are not looking too far ahead of us. We will focus on the next game at hand. We will give the boys a day off and then we will resume training.”
To ensure their passage to the semi-finals Sri Lanka must win all three of their remaining games because the teams ahead of them have got more points on the board with matches in hand.
Sri Lanka are currently placed at five with six points and two wins will give them 10 which may not be enough to get them over the line into the semi-finals because New Zealand and Australia each with three games to play already have over 10 points and India nine points from four games. All three teams are bound to increase their points tally from their remaining games which leaves only England who may have to compete with other teams for the fourth place. They have eight points from six matches and their remaining games are against the top three teams Australia, India and New Zealand.
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