Dejected Sri Lankans leave looking for that... :

Elusive first victory in Australia

Clarke’s warriors will be hard to beat:

Elmo Rodrigopulle reporting

The Sri Lanka cricketers will take wing to Australia a dejected lot after being thrashed by 167 by New Zealand in the Second Test. In the First Test it was a gutless batting display that caused the Kiwis’ defeat.

That bug seems to have affected the Sri Lankans as they too put on show a gutless batting display in both innings to gift wrap a victory and present it to the New Zealanders.

The Sri Lankans will be searching for that elusive first ever Test victory in Australia and this defeat on the eve of their tour to Australia would certainly have knocked their confidence and unless they can regroup and lift their confidence they will be lambs to the slaughter in Australia.

Three Test matches

The Sri Lankan cricketers led by Mahela Jayewardene and vice captained by Angelo Mathews will figure in Three Test matches, Five One-Day Internationals and Two Twenty20 Internationals. The Sri Lankan cricketers have made many tours to Australia after gaining Test status and every bid they made to nail the Aussies in their own backyard has ended in failure.

The Selectors – Chairman Ashantha de Mel, Don Arunasiri and Hemantha Wickremaratne along with Captain Jayewardene and Coach Graham Ford wracked their brains and have picked the best available marksmen who could shoot down the Aussies.

The squad is nicely balanced in every aspect. They have the batsmen, the bowlers and fielders, who if they are not overawed by the occasion, believe in themselves and play true to form can fly back with the distinction of being the first team to skin the kangaroo in their own backyard.

The First Test, after a three-day practice game in Canberra will be played at the Bellerive Oval in Hobart, Tasmania. It is a lovely ground with a lively wicket on which good and interesting cricket could be played. Experienced cricketers of the calibre of Mahela Jayewardene,

Tillekeratne Dilshan and Kumar Sangakkara will be making their final tours of Australia in their illustrious careers and will be hungry for success.

Worthy opponents

This will spur them on to do their best and if they succeed it is bound to rub off on their teammates who could also raise their game and be worthy opponents to the Aussies.

Two previous tours ‘down under’ proved acrimonious. That was because of the calling of Muttiah Muralitharan by umpires Darrel Hair in 1995 in the Boxing Day Test in Melbourne and again by Ross Emerson in Tri series game against England in Adelaide in 1999. Umpires Hair and Emerson were doing their job.

They called the bowler the way they saw him delivering and they had the courage to stand by their convictions. This led to acrimony and it continued even during the World Cup 1995/’96 final won by Sri Lanka in Lahore, Pakistan.

Wounds not healed

Those wounds have still not healed and are bound to open once the series is called ‘play’ in Hobart. But it is hoped that it would not escalate like it did in Adelaide with skipper Arjuna Ranatunga threatening to take the team off the field.

Then on another tour Aussie batsman Darrel Leehman mouthed some unacceptable verbals at the Lankans after being run out and with the Lankans reporting him, Leehman was slapped a ban.

So the fuse has been lit and the action going to be electric, there is bound to be a bit of verbals on the field.

But for the sake of the game and the good relations now existing between the two teams and the two countries, it is hoped that the teams will concentrate on the game and play it in the best of spirits and on the axiom that ‘it is not the winning or the losing that matters, but how one played the game’.

Sri Lanka even if they cannot win their first ever Test in Australia, can come back with their heads held high if they can dominate the Aussies, and draw the Three Test series.

The openers obviously will be Tillekeratne Dilshan and Tharanga Paranavitana. In Dimuth Karunaratne they have a stand by opener who has the potential to become one of the best in the game. He will be mobilized, only if either Dilshan or Paranavitana are immobilized. After Dilshan, a lot will depend on Sangakkara and Jayewardene.They will have to draw on all their experience and bat with great responsibility, because the batting success of the team depends a lot on them.

The experienced regular openers must make it their business to get the side off to a promising start for Kumar Sangakkara, Mahela Jayewardene, hilan Samaraweera, Angelo Mathews and Prasanna Jayewardene the frontline batsmen to consolidate and run up a challenging total.

With the wickets in Australia known for its pace and bounce, it will be interesting to see how the Lankans will go with their bowling.

Will it be three medium pace bowlers and one spinner?

That in every Test will depend only after a look at the wicket and the conditions. It all depends on Jayewardene’s thinking. Always innovative and positive in his thinking, Jayewardene will play the best and those who could deliver.

On the up an up

As for the Aussies there is no doubt that their cricket is on the up and up after the leadership was handed over to batting sensation Michael Clarke and if their recent successes and their showing against the World Champions South Africa in the ongoing series in Australia is an indication.

Clarke is leading by example and the team is getting well under him.

He is batting at his peak as his two back to back double hundreds prove. On the previous tour to Sri Lanka he scored a match saving hundred at the SSC.He is easily the best player of spin bowling today.

Since taking over the captaincy he has infused that urgency and win at all cost attitude into the team. The players have responded and the team is enjoying success.

Player who could be threatening are the dashing David Warner, Ed Cowans, Michael Hussey, Shane Watson and Clarke as batsmen and new ball bowlers Ben Hilfenhaus, Peter Siddle who will be back after being rested and Mitchell Johnson.

Off spinner Nathan Lyon has improved tremendously and is flighting and obtaining big spin and once the new ball loses its shine, Lyon will have a lot of bowling to do.

He made his debut here in Galle and with his first ball had the wicket of Kumar Sangakkara. It is going to be an exciting series. I will be there describing the action unfolding ‘down under’. So stay with the ‘Daily News’ and ‘Sunday Observer’. Sri Lanka’s tour squad: Mahela Jayewardene (Capt), Angelo Mathews (Vice Capt), Tillekeratne Dilshan, Kumar Sangakkara, Tharanga Paranavitana, Thilan Samaraweera, Prasanna Jayewardene, (WK), Rangana Herath, Nuwan Kulasekera, Shaminda Eranga, Suraj Randiv, Dinesh Chandimal, Chanaka Welegedera, Nuwan Pradeep, Dhammika Prasad, Dimuth Karunaratne. Manager Charith Senanayeke.

Selector on tour: Don Arunasiri.