Lankans have not lost at Lord’s for 25 years
by Sa’adi Thawfeeq reporting from England
LONDON: There was so much consternation when Sri Lanka didn’t play
their opening match of the three-Test series against England at Lord’s
on the current tour They were thrown into the deep end of the coldest
part of England in the north where they perished losing at Leeds and at
Durham to make the third and final Test which begins at Lord’s on June 9
of academic interest as England have already pocketed the series by
taking a winning 2-0 lead. Ever since Sri Lanka began playing a series
of Tests in England in 2002 they have always started off with the first
Test Lord’s and eventually it has turned out to be a high scoring draw.
 In
2006 and in 2014 Lord’s was the venue for the first Test of the series,
the only exception being 2011 when it hosted the second Test. But never
has Lord’s staged a Sri Lanka Test at the end of a series as it is the
case on the present tour. It was easy to understand why England wanted
Sri Lanka to play away from Lord’s till the final Test because they knew
their best chance of winning
the series was at Leeds and Durham where by the time the Lankan
cricketers got accustomed to the cold freezing weather and the pitches
that encouraged swing and seam bowling it would be too late by then The
itinerary has worked like a perfect script for England who have avenged
their 0-1 defeat by Angelo Mathews’ team two years ago. Lord’s has
been a favourite venue for Sri Lanka since 1984 when they made a
thunderous impact in their first ever appearance at the hallowed
venue where although they did not win they gained a first innings lead
of 121 and had the better of a drawn game. Sidath Wettimuny scored a
magnificent 190, the highest score by anyone on his first Test
appearance in England, and Sri Lanka captain Duleep Mendis raced to a
hundred off 112 balls and came within six runs of making a second
century.
Sri Lanka who was afforded only one-off Tests by England at that time
lost at Lord’s in 1988 and in 1991 but since then they have been
unbeatable at this venue.
In 1998 was the only occasion they were denied a Test at Lord’s when
the Oval hosted the match and off-spinner Muthiah Muralitharan returned
with the fifth best bowling performance in a match with figures of 16
for 220 and thereby helped his country record their maiden Test win on
English soil by ten wickets. The match was also notable for Sanath
Jayasuriya, the present chairman of selectors scoring an extravagant
double century and Aravinda de Silva, presently the advisor for cricket
affairs at Sri Lanka Cricket rubbing it into the English attack with an
eye-catching knock of 152. If the performance of Sri Lanka’s batsmen in
the second innings of the second Test at Durham where they amassed 475
is anything to go by, then they will relish playing at Lord’s again
where they have rarely failed to put up a good performance.
It is the dream of any cricketer to have his name engraved on the
Lord’s honours board by either scoring a century or taking five wickets
in an innings. The Lankans who have had the honour of doing so Sidath
Wettimuny (190) in 1984 Duleep Mendis (111) 1984 Amal Silva (102 n.o.)
1984 Rumesh Ratnayake (5/69) 1991 Marvan Atapattu (185) 2002 Mahela
Jayawardene (107) 2002 Mahela Jayawardene (119) 2006 Tillakaratne
Dilshan (193) 2011 Kumar Sangakkara (147) 2014 Angelo Mathews (102) 2014 |
