Sanath Jayasuriya’s strange coincidence

PALLEKELE: When Sri Lanka defeated Australia in a Test match for the first time in 1999 the team was led by Sanath Jayasuriya. Seventeen years later when Angelo Mathews’ team emulated Jayasuriya’s feat by beating Australia by 106 runs in the first Test at the Pallekele Stadium yesterday, Jayasuriya is again at the helm as the chairman of selectors.

“As part of a winning team Jayasuriya has to be there,” quipped the former batting legend who was elated with the victory. In 1999 Sri Lanka beat Steve Waugh’s Australians by six wickets and went onto win the three-match series 1-0. The Test took place in Kandy but at Asgiriya Stadium.

Jayasuriya had just taken over the Sri Lanka captaincy from Arjuna Ranatunga following a disastrous World Cup campaign in England. But comparing the two sides Jayasuriya said: “In 1999 we had the players like Arjuna (Ranatunga), Aravinda (de Silva), Marvan (Atapattu), Romesh (Kaluwitharana), Vaasy (Chaminda Vaas), Murali (Muthiah Muralitharan) and young cricketers like Mahela (Jayawardene), (Russel) Arnold, Upul (Chandana) and Nuwan (Zoysa). This time it is totally a different bunch of new cricketers, two debutants (Lakshan Sandakan and Dhananjaya de Silva). They were all under pressure to perform. Players like Dhananjaya I am happy to see how relaxed he is. We need to be patient with them and give them the opportunities.”

“To be part of the winning team in 1999 and part of this team are two unique occasions,” said Jayasuriya. “In 1999 also our team was in transition. I am very happy to be part of this team. It’s a young side and we came into the game from behind that is the greatness of this win. The boys showed the character in the second innings which is very important.

“I am very happy about the outcome but we need to fine tune certain areas. Just because we won we can’t forget how we performed in the first innings. If you want to win a match you have to bat really well in the first innings. That’s something we will have to do in the next Test,” he said.

“Special mention must be made of Sandakan, Dhananjaya and Kusal Mendis. (Rangana) Herath as usual did the hard work in both innings. Overall it was an all round performance by a very young team. They brought out their character which is very important.”

– ST