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.

Chief selector Sanath Jayasuriya part of 1999 and 2016
teams. |
“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
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