Aussies alight to reality of a series whitewash in Sri Lanka

Daily Mirror — 13th August 2016

By Shehan Daniel

The war may already have a winner but the final battle is yet to be had — one that may very well end like those before it.

That makes the third Test which starts at the Sinhalese Sports Club grounds today more than from a dead-rubber. And both captains acknowledge it.

“We’re extremely excited,” Sri Lankan captain Angelo Mathews said yesterday, adding that the team had prepared harder than the previous games even though the tougher part of the series was over. “We trained harder than we did in the last two weeks because we want to win it 3–0. Everyone’s all geared up, and not taken the foot off the gas. They’ve trained extremely hard in the last few days and we’re hopeful that we can once again go out there and beat the Aussies.”

With its confidence and self-belief restored, victory would give Sri Lanka its first ever whitewash of Australia, and the chance to make that piece of history a reality is too good to be missed out on, Mathews said.

“This kind of chance doesn’t come easily, which is something we all believe. We played really well in the first two matches. So we have absolutely no intention in letting this chance go, which is why we’ve worked really hard to prepare for this game. The mood in the camp is really good, and the confidence levels are good and we believe that if we do the rights things from the first day we can win this game,” he said.

A less-elated Australian captain Steven Smith said that he had anticipated a difficult tour and there was disappointment in how his team had performed.

“I was expecting that it (the tour) was going to be difficult. I think any time an Australian team comes to the subcontinent, it’s never easy. I’ve been disappointed with the way we’ve played, and thinking back to the first match to bowl Sri Lanka out for 116, or whatever it was, for us not to be able to cash in and get a fair way ahead of the game, that was quite disappointing for us and I guess from that point things have sort of gone downhill. Coming to the subcontinent we know is never going to be easy for an Australia team” Smith said.

Hanging in the balance is Australia’s position as the number one team in Test cricket, a million dollar achievement that they celebrated just before the series started when they were handed the ICC Test Championship mace. The ten Tests they won over the 12 months preceding the April 1 deadline must now seem like a distant memory as anything short of victory will dethrone them from top spot. Smith claimed however, that it was not something he had thought about.

“I haven’t really thought about the rankings to be honest with you. It’s been a disappointing series from our aspect so far. So, this is another opportunity for us to play in the subcontinent, on what looks like another tough wicket. We have to find a way to prove to ourselves that we can play in these conditions. We haven’t been good enough the way we have played so far, for us the series is gone but still plenty to play for in Colombo,” he said.

Victory may still not be enough for Australia, if India and England have their way against West Indies and Pakistan respectively. Australia’s defense of the mace is expected to take them through India early next year, another tour that will seriously test their aptitude against spin.

With pitch conditions expected to mirror those seen in Pallekele and Galle over the first two Tests, Sri Lanka will look to deploy their spin trio — Rangana Herath, Dilruwan Perera and Lakshan Sandakan — who ripped through the Australian batting in all four innings, as their preferred weapon of choice; the only change to the team being the return of fast bowler Suranga Lakmal who will replace rookie Vishwa Fernando.

“The SSC is traditionally a pitch that helps the batsmen, but the last two games we played here, against South Africa and Pakistan, it helped the spinners. We see similar conditions and I think it will help spinners from day one. We’re looking to make only one change to the team, after discussions with the selectors. Suranga Lakmal is fit, so he will replace Vishwa,” the Sri Lankan skipper said. “We brought in Vishwa because the main two fast bowlers were injured. So it’s pretty simple, one of them are fit enough to play a Test match now. We don’t want to give any chances to Australians, so we want to play the best possible XI. Now that Suranga is fit enough to come back it’s going to be an automatic choice.”

Not missing out are Sri Lanka’s under-fire openers Dimuth Karunaratne and Kaushal Silva, who will be afforded another chance to break out of their poor form, with Mathews saying that they deserved it for their contributions in the past.

Karunaratne has gone ten months — and 18 innings — without a Test century, managing just two fifties in that run, and was twice out for a duck this series. Silva’s last century came in June 2015 with four half-centuries in the succeeding 22 innings.

“What the selectors and the management think is now that we have won we can give that extra opportunity to those players whom we think will deliver. Especially Kaushal; when it was tough in England he fought really hard, he showed his character and after two games we don’t want to throw a character like him away. And in regards to Dimuth he’s shown that in New Zealand — he really couldn’t score runs against England — but he got a really big hundred against New Zealand so he’s shown that as well — his character and what he has got in him. Hopefully he can deliver. Everyone tends to have that bad rough patch but hopefully they can come out and deliver for us,” he said.

If the series already being decided will help relieve the pressure on the duo, they would feel further at ease playing on their home ground, with both players playing their domestic cricket representing the Sinhalease Sports Club.

Smith however was non-committal on the changes that are likely to be made to his team, saying that they were waiting on a fitness issue with Adam Voges.

“We don’t (have a final team) at this stage. I’ll wait to name that at the toss. We’re still waiting on Adam Voges. He’s had a few hamstring issues coming from the last game. He’s going to train today and then we’ll see how that goes,” Smith said yesterday.