To say that Bangladesh were beaten at their own game is a tad closer to describing the two-Test series that Sri Lanka won by a 1-0 margin.
Without their key player and captain Shakib Al Hasan who had a finger injury and was ruled out of the Test series, Bangladesh prepared a dead pan pitch at Chittagong for the first Test that was a heartbreak for bowlers and resulted in a high scoring drab draw.
Coming to the second Test at Mirpur, Dhaka the pitch prepared for the second Test turned out to be just the opposite where batsmen who had been so dominant at Chittagong were struggling to put bat to ball. Right from the first day the pitch started to turn square and produce uneven bounce so that the first two days saw 28 wickets tumbling. By the third day before tea the remaining 12 wickets were consumed and the Test was over with Sri Lanka winning by a handsome margin of 215 runs.
If ICC Match Referee David Boon found the Chittagong pitch “too heavily in favour of batsmen across the five days” and rated it “below average” he might as well repeat the same for the Dhaka pitch substituting the batsmen for the bowlers.
The scores in the two Tests make contrasting reading:
Chittagong Test – Bangladesh 513 and 307-5; Sri Lanka 713-9 declared.
Dhaka Test – Sri Lanka 222 and 226; Bangladesh 110 and 123.
If Bangladesh thought that they could rattle Sri Lanka on a spinning track they were sadly mistaken because Sri Lanka proved they were very much up for any challenges that was thrown to them. Also they had the added advantage of head coach Chandika Hathurusingha’s knowledge in the dressing room. Hathurusingha knew the strength and weaknesses of the Bangladesh team as well as their pitches like the back of his hand having been their mentor and coach for the past three years. So whatever challenges Bangladesh threw at Sri Lanka they were able to counter them successfully.
One needn’t have to look that far to realize how Hathurusingha operates. The selection of Akila Dananjaya ahead of Lakshan Sandakan proved a master stroke on the Dhaka pitch.
Dananjaya who till then had been recognized only as a one-day bowler proved how effective he can be in the longer format too capturing eight wickets in the match on his Test debut and subjecting Bangladesh to a three-day defeat. The Bangladeshi batsmen were all at sea against Dananjaya’s range of spin. Although he is rated as an off spin bowler Dananjaya bowls a variety of deliveries from off-break, leg-break, carrom ball, wrong ’un and doosra to confuse the batsmen and on a treacherous pitch proved unplayable. To say that he picked up his eight wickets in the match bowling only a total of 15 overs shows his mastery over the Bangladeshi batsmen.
The other factor that was in favour of Sri Lanka was the toss that played a decisive role in the outcome of the Test. Dinesh Chandimal who is turning out to be an inspirational leader called correctly on this occasion and the rest we all know.
So far on the tour Hathurusingha has shown his hand by first guiding the team to win the One-Day Tri-Series and now in the longer format the Test series. The two losses will certainly hurt Bangladesh as only four months ago Hathurusingha was sitting in their dressing room. The two T20Is is the next challenge that Sri Lanka faces before completing the tour.
It is still early days to judge the Sri Lanka team on how good they are. But Sri Lanka having gone through a torrid 2017 would welcome any kind of victory to boost the morale of the side and its supporters.
That Sri Lanka won the Test series without their most experienced batter Angelo Mathews and sans Kusal Perera and Asela Gunaratne shows the depth they have in their batting with virtually all the players having recovered from the various injuries that affected the team performances throughout 2017.
If Dananjaya proved to be a surprise packet as a match-winner for Sri Lanka in the second Test, the ‘find’ of the series was Roshen Silva who deservedly took the Man of the Match as well as the Man of the Series awards. Silva who had to wait a long time to break into the national Test side is making full use of his opportunity to cement a permanent place in the team.
Having begun his Test career with a duck in the first innings of the third Test against India at Delhi, Silva as a middle-order batsman scored an unbeaten 74 to help Sri Lanka force a draw. In the just concluded series against Bangladesh Silva scored his maiden Test century at Chittagong and followed it up with two high class half-centuries on an uneven Dhaka pitch where all the batsmen struggled to negotiate the bounce and turn. His unbeaten 70 off 145 balls in the second innings was the highest individual score made by any batsmen in the Test.
The other encouraging factor for Sri Lanka was the return to form of their brightest star Kusal Mendis after being left out of the series in India. A big game player Mendis scored another of his massive knocks for which he is gradually earning a reputation for, compiling 196 in the Chittagong Test and following it up with an innings of 68 in the first innings at Dhaka. At 23 Mendis is still young and has a lot to learn especially when you are close to a landmark like a double century in Test cricket. For the second time in his brief career he missed out on the opportunity – on both occasions against Bangladesh.
Mendis in this series was asked to open the batting with Dimuth Karunaratne. Whether that is a good move or not one has to keep one’s fingers crossed. Mendis needs to be tested against some of the top bowling sides in the world and see how he copes with extreme pace, seam and movement to fit in as an opening batsman. In his 24-match Test career so far Mendis has batted from positions 1-5 without ever retaining a permanent position.
This is not good for a batsman of Mendis’ extraordinary talent to be shifted up and down the batting order without giving him a permanent slot. The management and national selectors must decide soon which position is best suited to his style of play where they can get the maximum out of him as a batsman.
The vital number three slot for the time being has been filled in by Dhananjaya de Silva whose fluent stroke play is bringing him some useful runs in that position. Recalled for the series in India, De Silva marked his return to the Test side with a match saving century at Delhi against India and following that he made a career best 173 in the drawn first Test against Bangladesh at Chittagong.
He too like Mendis has not been given a permanent place in the batting line up having batted from positions 3-9 in his 13 Test appearances.
Despite Akila Dananjaya grabbing the limelight with his dream Test debut performance Rangana Herath referred often by his captain Dinesh Chandimal as “the wily old fox” continued to produce the match winning performances that he is capable of. His effort of 4/49 in the Bangladesh second innings at Dhaka took him past Pakistan fast bowler Wasim Akram’s tally of 414 Test wickets and made him the most successful left-arm bowler in Test history.
With Herath nearing 40 how long he can continue playing Test cricket will depend on the condition of his troubled knees. It is good that Sri Lanka are starting to groom some young spinners like Dananjaya and Sandakan to succeed him before he eventually calls it a day.
After a long time Sri Lanka that has a long tail are starting to produce some useful runs. Top of the list is Suranga Lakmal who has developed into a fairly good tailend batter having the ability to stick around even if he is not scoring runs. Dananjaya adds to that list. Lakmal’s confidence comes from the way he has developed into a strike bowler for his team.
As for Bangladesh without a permanent head coach they will continue to struggle. Their honeymoon with Hathurusingha is over and they may have to start from square one again to become the team they once were barely a few months ago.
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