Rex Clementine in London

The Oval 1998 is special for all Sri Lankans because that win over England broke many glass ceilings. Sri Lanka were reigning ODI World Champions at that point and to give them a one off Test match was an insult. But captain Arjuna Ranatunga used that as a motivation to fire up his players. Sanath Jayasuriya’s double hundred, Aravinda de Silva 152 and Muttiah Muralitharan’s 16 wickets resulted in a ten wicket win and Richie Benaud on commentary rubbing salt to English wounds will remain in our memories forever.

But is the recent win at The Oval better than the 1998 one? Well, it could be. In 1998 Sri Lanka had an experienced team. Arjuna, Sanath, Aravinda and Murali were household names. But the heroes of the 2024 win were barely known to the Englishmen. Milan Ratnayake leave alone in England, but he is hardly known in Colombo. Pathum Nissanka and Kamindu Mendis came out of Heathrow for the first time but they both adapted so well.

“You can never forget the 1998 win. The way Arjuna motivated us and yes that’s an unforgettable win. But in that game conditions were to our favour and we had a very strong team. But this time we played in total different conditions,” Sanath Jayasuriya hero in 1998 and Head Coach in 2024 told journalists.

“This time, there was a lot of grass. It was cloudy, gloomy and very cold. Conditions were ideal for England seamers. The way Kamindu and Dhananjaya batted was outstanding in the first innings and then in the second innings Kusal gave us a prolific start and Angelo finished it so well using all his experience. I simply don’t have words to explain Pathum Nissanka. He is in a different league,” added Jayasuriya

“We had a lot of faith in Pathum. But then he made it look all too easy. The way he batted is an example for any young batsman to watch and learn how to bat in England when conditions are seaming around. For the first hour, he played with a straight bat. No cross batted shots. All his runs in that hour came with straight drives. Then as the bowlers were tiring and faulted with their lines, he started playing the cut, pull and those square drives and cover drives were so good to see,” Jayasuriya noted.

“Then once we had the game within our reach, Pathum showed the England bowlers who the boss is. Those two hook shots that he played for six off Stone would have hurt England. That is called winning in style,” the former Test captain further said.

Sri Lanka took a gamble by backing four seam bowlers for the Test match and leaving out spinner Prabath Jayasuriya. That proved to be a superb decision as all four of them made an impact.

“We took a gamble. It has never happened in our history as traditionally spin has been our strength. We had to think out of the box because conditions demanded extra seam. Asitha bowled some unplayable spells and finished as the leading wicket taker in the series from either side. Lahiru Kumara bowled with pace and I liked his aggression. Then Vishwa was outstanding in the second innings. Milan Ratnayake is the new kid in the block and he will go a long way,” said Jayasuriya.

Jayasuriya himself has a lot of experience in England having represented Somerset, Lancashire and Worcester in County Cricket. He was asked whether England underestimated Sri Lanka with a 2-0 series lead in hand.

“We don’t worry about that. We wanted to play for our strength and we won the Test match. Old Trafford, where we lost by five wickets, was a tight game. I feel that if we had come into the series with one more warm-up game, we would have fared much better.