Sports
Sri Lanka facing a mountain in second Test
Rex Clementine
in Port Elizabeth
Sri Lanka’s tour of South Africa this year feels like a Shakespearean tragedy – full of promise but undone by self-inflicted wounds. The team’s batting has been about as reliable as a chocolate teapot, and their hopes of reaching the World Test Championship final are slipping through their fingers like sand in an hourglass.
In the second Test, Sri Lanka had South Africa on the ropes. A first-innings lead of over 100 runs seemed all but certain as they headed into the third day. But instead of tightening the screws, they pressed the self-destruct button with a series of reckless shots, the worst offender being Dhananjaya de Silva, who earned the ire of fans and teammates alike.
Sri Lanka’s skipper, the right-handed version of David Gower, often mesmerizes with his elegance at the crease. He makes batting look as effortless as slicing through butter with a hot knife. But, like Gower, he has an uncanny knack for gifting his wicket away when least expected. He did it in Durban, and he repeated the trick in Port Elizabeth on day three.
With the new ball taken, Sri Lanka’s priority was to weather the storm and see off the first hour. But at the end of an over, Dhananjaya signaled for his bat to be taped. Enter the substitutes, bearing three shiny new Stanford blades. Yet, instead of swapping bats, he decided to tape it up, prompting the umpires to hustle him along.
What followed was pure comedy – or tragedy, depending on your allegiance. Off the very next ball, a wide delivery from Dane Paterson, Dhananjaya swung with all the subtlety of a bull in a China shop and was promptly caught in the slips. It was a lapse in concentration. To add insult to injury, his dismissal triggered a domino effect, with two more wickets falling in the same over. Cricket, as they say, is a funny old game.
From dreams of a healthy lead, Sri Lanka found themselves 30 runs adrift at the end of the first innings.
Despite the batting implosion, Sri Lanka’s bowlers deserve a standing ovation. They bowled with heart, running in tirelessly to make life miserable for the Proteas. Prabath Jayasuriya, the quiet assassin, bagged a five-wicket haul—the tenth of his career but his first away from home. His exuberant celebrations seemed to shout, “Who says I can’t do it overseas?”
Meanwhile, Lahiru Kumara was breathing fire. Not only did he add wickets to his tally, but he also rattled South African batters—literally. In one over, he hit both Kagiso Rabada and Dane Paterson on the helmet, serving up a spicy dose of their own medicine.
Chasing 348 runs to win, Sri Lanka reached tea on day four at 60 for two, with veterans Angelo Mathews and Dinesh Chandimal holding the fort. While no team has ever chased such a target in South Africa, cricket is a game of glorious uncertainties. For now, Sri Lanka’s immediate goal will be to drag the contest into the fifth day before daring to dream of an upset.
The team’s resilience on this tour has been admirable – they’ve fought tooth and nail even when backed into corners. Yet, their Achilles’ heel has been batter’s inability to sustain pressure over extended periods.
Dhananjaya’s dismissal in the first innings was symptomatic of Sri Lanka’s woes. Pathum Nissanka, too, is guilty of squandering opportunities. Only five Sri Lankans have ever scored centuries in South Africa – a testament to how tough batting conditions are here. Pathum, having done the hard yards to reach 89, inexplicably charged down the track to Keshav Maharaj and perished, throwing away what could have been a landmark knock.
The openers had shown grit in the first innings, putting on 41 runs for the first wicket while seeing off 16 overs. That effort laid a solid foundation for the middle order. But in the second innings, the script unraveled.
Dimuth Karunaratne’s miserable run continued as Kagiso Rabada dismissed him yet again. In 2024, Dimuth’s willow has been quieter than a library at midnight – 19 Test innings, just five half-centuries and no hundreds. Pathum Nissanka followed suit soon after for a meager 18, leaving the team wobbling.
Noor Ahmad, the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) left-arm wristspinner, continues to head the Purple Cap table with ten wickets from four games. His spell of 4 for 18 in CSK’s first game against MI, remains his best so far.
DC’s Mitchell Starc who picked up his maiden five-for in T20s, against SRH remains second on the list with nine wickets in three games.
GT’s Mohammed Siraj equalled Starc’s tally on Sunday night with his own IPL best, albeit he has played four games to Starc’s three. Siraj picked up 4 for 17 against SRH to hand them their four successive loss, and was named the Player of the Match.
Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) suffered another batting malfunction, this time on a slow, black-soil surface at home, crashing to their fourth successive defeat in IPL 2025. Having lost Travishek in the powerplay, SRH waited until the 13th over to see the first six of the innings, and managed only one more after that Mohammad Siraj caused irreparable damage right from the start, ending with his career-best IPL figures of 4 for 17.
Pat Cummins’ cameo (22* off nine balls) and then his dismissal of Jos Buttler for a duck in Gujarat Titans’ (GT) chase of 153 gave SRH some hope, but that faded away once Washington Sundar clattered 23 off nine balls in the powerplay. Earlier in the day, GT didn’t need Washington with the ball, but his attacking enterprise at No. 4 settled their chase on a slow pitch. Washington fell agonisingly short of a maiden IPL half-century, but his captain Shubman Gill ushered GT home, with an unbeaten 61 off 43 balls, along with Sherfane Rutherford.
Siraj had sparked the Border-Gavaskar Trophy to life when he gave Travis Head a send-off in Adelaide last December. Four months on, Siraj was bowling to Head for the first time in T20s, and the battle lasted just five balls. After Head scored two fours off Siraj, the fast bowler struck with his trademark wobble-seam delivery, having him chip a catch to midwicket for 8.
Abhishek Sharma hit four fours before Siraj had him miscuing a catch to mid-on in his third over of the powerplay. It was Siraj’s 100th wicket in the IPL and sixth in the powerplay, the most by a bowler in that phase so far this season, with an economy rate of 6.27.
Siraj then returned in the death to york both Aniket Verma, the last recognised batter for SRH, and Simarjeet Singh, their Impact Player.
With both Head and Abhishek gone early,Rashid Khan, who was coming into this game on the back of figures of 4-0-54-0, could afford to ease himself in. He started fairly well by giving away just 10 runs in his first two overs, but when he erred in length, Nitish Kumar Reddy and Heinrich Klassen dispatched him to the fence. Rashid finished with 4-0-31-0, going wicketless for a third successive game, and with tournament figures of 1 for 143 in 14 overs at an economy rate of 10.21
Left-arm fingerspinner Ravisrinivasan Sai Kishore, on the other hand, showed remarkable control over his length and variations. He claimed the big wicket of Klaasen by knocking him over with a quick dart, which skidded off the pitch, for 27 off 19 balls. Sai Kishore also had Reddy holing out for 31 off 34 balls and finished with 4-0-24-2.
That SRH passed 150 was down to Cummins’ late blows. He was the only SRH batter in the top eight to have a strike rate of over 160.
It appeared like GT had handed a franchise debut to Washington to primarily match his offspin up with SRH’s left-hander heavy top order. But with Siraj dominating the powerplay and Sai Kishore taking care of the middle overs, GT ended up not using his offspin.
Washington then walked out to bat at No. 4 after his childhood friend B Sai Sudarshan and Buttler fell cheaply in successive overs. Washington took advantage of the last over of the powerplay, smoking Simarjeet for two sixes and two fours. It provided a throwback to Washington of 2016, when he opened the batting, alongside Abhinav Mukund, in the TNPL and showed the intent to hit over the top. Just like that, Washington dumped SRH’s Impact Player out of the attack.
Washington continued to attack even after that. When the ambidextrous Kamindu Mendis darted one on the stumps with his right hand, Washington manufactured swinging room and laced him over extra-cover for four. Washington seemed set for a fifty until he holed out one shy of the landmark in the 14th over.
Gill, who had already crossed 50 by that point, finished the job along with Rutherford, who hit an unbeaten 35 off 16 balls.
Brief scores:
Gujarat Titans 153 for 3 in 16.4 overs (Shubman Gill 61*, Washington Sundar 49, Sherfaine Rutherford 35*; Mohammed Shami 2-28, Pat Cumminss 1-26) beat Sunrisers Hyderabad 152 for 8 in 20 overs (Abhishek Sharma 18, Ishan Krishan 17, Nitish Kumar Reddy 31, Heinrich Klassen 27, Aniket Verma 18,Pat Cummins 22*; Mohammed Siraj 4-17, Ravisrinivasan Sai Kishore 2-24, Prasidh Krishna 2-25)by seven wickets
[Cricinfo]
In a diplomatic innings off the field, former Sri Lanka captain and 1996 World Cup hero Sanath Jayasuriya has made a heartfelt pitch to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, urging his support to build an international cricket ground in Jaffna – a region teeming with raw, untapped talent.
The iconic Sri Lankan side that pulled off a fairy-tale triumph in the 1996 Cricket World Cup – scalping heavyweights like India in the semi-final and Australia in the final – was invited by the Indian High Commission in Colombo to meet the visiting Prime Minister. Modi, a self-confessed cricket aficionado, is currently on a three-day state visit to Sri Lanka.
While six members of the World Cup-winning squad were missing – either abroad on business or deep in the trenches of the Indian Premier League – the rest of the squad turned up for the high-profile meet at Colombo’s popular Taj Samudra Hotel.
“We had about 45 minutes with the Prime Minister, and it became clear early in the conversation that he’s not just a statesman but also a true cricket tragic,” said Jayasuriya, the Player of the Series in 1996 and now Head Coach of the Sri Lankan team, speaking to Telecom Asia Sport. “It gave us the perfect opportunity to thank him for India’s unwavering support during our economic collapse – when we were batting on a sticky wicket.”
The conversation then took a turn towards development and legacy.
“Sanath seized the moment and floated the idea of building an international-standard cricket ground in the north or east of the country,” said Marvan Atapattu, another former Test captain and Head Coach.
“He told the PM that the north and east are brimming with talent. But without proper infrastructure, those future stars are left playing in the rough. The PM was all ears. He nodded, said he’d take it to his team, and would get back to us.”
The meeting ended on a sentimental note. Aravinda de Silva, the architect of Sri Lanka’s historic World Cup final win, handed over a special souvenir to Prime Minister Modi – a commemorative box of medallions, each bearing the signature of the entire 1996 squad.
India and Sri Lanka, bound by geography and a shared cricketing heartbeat, have long been partners both on and off the field. Their friendship stretches back centuries, with recent years seeing a tightening of bilateral ties. Several new agreements were inked during the Indian Prime Minister’s visit.
In the cricketing realm, India has played a pivotal role in Sri Lanka’s journey. It was India that championed Sri Lanka’s Test status in 1981, and welcomed the islanders for a Test Match in Madras the following year.
Now, as both nations prepare to co-host the 2026 ICC T20 World Cup, the hope is that this partnership will grow from strength to strength.
(Telecom Asia Sport)
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