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Firdose Moonda in Benoni
December 7, 2011
Sri Lanka's Test squad have arrived in South Africa with an obvious weakness - their bowling. Tillakaratne Dilshan, their captain, chose to say almost nothing about it.
"Any fast bowler who comes to South Africa likes to bowl here," Dilshan said in Benoni, where Sri Lanka are preparing to play a warm-up match against an Invitation XI starting on Friday. And that was that.
He made no reference to their missing quintet of seamers that includes Suranga Lakmal, their carrying of the perennially under-performing Dilhara Fernando, the responsibility that will sit on the shoulders of Chanaka Welegedara or the adjustments Ajantha Mendis and Rangana Herath will have to make to be effective in South Africa. He made no comments about the need to take 20 wickets to win a Test - something Sri Lanka have never done in South Africa.
Instead, Dilshan's plans for success in a country with some of the most seamer-friendly, pacy and bouncy pitches in the world did not involve the ball at all. "If the batting unit can put some runs on the board, we will do well in South Africa," he said.
Except that even in the batting department, Sri Lanka have not been their usual powerful selves. Only Kumar Sangakkara scored a century in their recent three-Test series against Pakistan, which they lost 1-0. Sri Lanka were bowled out in five of the six innings, three times for less than 260. "We know in the last few series, batting didn't click," Dilshan admitted.
Yet when asked to identify the area which could prove match winning for Sri Lanka, Dilshan was adamant that it would be batting. If the line-up could use Mahela Jayawardene and Kumar Sangakkara as their kingpins and perform around them, Dilshan predicted they would do well. "The batting unit is experienced; Mahela and Sanga have played a little bit in South Africa. Those are experienced guys. We can build around them. Thilan [Samaraweera] has come back into the side, he is experienced guy in the middle order. Myself and the youngsters, like Chandimal, have to put their hands up."
Jayawardene and Sangakkara are two of the three players (the other being Fernando) to have played a Test in South Africa before, Sri Lanka last toured the country nine ago, in 2002. Dilshan admitted that his team will have to make a speedy adjustment to the conditions that are foreign to them. "We have played on and off one-day series in South Africa and that has helped a little bit," he said. "But, everyone should get ready for these conditions as soon as possible."
The warm-up match will be Sri Lanka's only opportunity to acclimatise to conditions and the pitch in Benoni should provide them with a good introduction to South African surfaces.
Although not a particularly spicy pitch, it has recently produced a match in which wickets fell heavily. The SuperSport Series contest between the Titans and the Cobras in October south-africa-domestic-2011/engine/match/530269.html saw the Titans dismissed for 112 in their first innings and nine wickets fell on the second day.
Dilshan did say that some of his batsmen, including him, are already comfortable with such pitches. "Sanga, Mahela and myself really like bouncy tracks," he said. "If we get runs on the board as a batting group in this three-day match and everyone can come into form, that will be important for us. We have to play our brand of cricket. If we can play our brand of cricket we can beat South Africa."
At the same time, Dilshan recognised that Sri Lanka had no room for mistakes. "We can't make any mistakes. We have to be at 100% commitment for this series. Everyone should put their hands up and take responsibility." Hopefully, that includes the bowlers as well.
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