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| Friday, 10 September 2004 |
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Beating South Africa - undreamed of riches by Sa'adi Thawfeeq Sri Lanka's double success over South Africa in Test and One-day Internationals will go down in the annals of our history as undreamed of riches. When Graeme Smith's team arrived for a one-month tour neither he nor the Sri Lanka team would have expected the result that was finally delivered. That South Africa was not the same force they were a few years ago soon became evident after the Galle Test, which they managed to bat out and draw. Smith came out with the comments that the draw was 'a huge positive step forward' and that more than his team Sri Lanka will be asking questions because they failed to beat South Africa on their famous hunting ground. But come the second Test at the SSC when things started to fall apart for the South Africans as Sri Lanka lifted their game one notch higher to outplay them by a massive margin of 313 runs. It was South Africa second worst defeat in Tests by the margin of runs. Smith who had a week ago said that he was proud the way his team performed now accused them of lack of 'commitment and passion' and called upon his players to take a hard look at themselves and their performances. But try as they might, the South Africans were never allowed to raise their heads as Sri Lanka kept them pinned down throughout the rest of the tour to complete their maiden series triumphs over the Proteas in the Tests (1-0) and the one-day series (5-0). It was a result, which South Africa found hard to believe that they could hit such a low against Sri Lanka. What they did not bargain for was that the Sri Lankans had vastly improved their mental strength. Playing two successive Test series against Australia both at home and away had resulted in that. They showed signs of a transformation by winning the Asia Cup tournament beating fancied teams like India and Pakistan and followed it up with victories in both forms of the game over South Africa. The body language of the Sri Lankans in these three series showed the confidence that had been building inside them ever since Marvan Atapattu's captaincy was extended to the Tests as well. He was made to wait one whole year for the Test captaincy and the way he led his team showed just how determined he was to show the selectors (not the present committee) that he meant to catch up on lost time. The key factor to Atapattu's inspirational leadership is that he has created competition for places amongst the team positions that no one can take his place for granted. Sanath Jayasuriya, the senior citizen in the team who was going through a lean patch was soon to realize that he needed to deliver or make way for another batsman. The result was that he hammered back to back centuries in the Asia Cup and it did not end there. He improved his bowling skills as well taking a career best 5 for 34 to rout South Africa for 189 in the first innings of the SSC Test from which position they were unable to recover. Vice captain Mahela Jayawardene was more to the point when he said that there are no seniors or juniors in the team when they took to the field. "It is not one or two guys performing brilliantly and carrying the team, but everyone is contributing." In the first Test it was Jayawardene's monumental knock of 237. It was followed by an equally good innings of 232 from Kumar Sangakkara in the second test and backed up superbly by the spin of Jayasuriya and Herath and the pace of Vaas and Malinga. Vaas not only shone with the ball but displayed his all round talent scoring 92 runs and taking nine wickets to take the man-of-the-series award. Thinking on your own There was a time when Sri Lanka depended largely on the contributions of Arjuna Ranatunga and Aravinda de Silva for success. But all that has changed and the team's outlook has also taken a different dimension after John Dyson took over as coach. Initially Dyson's approach was difficult to fathom and people started to criticize his methods of coaching. But Dyson was looking ahead of the rest and concentrated on an aspect of the game which in his opinion was best suited for the team. That was to train the players to think for themselves as professionals. For too long he said the Sri Lankan players had been spoon-fed, held by the hand and told what to do. "When they are in the middle they are on their own. They must think for themselves out there and they must react to situations," is what Dyson has been emphasizing on the players. That it is beginning to take effect is shown by the results on the board. Sangakkara who narrowly missed out on the man-of-the-series prize for the Tests won it for the one-day series. He continued to plunder runs at will against South Africa so that he ended up as the leading run getter for his country in both the Test and One-day series. He accumulated 367 runs (avg. 91.75) in the Tests and 247 runs (avg. 61.75) in the one-dayers to fulfill the promise of his youth. "I've decided that I would play my normal aggressive game but try and cut out my rash shots and take fewer risks. It's been working very well so far," he said. The plus factors for Sri Lanka are the re-emergence of Nuwan Zoysa as a competitive fast bowler, the promise of Lasith Malinga and Farveez Maharoof and the supporting roles played by Chandana, Herath and Lokuarachchi in filling the void created by the absence of Muralitharan. The part played by Dilshan as a frontline spinner in the one-day games was another encouraging factor. He took eight wickets as much as Chandana in the five matches and nearly bowled his full quota of overs (37.4). Having rediscovered his flight and loop Lokuarachchi looked a totally different bowler to what he was before he went out of international cricket for a short time. A short stint in India at the spinners academy with former spinners Maninder Singh and Lakshman Sivaramakrishnan must have done wonders to his bowling. He bowled a teasing length and coupled with his agility as a fielder and batting skills, he edged out Herath for the spot vacated by Muralitharan in the ICC Champions trophy team to England. Not the same As for the South Africans they were nowhere close to the teams brought here in the past by Kepler Wessels and Shaun Pollock. Although no one was willing to admit it, there certainly was a lack of co-ordination amongst some of the senior players and the captain. When things were not going their way one hardly saw former captain Pollock go to the aid of Smith and try to help his young captain out. The dislodging of Pollock from the captaincy over the 2003 World Cup rain rule muddle against Sri Lanka was controversial. South Africa is renowned to be one of the best fielding sides in the world. But on this occasion although their ground fielding was excellent their catching was awful and crucial dropped chances cost them dearly. Smith began his rein as captain on a high note with consecutive double centuries in England which saw them draw the Test series and follow it up with a whitewash of West Indies at home (winning Test 3-0 and ODI 3-1). But of late he has not been having things his own way. South Africa drew the Test series in New Zealand (1-1) but after winning the first match of a six-match one-day series lost the next five consecutively. Those one-day losses were stretched to 10-in-a-row after their defeat in Sri Lanka. Smith was optimistic it will stop there and that South Africa can recover from the disastrous Sri Lankan tour and win the ICC Champions trophy in England in conditions which his seam bowlers will be very much home against. Let's wait and see. |
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