Mahela Jayawardena’s super leadership

With Sri Lanka getting the better of the Test series with Pakistan, its opportune to reflect on the superb leadership that Mahela Jayawardena displayed. We take this for granted and it is not unusual for selectors and boards to have short memories and fail to capitaise on such talent,but let opportunism and expediency get the better of them by trying out other leaders.

In Jayawardena Sri Lanka has a real leader, who with his fearless and attacking play can lead them to many more victories and who knows, like Don Bradman, could lead a team to be called the ‘invincibles’.

Jayawardena was the first Sri Lankan batsman to rewrite the record books by dashing past the 10 thousand mark in Test cricket and 22 thousand runs in all forms of the game – thus proving that I lead others follow. Jayawardena has always stated that youngsters must be given the all- important exposure to take Sri Lanka cricket forward. At every opportunity he has tossed in youngsters who have proved themselves.

The Sri Lankans from now on will have a surfeit of one-day and Twenty20 cricket. They have it in them to adjust and continue their good run in these formats. Next India will be here for Five one-day internationals and a Twenty20 game.

Misbah statement make many laugh

Pakistani Captain Misbah Ul Haq's statement made many laugh! He said that his team was left confused has to why Sri Lanka closed shop and made no attempt at the target of 271 for victory in 71 overs, at the conclusion of the Final Test media conference at Pallekelle on Thursday.

The Pakistan captain must turn the searchlight inwards and ask himself the question as to why he batted too long before lunch and then declare? He has enough experience to know that when a match cannot be won, every endeavour must be made not to lose it. In waiting for Asad Shafiq to make a century, the Pakistanis wasted valuable time. It is normal for any batsman getting into the nineties, which is called the nervous nineties, to go on reverse gear, be cautious, take his time and anyhow get to that dream figure-- the dream of any batsman.

Final day

When the final day began the onus was on Pakistan to somehow or other draw on all their cunning and forces at their command and force a win, so that they could save face by winning and squaring the series one-all which would have looked respectable.

With a lead of 188 going into the final day Misbah's instructions to Shafiq and the injured Adnan Akmal should have been to score as much runs as possible, in the quickest time possible and in the process if Shafiq’s century came, well and good. But what did the two batsmen do? They took their time and after batting for over 90 minutes the declaration came, which was not temping enough for the Sri Lankans to chase.

Like Jayawarena who has the best cricketing brain as captain in the game today explained, there was no need for a mad rush because the series was in the bag and there was no need to go for the chase, drop your guard and get knocked out and squander the hard won one- nil lead in the Three Test series.

Dared losing

The Pakistanis should have realized that their chances of forcing a win could come only if they dared taking the risk of losing. They should have dangled the carrot and tempted the Sri Lankans by giving them a juicy target.But by first playing safe and then asking the Lankans to launch is poor thinking by the opposition.

The Pakistanis should remember that losing one-nil or ten- nil was immaterial, what was required of them was to win.Now that they have lost the one-day series 3-1 and the Test series 1-0, lost prestige and fallen from grace, instead of making lame excuses and crying over spilt milk, the Pakistanis should go back to the drawing boards or back to the nets and learn.

As for Skipper Mahela Jayawardena and his team of dour fighters, we say well done. As Jayawardena has stated when the Pakistanis arrived here there was no one who gave Sri Lanka a chance against an opposition that was strong in all departments of the game.

Raised their spirits

But that Jayawardena, his troops and coach Graham Ford raised their spirits and their game and cocked a snook at their critics and proved them wrong by winning the two series which would have made their critics realise that they have put thfeet in their mouths.

There were two departments in the game that let the Pakistanis down badly and led to their defeats. Firstly it was their fielding. It was sickening watching their atrocious ground fielding and catching.

It looked as though they had left their fielding hands back home! Balls that could have been stopped, allowed batsmen to turn ones into twos and when the catch came along it was amusing to watch the way they were floored.

It all stemmed from the fact, that they were grabbing the ball, taking their eyes off the ball and not watching it into their hands.

Their fielding coach cannot be blamed for this. He would have obviously given them proper advice but you can only take a horse to water and cannot force it to drink.

Second factor

Then the second factor was that off spinner Saeed Ajmal who came here with the crown of being the best off spinner in the world on his head, failing to live up to that reputation. He probably would have been upset that Sri Lanka Cricket had allegedly reported him to Match Referee David Boon for a questionable action.

SLC should have left that controversial theme to the channels set up by the International Cricket Council to deal with.

It was a nagging thought in the minds of the Sri Lankan cricketers and cricket fans that they had not won a Test series since Muttiah Muralitharan retired three years ago.

The Sri Lankans have won Test matches, but not series. Now they have won a Test series without, Muralitharan and that is great.

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