Third umpire’s decision on Jayasundara ‘very strange: Hamilton collapse was like an earthquake – coach Jayaratne ..

A shell-shocked interim head coach Jerome Jayaratne has blamed “immaturity and lack of experience” as the reasons for Sri Lanka’s sensational batting collapse from 71-0 to 133 all out in the second innings of the second Test at Hamilton which New Zealand went onto win by five wickets and with it clinch the two-match series 2-0.

“I am shell-shocked as much as the entire country, it was like an earthquake which struck us in Hamilton for 13 overs,” Jayaratne told the Daily News.

“We were no wickets in 24 overs done all the hard work and then bowled out in 13 more overs, a total of 37 overs. From the position we were in there was no way this could have happened after all the planning we had done and, this young lot almost consistent in getting nearly 300 runs every time we batted.

“I just don’t know what happened this was never the plan can’t believe from where all the batsman decided to pull out their hook shots which cannot be controlled in these conditions against experienced bowlers. We just needed one last good effort from our batsmen to be competitive in the match and maybe we could have even won the game and levelled the series,” he said. Having taken a first innings lead of 55 runs Sri Lanka were nicely riding along at 71 for no wicket enjoying an overall lead of 126 with all ten wickets in hand when New Zealand decided to change tactics and started bowling short-pitched deliveries at them.

“The only conclusion I could imagine was that the batters were not confident of themselves and they doubted their own ability and technique under pressure,” said Jayaratne. “They were not mentally strong to weather the storm of the New Zealand fast bowlers’ short pitched bowling. At 72 for no wickets it did not seem like we were going to lose a wicket and New Zealand were running out of options when they decided to attack our batsman with short pitched bowling.

“We had spoken about this even the day before very well knowing that they would give us the same medicine we gave them on the second day. We had trained for this as we knew even before we set foot on New Zealand soil that we would counter this scenario. We were up to it till that time we had negotiated this form of attack well. Even our bowlers when they batted came good and we consistently were closing upon 300 runs every time we bated in the series,” he said.

Commenting on Udara Jayasundara’s controversial dismissal where he was given out by the third umpire after the onfield umpire had negatived the appeal for a catch behind the wicket, Jayaratne said, “We did check this up with the match referee David Boon and what he said was that Richard Kettleborough made this decision saying that on the slow motion replay he did see a movement of the glove. “He overruled the onfield decision of the umpire, hot spot and also the snickometer. Very strange to overturn all that evidence and make a call that he had conclusive evidence that there was movement of the glove. This was a game changer decision if we had not lost Udara at that time we wouldn’t have lost Chandimal who also got out before lunch in the space of ten minutes.”

KUSAL PERERA MISSED

Looking ahead at the five-match one-day international series starting in Christchurch on Boxing Day, Jayaratne rued the absence of their flamboyant opener Kusal Perera who was sent home after failing a dope test.

“I actually don’t know how badly his absence will affect the team. I know that the upfront combination is pretty dented, we know how devastating he can be and he also is a cricketer who can win you matches single-handed,” said Jayaratne.

“He was the man of the series in our recent series against West Indies we are going to miss him for sure.

However we also know that we may have to move on without his presence and I believe we need to regroup and find a new combination that would work for us at this stage.”