GALLE: When Kusal Mendis inside edged a catch behind the wicket off the first ball he received and was given a reprieve by the head umpire who ruled that delivery a no-ball as the bowler Subash Roy had overstepped the crease he would have known that Lady Luck was certainly on his side.
Kusal Mendis celebrates his century on the first day of the first Test against Bangladesh at the Galle International Stadium yesterday. (Pix by Saman Mendis)

Following that awful first shot he played that nearly cost him his wicket Mendis from there onwards hardly put a foot wrong as he made his way towards his second Test century in 15 matches to put Sri Lanka in a much firmer footing than they were at one stage at the end of the first day of the first Test against Bangladesh played at the Galle International Stadium yesterday.

It was Mendis’ brilliant knock of 176 that paved the way for Sri Lanka’s 3-0 sweep of Australia in their last home series in July 2015, and it has taken him another seven months to notch up his second hundred at the highest level.

The way he is going he is certain to end up with another big score which could be the decisive factor in determining which way the series would go. Mendis was unbeaten on 166 at stumps having batted for 362 minutes and hit 18 fours and two sixes in his 242-ball innings with Niroshan Dickwella on 14.

At 149 Mendis passed 1000 Test runs – the 31st Sri Lankan player to do so and with Gunaratne, he shared a new fourth wicket partnership of 196 off 261 balls against Bangladesh erasing the previous highest of 150 by Kumar Sangakkara and Aravinda de Silva at the P Sara Oval in 2002.

Mendis of whom everyone expects big things was all class as he settled down to play some glorious pulls, drives and sweeps, mainly on the leg side where he collected 99 of his 166 runs.

Gunaratne continued his golden run with the bat and was unfortunate to be dismissed for 85 when he dragged a wide ball that could have been left alone onto his stumps. He had seven fours in his 134-ball knock of 85.

Mendis and Gunaratne raised the batting tempo during their partnership after Sri Lanka had scored only 61 runs in the first session of play so that by the day’s end the total had exceeded 300.

The final session of play produced 166 runs as the Lankan batsmen made capital out of the tired Bangladesh bowlers on a very hot day that saw the support staff bring out a giant umbrella to provide shade to the players during the drinks breaks.

The two batsmen Sri Lanka were banking on to score heavily Dimuth Karunaratne and Dinesh Chandimal both failed. Karunaratne coming to this Test on the back of a double century scored against England Lions in the unofficial test at Dambulla made 30 before chopping the ball onto his stumps.

Chandimal having scored an unbeaten 190 against this bowling attack for Sri Lanka President’s XI in the two-day warm-up match was strangely subdued scratching around 54 balls for five before dot balls brought about his downfall got the better of him and his expansive drive ended up in gully’s hands.

Upul Tharanga never looked a Test opener with his poor technique and it was no surprise when he was beaten all ends up by a delivery from Subash Roy that ripped through his defence and shattered his stumps in the sixth over of the day.

Sri Lanka strengthened their bowling attack for this Test going in with five specialist bowlers that included three spinners for the expense of a batsman Dhananjaya de Silva. Bangladesh also opted for five specialist bowlers but included three seamers instead.

The third day of the Red Bull Campus Cricket World Final began with three teams; BMS, UCPL, ATCUP winning both games while ULAB and Loughborough University claiming one each game. University of Sydney, Marathwada Mithramandal College of Commerce and HWUD were defeated in all matches they had played in the qualifying round at the end of the second day’s play.

The semi final round is due to start on Saturday (September 10) at the Galle International Stadium, followed by the final on September 11 at the same venue. In semi finals, ATCUP of South Africa will take on BMS of Sri Lanka whilst UCPL of Pakistan will meet ULAB of Bangladesh.

Business Management School (BMS) from Sri Lanka, University of Sydney, Australia, University of Liberal Arts Bangladesh (ULAB), Loughborough University of England, Marathwada Mitra Mandal College of Commerce (MMCC College) Pune from India, University Of Central Punjab, Lahore from Pakistan, Assupol TuksCricket, University of Pretoria from South Africa and Heriot Watt University, Dubai from United Arab Emirates, are the eight teams qualified to play in this year’s world finals after being qualified through national competitions conducted in relevant countries.

Assupol Tuks Cricket (University of Pretoria) of South Africa who won the last two finals in 2014 and 2015 will undoubtedly make every endeavor to win it for the third consecutive year in order to accomplish a hat-trick. While England’s Loughborough University will be looking for a revenge after losing the final last year. Business Management School (BMS) representing Sri Lanka in this grand final will no doubt be a threat to the other teams in the finals as they have the advantage of home conditions.

The eight teams will be divided into two groups at four apiece at the group stage, according to the tournament draw due on September 4th, 2016. The group stage matches will be played in Colombo from September 5th -7th, at the headquarters of Sri Lankan cricket, the Sinhalese Sports Club, and at the adjacent Nondescripts Cricket Club followed by the semi-finals and final which will take place at the Galle International Stadium on September 10th and 11th respectively.

The competition this year will see the trial of a new Energizer Over, where the runs for one over per side, tactically nominated by the batting team at any point after the Power-play overs, will count double. Any wickets taken during that over will cost the batting side 5 penalty runs.

Brendon Kuruppu, tournament director and former Sri Lanka cricketer stated that; it is a unique opportunity for the outstanding cricketers around the world to show their skills and talent. Furthermore, he stated that the tournament had become one of the most important tournaments to the host county Sri Lanka, since the players representing their colleges had shown their talents in the finals in their country, previous week.

Shehan Jayasuriya, Niroshan Dickwella and Dasun Shanaka playing for the BMS, (Colombo), are few of them. He further stated that it’s undoubtedly the same around the world and concluded that 2016 is the hardest battle fought.

Stafford Motors ‘’Champs of MCA Division G’’

Stafford Motors clinched the MCA Div G 25 over championship by 8 wickets as experienced Sanjaya Gangodawila cracked 69 after Pramesh Fernando led Stafford bowling attack restricted the Palliyaguruge group for 137.

Batting first after winning the toss Palliyaguruge group was bowled out in 23.4 overs for a score of 137. Pramesh Fernando and Shanaka Sampath shared 7 wickets between them being the main destroyers for Stafford Motors.

Stafford chased down the target down with ease losing only 2 wickets as Sanjaya Gangodawila top scored with 69. Asantha Singappuli made his contributions with an unbeaten 36 as Stafford for crowned MCA G division champs at the MCA grounds a short while ago.

“We’ve been outplayed in both Test matches and the moods not great at the moment. Guys are a bit down at the moment and fair enough to it’s been a tough series so far,” said Smith reflecting on his team’s 229-run defeat inside three days at Galle International Stadium on Saturday. “Bit disappointed but we got plenty to play for in Colombo (SSC). We got to try and prove to ourselves and the public that we can play in these conditions.”

What has troubled the Australian batsmen most is the ball skidding off the surface and the one that spins away from the bat.
Australia’s stand out bowler in the series Mitchell Starc.

“They got some quality bowlers in their team, they do get the ball to skid and spin sharply as well. When the ball does spin sharply it sort of plays on your mind that you might just play outside it. We haven’t been good enough with it we have to find ways to make sure that we are covering the ball that doesn’t spin, the majority of the time if it spins, it spins too far,” explained Smith. “We just have to forget about playing the ball before essentially, and play the ball as it comes if it does spin it spins past the stumps.

“It’s sort of instinct all the guys growing up in Australia the majority of wickets we play on, they are pretty true they don’t often see too many spinning past the bat or the one that does go straight. It sort of doesn’t speed up off the wicket as such so certainly it’s a lot easier to play spin in Australia. We have to find ways to do it differently here,” he said.

“The guys have learnt a little bit from the way the Lankan batters play. We saw a lot of sweep shots from them reverse sweeps, the guys have learnt a little bit and have their own plans and have the courage to implement the plans in the middle. It’s never easy when the ball is spinning and skidding. We don’t know which one is which, with guys around the bat it’s difficult, you’ve got to have the courage to find a way to do it.”

It’s not only with their batting that Smith has concerns but also with his spinners who have failed to show the same success as the Lankan trundlers.

“They didn’t get many wickets did they? We need to find ways to bowl differently to how we bowl our spin in Australia,” said Smith. “You look at the Sri Lankan spinners or any of the subcontinent spinners they bowl that sort of side seam on the ball where they can go up and down with their speeds and trajectory and the ball reacts differently – one ball goes straight on and speeds up off the wicket, one ball spins and you don’t know which ones. I don’t think the bowlers actually know which one is which either. “In Australia traditionally you are taught to get on top of the ball and you need that shape to try and do the batsman in, drift and shape in the air whereas it’s exactly the opposite playing in the subcontinent. The ones with the side seam are extremely hard to face and our spin bowlers need to continue working on that. It’s bowling a completely different way to bowling in Australia.

“It’s about time our spinners finding a way to bowl a bit better in these conditions. The shape has to change the way the ball comes out of the hand instead of going on top of the ball go around the ball, things like that to try and deceive the batsmen more off the pitch than in the air in these conditions,” he said.

“To be fair all of the fast bowlers did a pretty good job for us in this game. But to be fair it should not be them taking the wickets but it should be our spinners getting the job done. Jon Holland in his first test is obviously going to be nervous, you can excuse that a little bit but the spinners have to find a way to get wickets and keep the runs dry on these surfaces. We have gone over four an over for both Test matches.”

Smith was full of praise for his fast bowler Mitchell Starc who has bowled exceptionally well on spin oriented pitches to capture 17 wickets which is the most by any bowler on either side so far.

“Mitchell’s been outstanding yesterday (Friday) after a very short break basically bowled for two days and never once did he say that he needed a break, He wanted to bowl more and more,” said Smith. “He’s certainly toughened up a lot as an Australian fast bowler he is doing a terrific job at the moment. When the ball is reverse swinging he is incredibly hard to face. He is continuing to improve every day which is a great sign for Australia.”

Batting all-rounder Siriwardena has been rewarded for making an encouraging start to his ODI career while Kusal Mendis had the honour of captaining the Sri Lanka U19 team during last year’s Youth World Cup.

Both Siriwardena and Mendis are currently playing in the three-day practice match against the West Indies which commenced at the SSC ground in Maitland Place yesterday.

However the national selectors have left out two veterans Upul Tharanga and Jehan Mubarak who made their appearances in the recent series’ against Pakistan and India respectively.

The Sri Lanka squad: Angelo Mathews (captain), -Lahiru Thirimanne (vice captain), Kaushal Silva, Dimuth Karunaratne, Dinesh Chandimal, Kusal Perera, Milinda Siriwardene, Kusal Mendis, Rangana Herath, Dilruwan Perera, Tharindu Kaushal, Dhammika Prasad, Nuwan Pradeep, Suranga Lakmal, Dushmantha Chameera. (CD)