Today, Rangana Herath was just named Player of the Series ! - for a one-match series, and another hero was Player of the match - Downdegedara Asela Sampath Gunaratne. History would otherwise have been made ~ Sri
Lanka denied Zimbabwe their first Test series away win in 16 years by chasing
down a record-breaking 388 to win the one-off Test by four wickets in Colombo.
16 off the last
over would be a daunting enough challenge even in a Twenty20 chase. Sixteen an
over for the final three overs is something else entirely. And yet in Feb this year at Simonds Stadium, Geelong,
Victoria, Australia's captain, Aaron
Finch, said he felt that while Asela Gunaratne remained at the crease, Sri
Lanka still had a chance of achieving their goal, an assessment that turned out
to be accurate, to the delight of thousands of Sri Lankan fans at Geelong's
Kardinia Oval. Gunaratne took 12 off James Faulkner, then 22 off Moises
Henriques, and the 14 that Sri Lanka then needed off the final over from Andrew
Tye were completed when Gunaratne crunched the last ball over cover for four. After that innings – it was apparent that he will be
featured in IPL and Mumbai Indians picked him for Rs. 30 lakhs ! ~ he is hailed in Lanka today ..
Niroshan Dickwella
has played more Tests, but during the 121-run stand that turned the match, it
was Asela Gunaratne who found himself constantly pestered for advice. Sri Lanka
had been five-down and 185 runs short of their target when the two came
together. Dickwella played aggressively through the partnership, and helped
ensure some of the pressure Zimbabwe had exerted, was reversed.
Niroshan Dickwella
(81) and Asela Gunaratne (80 not out) shared a sixth-wicket century partnership
to help Dinesh Chandimal’s side complete the highest fourth-innings chase in
Sri Lanka – beating Pakistan’s 382 for three two years ago. It was also the
highest successful run chase in Sri Lanka’s Test history, and the fifth highest
ever by any nation.
Followers of the
game would well remember that great match for India in Apr 1976 at Queens Park
Oval, Port of Spain, Trinidad. India came to the third Test after being outplayed in the first match of
the four-Test series at Barbados. They had come close to winning the drawn
second Test at the Queen's Park Oval, and when the third Test, scheduled to be
played in Guyana, was rained off and the venue shifted back to Trinidad, they
felt that they were in with a chance. Clive Lloyd believing his pacers set a
target of 403, India lost only two wickets - Anshuman Gaekwad and Gavaskar - to
the bowlers; the two others, Gundappa Viswanath and Mohinder Amarnath were
run-out. Sunil Gavaskar and Mohinder Amarnath put on 108 - patient and
studious. When Gavaskar got out scoring
102, Viswanath matched his supple grace with the
bold outline of Amarnath's strokes in a stand of 159 to carry India to 292 for
two by tea. Driven to despair by the failure of his spinners, Lloyd claimed the
second new ball. It fared no better than the old, as 37 came from the eight
overs shared by Bernard Julien and Michael Holding. Gundappa Viswanath made his fourth Test century but lost his wicket
when there were 70 runs left, Brijesh Patel ahead of Eknath Solkar. It was a moment to savour as India
successfully chased a mammoth score.
Today there had
only been 4 higher targets successfully
chased in Tests. The 388 that Sri Lanka chased down in this match is the
highest any team has successfully chased in Asia. The previous highest in Asia
was India's chase of 387 against England in Chennai in 2008. 87.3 Overs sent down by Cremer in this match -
the most by any Zimbabwe bowler in Tests.
A late bloomer, the
Sri Lankan Army man, Asela Gunaratne piled up several impressive seasons for
Sri Lanka Army Sports Club before making his international debut at the age of
30 against Zimbabwe in a Test match in 2016. He scored a fifty in the first
innings of the first Test and went on to score his maiden Test century in the
second match of the same tour. Earlier
this year, Gunaratne scored his maiden ODI century against South Africa at
Centurion. His purple patch continued as he hit back-to-back fifties against
Australia to ensure the Lankans triumphed in the T20I series against Australia,
in Australia.
Today’s match was
played at R.Premadasa Stadium, Colombo named
after Former Sri Lanka president Ranasinghe Premadasa. The stadium was his idea and when finished it
was named Khettarama Stadium as it was
adjacent to the Khettarama Temple. The President gave a swampland to build a
stadium and in Feb 1986 a huge 14, 000
seater concrete stadium was built. It was only after the assassination of
Ranasinghe Premadasa in May 1993, the stadium was renamed after him.
In 1983 WC Group
match, England swamped Lanka. Ashantha
de Mel, easily Sri Lanka’s bowler of the tournament, had Chris Tavare
caught-behind — though not before he had raced to a 48-ball 19, which was
certainly express by his standards. Graeme Fowler (81 not out from 77 balls)
and an in-form David Gower (27 not out from 24 balls) went after the bowling,
and the target was chased down with more than 35 overs to spare. But when the awards were presented, Fowler it was not; neither did Allott (three for 41), Botham (two
for 12), Vic Marks (two for 18), or Cowans (two for 31). Instead, Willis was called on to receive the
award — not for his economic spell of 9-4-9-1 but
because of his bowling changes and immaculate field placements.
Years later in June
2001, the tall West Indian fast bowler Cameron
Cuffy, was given the award for a tight spell of bowling in Harare in June 2001.
Cuffy delivered his quota unchanged at
the start of Zimbabwe's innings, finishing with figures of 10-2-20-0 (and
didn't bat or take a catch).
Interesting !
With regards – S.
Sampathkumar
18th
July 2017.
Pic credit : EspnCricinfo.
