‘Always satisfying to beat the top team’ – Angelo Mathews
Sri Lanka beat South Africa by 278 runs in the first Test and are well placed to pull off another big win in the ongoing second Test, and Mathews has played his part with a well-paced 71 in the second hit.
“It is always satisfying to beat the top team. South Africa have been a very good side for the past so many years and they are ranked No.2. They are a good travelling side as well. Pleased with the way we have played so far. We have worked really hard. We look forward to wrapping it up tomorrow,” said Mathews after the third day’s play.
“It is going to be a huge achievement for us as we are an inexperienced side. Beating the No.2 team in the world is something special. We will enjoy that. But we have a job at hand tomorrow morning. The first couple of wickets are going to be crucial. If we can knock off a couple early then we can enjoy the victory.”
The note of caution in Mathews’ voice is chiefly because Theunis de Bruyn (45*) and Temba Bavuma (14*) have batted well so far in their 26-run stand for the sixth wicket, but with the Sri Lankan spin trio of Dilruwan Perera, Rangana Herath and Akila Dananjaya running riot, they are in pole position.
Their spinners have put Sri Lanka in the position they are in, but the standout star for them has been Dimuth Karunaratne, the opening batsman.
Karunaratne had scored 158* and 60 in the first Test, and has 53 and 85 in the second in what has been an incredible achievement in a low-scoring series.
“I know him in and out and he is a strong character. He doesn't easily give up. The way he has batted in the last year or so has been brilliant,” gushed Mathews.
“Once again, he showed that on difficult wickets he can score runs. If you all recall, on a difficult wicket against India he scored a hundred as well here [141 in August 2017]. He has been fantastic over the last 18 months. He added a lot of stability into our line-up.”
Dean Elgar, the South Africa opener, argued on Sunday that the pitch they had played the Sri Lanka Board XI on in a tour game prior to the Test series was nothing like the tracks on offer in the Tests, and that the quality of spinners in the opposition wasn’t quite the same either.
Mathews countered that by saying, ““Most teams look to play to strength when they play at home. Against Australia, South Africa and England, we need to play on these kinds of surfaces. When we go to Australia and South Africa, we play on tracks with grass and that is tough.
“I remember in the last tour [2016-17] when we landed in Bloemfontein, we had the same. The practice match wicket was nothing like what we played on during the Test series. It can be a tactic. Most teams do it. I am not too sure what happened here. It was a slow wicket at the [P Sara] Oval. It spun a little bit towards the end. It was not very flat, but turned a little bit. Our spinners took a lot of wickets.”