A knock for ages

by Rex Clementine

Late-night outs, multiple affairs, recreational drugs, tattoos, weird hairstyles, and social media campaigning are stuff that you associate with cricket these days.

There are of course a few exceptions. The guys who mind their business and have a life beyond cricket. Angelo Mathews is one such and Dinesh Chandimal is another. Sidelined by peers for not moving with the current, you wondered whether the end is near for Chandimal. Not that he had done badly. He had scored a match-winning hundred in Sri Lanka’s last series in Bangladesh. But all it takes is one failure and a defeat for people to speculate who should come in place of Chandimal.

All that questioning has been put to rest in Galle this week as he played a stunning knock, one of the best in the history of our cricket. Chandimal finished with his career-best score, Sri Lanka’s first ever double hundred against Australia which in fact paved the way for their first-ever innings defeat of Australia, the world’s number one ranked team.

Having won a series against Pakistan in March this year and having in their ranks Nathan Lyon, one of the best spinners in the world, the Aussies were favourites to win the series. They looked to have almost done that when they posted 364 in the first innings. Chandimal stood in their way.

The sweep was Sri Lanka’s undoing in the first Test. Chandimal kept the sweep as a backup option and played to his strengths. His defence was tight and he looked at the gaps to pick up singles to rotate the strike and used the drive heavily. Then once he was set and when loose balls were on offer he went for the sweep.

Chandimal was involved in four crucial partnerships. The 83-run stand with Angelo Mathews for the third wicket ensured Sri Lanka didn’t suffer another collapse. The 133-run partnership with Kamindu Mendis gave them the lead. A 68-run stand followed with Ramesh Mendis for the seventh wicket to ensure that the team’s lead was over 100, important given that they had to bat last. The 49-run partnership for the last wicket with Kasun Rajitha took the game away from the Aussies.

Not just the runs during that last wicket partnership but the manner in which Chandimal did that deflated the Aussies. That too he was targeting their premier bowler Mitchell Starc. Those sixes out of the ground were unreal. It reminded of Chris Gayle during his whirlwind 333 at this ground. Chandimal had scored 42 in 18 deliveries as he marched towards his maiden double hundred.

A couple of years ago he parted ways with NCC, the club he joined as a school kid as he wanted to begin a career in the army. With nothing much going right in cricket, Chandimal was even looking at opportunities in County Cricket to look after his family. But this year has seen a remarkable turnaround. He averages over 100 in Test cricket and he’s the only guy in the world to have a three-figure average in 2022. Hopefully, he goes on to achieve much more and lives up to the expectations people had when he first came onto the scene.