Sri Lankan batters make merry on flat Galle surface

Rex Clementine in Galle  

You envy the exodus of South African cricketing talents to other parts of the world. Australia has Marnus Labuschagne, New Zealand has Devon Conway, England had Kevin Pietersen and many others. Although Sri Lanka had thrashed Ireland in the first Test inside three days, leading up to the second game, there were a few concerns as Graham Hume was going to make a comeback to the side.

Hume had represented South Africa in the 2010 Under-19 World Cup and was their leading wicket taker. Later he migrated to Ireland. People may have spoken highly of him as a developing cricketer but he is certainly not Test quality as an average speed of 123 suggested. So, everything that is made in South Africa is not top class. Same as all that glitters is not gold.

Along with Hume, the other Irish bowlers too were harmless as Dimuth Karunaratne and Nishan Madushka posted hundreds.

It was Karunaratne’s 16th Test hundred and came in 116 balls while Madushka required 159 deliveries to get to his maiden ton and reached there in style pulling a Harry Tector full toss for six.

Curtis Campher, another South African, gave the Irish their only success on day three as Karunaratne pulled one without control in the last over before lunch and was caught at deep fine-leg. Two balls prior to that, the Sri Lankan skipper had been hit on the helmet and he may have been unsettled after that.

The pair added 228 runs for the first wicket, a record in Galle overtaking the 193-run stand between former captains Marvan Atapattu and Sanath Jayasuriya when Sri Lanka thrashed the Proteas in 2000 in Shaun Pollock’s first Test as captain.

Kusal Mendis joined Madushka and continued to punish the Irishmen as they were involved in an unfinished 129 run stand for the second wicket.

Madushka was dropped on 131 by captain Andy Balbirnie at slip but other than that, the Sri Lankans hardly put a foot wrong.

Mendis raced to 83 off 96 balls with seven fours and five sixes. He was sweetly timing the ball and finding the gaps with ease and took debutant left-arm spinner Matthew Humphreys to task when he smashed him for three consecutive sixes forcing the captain to pull him out of the attack.

Play was stopped before tea due to bad light and there was no resumption as the rains came down. A total of 32 overs were lost yesterday while 15 overs weren’t bowled on day one due to rain.

Sri Lanka trail Ireland by 135 runs.