By Dhammika Ratnaweera
Sri Lanka’s two-nil rout against visting South Africa in the two match test series was surprising led by a stand-in captain and paceman Suranga Lakmal who had not even got much of captaincy experience being vice captain for Sri Lanka cricket in less than year.
Following ICC’s decision to riprimand tour captain Dinesh Chandimal, coach Chandika Hathurusinghe and manager Asanka Gurusinghe for two tests and four one-dayers, Sri Lankan cricketers rallied round their substitutes and showed a greater deal of committment.
“I never expected captaincy, my aim was to secure a permanent place in the team and play for my country” said a jubilant Suranga Lakmal who led Sri Lanka to victory in all three matches he captained. His invincible record includes a 12-year old series victory, which is also a white-wash against South Africa, world’s number two ranked team versus sixth.
“We won the series quite smartly with the help of all my team members and the supporting staff were giving good encouragement to us.” said Suranga Lakmal.
Meanwhile Dimuth Karunaratna was adjudged man of the match and man of the series for his back to back half centuries, one of which converting to an unbeaten 100. “It was a huge challenge to bat against South Africans, you need to concentrate with a good mentality” said Karunarathna.
The new look South African one day squad will play 5 match series against Sri Lanka, the first of which will start on July 29, at Dambulla. They will also play an only T20 match in Colombo.
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