By Dhammika Ratnaweera
Needing 268 runs to win, Sri Lankan continued to enjoy their good run against New Zealand in test as the home team had already mustered almost half of the runs required to win without giving away wickets to go into the final day tomorrow at Galle in their first encounter.
The newly appointed interim coach to the national team, Rumesh Ratnayake said that team is determined to convert this effort to a win tomorrow and that the morning session will be very crucial for both sides. “Even though we have got 133 for no loss, but it is always going to be a very tough task. We have to go with a hard effort tomorrow to get 135 runs,” said Ratnayake explaining that it was no surprise in Galle that it takes a lot of effort to score runs in Galle in the fourth innings.
If they manage to lap up the remaining runs, it will be the first successful 100+ chase on this ground, the previous best being 99, by Sri Lanka, against Pakistan in 2014.
Openers skipper Dimuth Karunaratne and Lahiru Tirimanna have a set up new record of 133 runs unbroken partnership which is the highest opening combination for Sri Lanka on fourth innings.
It was the first time in 20 innings, that Sri Lanka’s openers had stitched together a century stand for the first wicket. By 125, they had crossed the best opening stand by Sri Lanka in the fourth innings, bettering Karunaratne and Kaushal Silva’s tally from 2014.
As of everyone is, new coach Rumesh Ratnayake too came into the praise of Karunarathna’s leadership as he brought in a good spirit among the players while maturing himself to become a good strong leader for the team. “The dressing room atmosphere is so cool but we have been very careful to focus on the game, “said Ratnayake who has a dual role of being a bowling coach and as well as Interim coach for the team.
“As the bowling coach, I was disappointed at some of the bowling in this game. However, all the bowlers made good work. We will analyse those areas and will improve for the next game” said Ratnayake.
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