By Dhammika Ratnaweera
Skipper Dimuth Karunarathna’s guiding knock helped Sri Lanka re-write history books s Sri Lanka successfully chased a three-figure score at the old Lankan fortress. But on Sunday, 18 August, Sri Lanka rewrote the record books by running down 268 with six wickets in hand, thanks to Karunaratne’s brilliant 122 at the top of the order.
Man of the match, Karunarathna said that his team was able to work to the plan they had for this match and that individual freedom in play helped them achieve success as a team. “Along with Thirimanna, I wanted to make a good partnership to chase our winning target, Kusal Mendis and Kusal Janith were free for their strokeplay in the middled to attack the ball. It was a good move to release pressure. My theory always is to give freedom and confidence for the players that were the success” said Karunaratne.
Karunaratne is happy that he was able to work out well their plan and earn a six wickets win over New Zealand in the first Test at Galle. Sri Lanka already leads the two-match series 1-0 and it is also the third consecutive win under his leadership after South African 2-0 series win.ù
“We wanted to restrict them to around 200 runs, the bowlers did their part but some errors cost us and the target became over 250. Not everything goes to the plan I am happy we were able to make-shift to the situation and then all what we wanted was a good start to the fourth innings” said Karunarathna.
But this was a story about Karunaratne and Sri Lanka. Before Sunday, the home team captain had batted 24 times in the fourth innings of a Test match and had never once scaled-down the three-figure mark, the closest he had to come to doing so being 97.
Karunarathna said that he wanted to go for a big score personally as he did not score a big hundred for a long time in test cricket. “My last hundred was also in Galle in 2018 and thereafter, I failed to make big scores away in Australia, New Zealand or South Africa. I am happy that I did now” said Karunarathna.
The win also gave Sri Lanka 60 points on the Test Championship table, taking them above Australia, whose 251-run win over England in the Ashes opener at Edgbaston, had given them 24 points. “We are happy to start the test championship on a winning note, we will take all the match one by one and it is time that we build confidence and come out of the transition period” explained Karunarathna.
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