Sweet and sour Sri Lankans have something to smile about

BY TREVINE RODRIGO IN MELBOURNE

buy arial, helvetica, sans-serif;”>Australia showed what a champion team is made of by shrugging off the 3-0 whitewash in the Tests to totally annihilate the Sri Lankans in the one- day and T20 series and returned home with some of their tarnished image somewhat intact.

Sri Lanka, touted the underdogs in all formats, shocked the former world number one ranked team with a sterling effort thanks to veteran spinner Rangana Herath, skipper Angelo Matthews, Dinesh Chandimal and a handful of emerging youngsters who though lacking in experience showed dour qualities and a hunger to win.

While Australia will ponder their inability to play spin in sub-continental conditions, their excuse will be challenged by the limited overs exponents in the team who found little or no terrors in the Sri Lanka spin attack although a notable absentee was their tormentor in the Tests Herath who sat out the shorter format.

Aaron Finch led from the front to completely blunt a perceived unplayable spin attack and restored confidence in his team mates who were a far cry from the tentative stroke players in the Tests.

While the world watched in bewilderment as the Sri Lankans made short work of the feared Australians in the Tests, the islanders were unable to capitalize on their advantage mainly due to the weak kneed batting of the chosen one-day squad who were an embarrassment to the heroes in the Test team.

Adding to their woes was the blitzkrieg from out of favour Glen Maxwell, dropped from the one-day squad, who shredded the Sri Lanka spinners in the T20’s notching up several world records in the process. Maxwell was a delight to watch as he decimated the “feared” Sri Lanka spin attack while throwing mud in the face of the Australian selectors who labelled him out of form.

His omission from the one-day team drew a sigh of relief from the Sri Lankans who were fully aware of his destructive ability. Maxwell has created an overnight cult status for

himself among Sri Lanka’s cricket mad followers after his smashing knocks of 145 off 65 balls and 66 off 29 in the T20’s.

Sri Lanka’s other blunder was the continued reliance on only spin in the shorter format where innovative strokeplay can unsettle the slower bowlers. Suranga Lakmal’s tidy performance will bear testimony to that fact.

Horses for courses was the Australian strategy which brought them back to competitiveness as they used their superior fast brigade to unsettle the local batsmen. Sri Lanka would hopefully have gained some invaluable insight from this fantastic back-to- the-wall comeback by the fighting Aussies.

From a Sri Lankan perspective though, there is rainbow on the horizon unearthing a fine bunch of emerging youngsters with tremendous talent that need to be nurtured.

Dhananjaya De Silva, Kusal Mendis, Dilruwan Perera, Kausal Silva, and prodigious spinner Lakshan Sandakan showed what Sri Lanka can look to in the future with seasoned skipper Matthews and Dinesh Chandimal while the rest will have to work hard for their spots.

Australia have returned home for a short break before a hectic summer ahead which will include the Sri Lankans in a one-day series which promises to be fiercely spiteful.