Sri Lanka slowly rediscovering long-format form

Sri Lanka under Dimuth Karunaratne is slowly turning around some wretched form to become a force in Test cricket. After a series win in South Africa – when they became the first team to win a series in the ‘Rainbow Nation’ – Sri Lanka came from behind in the Galle Test to record a win against New Zealand.

Sri Lanka was in terrible form across formats after the retirements of stalwarts Kumar Sangakkara, Mahela Jayawardene and later Rangana Herath, but under the leadership of Karunaratne and buoyed by the watchful eyes of head coach, Chandika Hathurusinga, they have made a slight, promising turnaround.

In their last 10 Test matches, Sri Lanka have lost six, drawn one and won three. Pretty ordinary numbers but the fact that the wins came in the last three Test matches they played suggests winds of change in the Island nation.

The turnaround has come under Karunaratne. Since taking over at Durban in South Africa, Karunaratne has led Sri Lanka to three successive wins. There was concern surrounding his own personal form which seemed to have gone downhill. But the left-handed opener turned that around with a century in the fourth innings at Galle against New Zealand.

Read: Captain Karunaratne's ton leads Sri Lanka to New Zealand Test win

Set 268 to win, Sri Lanka seemed well out of the game before the fourth innings. Galle is infamous for being a cemetery for batsmen in the final innings, but surprisingly it held up to allow Sri Lanka’s openers – Dimuth Karunaratne and Lahiru Thirimanne - to make a daunting century partnership.

Nothing above 100 had ever been chased at the Galle in the fourth innings. As such, 268 seemed well out of reach and Kane Williamson expressed as much in the post-match presentation ceremony when he said – “we would have taken 260 as a target when we won the toss”.

99 was the highest run-chase recorded at Galle before this but Sri Lanka trumped easily on Sunday. A feature of Sri Lanka’s slow rise in Test cricket is their ability to gun down totals in the fourth innings. Since 2010, there have only been nine successful run-chases above 250 and Sri Lanka have been the winners in three of them. Since 2015, there are just five such run-chases and Sri Lanka’s three successful chases feature in that.

Feature image courtesy: AFP / Ishara S. Kodikara