Dimuth Karunaratne a redeeming innings
Dimuth Karunaratne has partied at the right time in an eleventh hour redeeming century knock of 131 for Sri Lanka A versus the West Indies A in the battle to seal his opening berth for Sri Lanka’s impending tour of Zimbabwe. The right hander had rock bottomed in form failing in all three test matches in Sri Lanka’s recent home series against Australia. It had put his place on the line following a poor performance as well in the tour of England.
When Karunaratne was selected to skipper the Sri Lanka A team against its West Indian counterparts it was a clear message to the 28-year old from the national selectors to prove his mettle or lose his place. There were two other batsmen as well breathing down his neck for the opener’s berth in Lahiru Thirimanne and Roshane de Silva. Thirimanne, who lost his test and ODI places in the team from poor form, and 27-year Colts middle order right hander Roshen Silva were also put on trial versus the West Indies A as options for the Zimbabwe tour. But Dimuth Karunaratne has well won the contest by a typical opener’s innings off 242 balls and spanning 15 boundaries.
It was the perfect script in aligning in two telling partnerships with 167 upfront for the first wicket with Kusal Janith Perera who made 87 off 105 deliveries, and a fifth wicket alliance of 85 with wicket-keeper batsman Niroshan Dickwella who carved a half century. As it was, scores of 2 by Thirimanne and 17 by Silva were unhelpful to their cause. Apparently, the left handed Thirimanne, who has played some telling knocks for his country when in top fettle, is battling a lean patch and deserves the confidence of the selectors at A level like did Dinesh Chandimal to win back his place he too lost sometime ago. Silva, has played some noteworthy innings at U-19 and A level too could benefit from more exposure.
Karunaratne, for his part, would have won back the selectors’ faith by his ‘now or never’ effort to book his place for Zimbabwe. Given the pressure that mounted on him, his face saving innings was indeed remarkable; what is more carrying the added captaincy responsibility of leading from the front. In that context, the former Josephian has put into play all his experience to good effect in coming on top. He happens to be the first specialist opening batsman who cut his teeth in the game from the school rungs to have made it to the national team in three decades where makeshift openers held sway. In that background, Karunaratne did make quite an impressive impact in underscoring the importance of copybook openers manning the fort backed by 3 test centuries and 8 half centuries in 31 matches for a modest average of 31.43.
The entry of another in the same mould in Kaushal Silva, who also came from school background as an opener, did see a dual combination in the job in a departure from what had been quite a long run of bludgeoners who paired for Sri Lanka. That was an era when the island nation produced a whirlwind breed of the caliber of Sanath Jayasuriya. Jayasuriya was able to take a game away from the opposition in a couple of hours of sheer butchery by infusing the type of run scoring dimension he took to ODI cricket.
Incidentally, while we will not see the luxury of such a Jayasuriya era in a long time upfront when Sri Lanka rode on his majestic savagery of bowlers across the world, copybook opening batsmen doing the job in the arduous grind of five-day Test cricket, is value input. That is so considering the importance of blunting the new ball and laying the foundation of enduring partnerships that takes a game away from the opposition.
By Srian Obeyesekere
-The opinions expressed here are the views of the writer and do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of Sri Lanka Cricket-
