The Aussies won, but retiring Dilshan the Larger Hero
Dambulla turned out to be the farewell ground Sunday to veteran all-rounder Tillakaratne Dilshan before a sell out crowd on an emotional day to the 39-year old capping his 333rd ODI. Australia won the match by two wickets with 24 balls to spare, but the day belonged to the big made Sri Lankan who could not hide the tears as he swivelled around bat upraised in a salute to the crowd after his final innings in a final look at his farewell venue before heading for the pavilion. The moment typified how much the game means to a player for whom it all begins as a schoolboy’s ‘First Love’ dream of playing for his country.
The start to the proceedings could not have gone any better than the home crowd getting a first hand glimpse of their hero hogging the limelight in a sedate 65-ball second highest score of 42 in a 226-run total that was short of the distance by 4 balls. As Danushka Gunatilleke and Kusal Mendis fell early, it seemed like it was Dilshan’s day in the making as he kept the century making top scorer Dinesh Chandimal company in a redeeming 73-run third wicket alliance. But when it seemed the farewell appearance would blossom to bigger things with the bat, Dilshan departed lobbing a straightforward catch off a full toss to Bailey off the little made spinner Zampa.
Perhaps it was a fitting end to an extraordinarily flamboyant career in the Central Province’s scenic Dambulla settings overlooked by the historical Sigiriya fortress in a habitat that demonstrated a tremendous cricket loving fan base; best exemplified by the spillover of cheering youngsters to even the hovering trees around the ground. It proved to be a day that was just not Sri Lanka’s after skipper Angelo Mathews joined the front-line of failures when he was trapped LBW for a duck. It was left to the obdurate Chandimal to play a front-line lone battle against the Australians. He was mainly aided by Dhananjaya De Silva whose 12 added to a 30-run alliance after Mathews’ departure in a tight roping act also supplemented by Kusal Janith Perera in adding 21 and 39 for the 9th wicket with Dilruwan Perera (17).
Zampa came tops with 3 for 38 for the Aussies, but it was the sustained fast bowling of Mitchel Starc and J. Faulkner with two wickets apiece that did the cleaning up. Sri Lanka did get back in the game when spinner Dilruwan Perera removed T.M. Head (36) and M.S. Wade (42) who were double thorns in quick succession. Then leg spinner Seekkuge Prasanna clean bowled top scorer Bailey for 70 to give Sri Lanka a whiff of victory. But Starc made that short lived with a lusty six and a four to put Australia on course and take a 2-1 lead.
The outcome was a bad end to Tillakaratne Dilshan’s career on the losing side, but the Sri Lankan proved to be the larger hero than Man of the Match Bailey as the local darling of all Sri Lankans took centre stage going out of ODI cricket in handshakes and embraces of both colleagues and foes to the mobbing by jam-packed fans. He would of course, be back in a final fling for the two T20s. Indeed, Dambulla succeeded in ingraining a feeling of wonder in the connoisseur with particularly the foreign television commentators marvelling at the huge cricket savvy local populace that turned out in their numbers. It left one wondering why Dambulla had gone into hibernation the last 6 years.
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-
