Gary Naylor
The Oval was overcast and chilly, a long way in every sense from Colombo, when Pathum Nissanka struck the winning runs and was embraced by the old stager himself, Angelo Mathews, leaving these shores with a valedictory win under his belt. That will have pleased many in a crowd that half an hour earlier had risen to their feet to applaud his partner’s superb century. Many things have changed about this country, but its cricket crowds retain a generosity of spirit.
Sri Lanka’s captain, Dhananjaya de Silva, who conceals a very hard competitive edge behind his smiling face, may not be as pleased as Mathews because this was a series in which his team had chances to win two of three Test matches but were let down by unexpectedly brittle batting, some curious selections and lapses in concentration with the ball. England could hardly be described as there for the taking, but this time last year, the attack was led by James Anderson and Stuart Broad and Ben Stokes was skipper – all were absent in 2024, a combined 460 Test matches.
In the first Test, the Lankans elected to bat and were 6/3, then 92/6, before the Dhananjaya found an unlikely ally in the resourceful Milan Rathnayake to post 236, respectable, but no more. England’s new wicketkeeper-batsman, Jamie Smith, may be a genius-in-the-making, but he and the tail should not have been allowed to add 119 runs for the last four wickets.
Another poor top order effort second time round was rescued by Mathews, Dinesh Chandimal (though injured, as he seemed to be throughout the series) and the immensely talented Kamindu Mendis baffling every Englishman by batting at seven. England’s target was a tricky 205 and they were rocking a little at 70/3, but Joe Root just needed to find a partner or two and he did. As little as 100 or so more runs from the top order in either innings might have made for a very different outcome.
Lord’s is about as easy a track on which to score runs as there is in the world these days, but Dhananjaya was still playing the previous Test when he won the toss and elected to bowl in order to protect his underperforming top order. Predictably, Joe Root filled his boots with 143, but the Lankans let Gus Atkinson (a number 10 in domestic cricket) get away and he stroked a century as attractive as it was unexpected. Frankly, it was an unforgivable four sessions of cricket from the visitors that allowed England to take control of the match with 427 all out.
Reeling a little, the visitors were dismissed for under 200, only Kamindu showing anything like true form and the game and series were gone in the blinking of an eye.
The sides convened again for a third time in three weeks, across the Thames at The Oval and a combination of Sri Lanka getting its best XI on the field with Nissanka, Lahiru Kumara and Vishwa Fernando all selected, and some fatigue/complacency from England, saw Mathews get his victory to take all the way home.
There were times in the matches when either side was on top but England probably deserved the series win. That said, just a little more application at Old Trafford, a decision to bat or an Australian-like ruthlessness with the ball at Lord’s and 2-1 could easily have been 1-2.
Compressing the Tests into so short a time so late in the English summer did the players no favours and standards were often below what is expected of international players, but the treadmill continues. England play Australia in a T20 series starting on Wednesday, one day after the scheduled close of this one, and the Lankans get a few days to recover from jetlag, before taking on New Zealand in Galle a week later. Somebody really should say no.
© Island Cricket