Dominant Sri Lanka target series sweep against inexperienced Ireland

By Chris On Apr 23, 2023

Big picture: Ireland bank on toss to bat long

Aside from a brief period at the end of day one, when Sri Lanka lost three top-order wickets for 28 runs, and a couple of half-century stands in their own innings, Ireland were outplayed in pretty much every passage of play you could bring to mind in the first innings of the first Test.

It happens. Ireland are playing their first ever two-Test series, and were thrust into a furnace. Not only do they have to play in April, when the air is extraordinarily sticky, but the surface at Galle is also perhaps as different from their home tracks as can be imagined. There was some help for the seamers early, but in such testing conditions, they were unable to be consistently menacing.

And though there were plenty of spin options, they did not display the kind of skill and discipline that would have made them a challenge in the first two days.

Ireland’s biggest hope of competing in the second Test is to win the toss, and thus, ensure they have the best of the batting conditions, which generally come into play after lunch on the first day. So long as they bat a few sessions in the first innings, this also means they’ll get to set their spinners loose when the track is beginning to wear.

For Sri Lanka, this may be their last match under the leadership of Dimuth Karunaratne, who by almost any account has done a steady job since being thrust into the captaincy in early 2019. Karunaratne, now 35, has expressed a strong desire to step down, to allow a new captain to take over ahead of the next World Test Championship cycle. But so far, the selectors appear unwilling for him to do so, particularly as there is no obvious candidate to replace him.

Sri Lanka will also hope in this match that Sadeera Samarawickrama will continue to flourish as the new wicketkeeper-batter and that opener Nishan Madushka gets a score that might kickstart his international career. Between Prabath Jayasuriya, Ramesh Mendis, and the two Fernandos – Asitha and Vishwa – the hosts look good on the bowling front.

Form guide

(completed matches, most recent first)

Sri Lanka WLLWL
Ireland LLLLL

In the spotlight: Dimuth Karunaratne and Andy McBrine

Through the course of his captaincy, Dimuth Karunaratne has been Sri Lanka’s best batter. In fact, he has likely been their best player, full stop. Through the course of 50 innings at the helm, he has hit seven hundreds and 12 fifties, averaging 50.43. He has also frequently been in the ICC’s team of the year, as an opening batter. Karunaratne is one of those players who is motivated by statistics – it’ll mean something to him if he can finish the captaincy portion of his career with an average of over 50, if this is his final game in charge.

Offspinner Andy McBrine was the best of Ireland’s spinners in the Test against Bangladesh earlier in the month, taking 7 for 170 in the game, which Ireland did largely compete in. He was his team’s main workhorse in Galle, sending down 40 overs, but was unable to exert serious pressure in many of his spells. He is only 29 – the kind of age spinners begin to seriously mature. Ireland will need him to have learned from those 40 overs, and become better at keeping the scoring down. Setting better Test fields might be a start.

Team news

Sri Lanka are unlikely to change their XI.

Sri Lanka (possible): 1 Dimuth Karunaratne (capt), 2 Nishan Madushka, 3 Kusal Mendis, 4 Angelo Mathews, 5 Dinesh Chandimal, 6 Dhananjaya de Silva, 7 Sadeera Samarawickrama (wk), 8 Ramesh Mendis, 9 Prabath Jayasuriya, 10 Asitha Fernando, 11 Vishwa Fernando

Ireland might bring in Paul Stirling, flown in especially for this match, owing perhaps to his experience in Sri Lanka (he has played in the Lanka Premier League). He might replace opener Murray Commins, who bagged a pair in the first Test.

Sri Lanka (possible): 1 James McCollum, 2 Paul Stirling, 3 Andy Balbirnie (capt), 4 Harry Tector, 5 Lorcan Tucker (wk), 6 Peter Moor, 7 Curtis Campher, 8 George Dockrell, 9 Andy McBrine, 10 Mark Adair, 11 Ben White

Pitch and conditions

There was a modicum of rain on the eve of the Test in Galle, but expect much of the same – scorching heat, stifling humidity, and a pitch that starts to take turn on day two. This time of year, the sea breeze that usually comes across the ground from July to September, is not as strong as it usually is.

Stats and trivia

McBrine is Ireland’s second-highest Test wicket-taker, with 11 dismissals after four matches, behind Tim Murtagh. Though seamer Mark Adair is close on his heels, with ten wickets.

Karunaratne currently has 11 Test wins to his name, in 27 Tests (10 of those were losses). If Sri Lanka win 2-0, he’ll go level with Arjuna Ranatunga for number of Test victories, with only Angelo Mathews (13), Sanath Jayasuriya (18), and Mahela Jayawardene (18) ahead of him.

If Prabath Jayasuriya gets seven wickets in this match (he got 10 in the previous one), he will become the fastest Sri Lanka bowler to 50 wickets by a distance, beating Ajantha Mendis and Ramesh Mendis’ record of 11 matches. He would have done it in his seventh Test, which means the only faster bowlers to the milestone anywhere (by number of matches), did it in the 1800s. More recently, Vernon Philander also got to the milestone in seven Tests. Jayasuriya has played all but two matches in Galle.

Andrew Fidel Fernando is ESPNcricinfo’s Sri Lanka correspondent. @afidelf

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