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The truth about Sri Lanka's bowling attack

Muttiah Muralitharan is number one. (Image: Tenplay)
Roar Guru
23rd May, 2016
13

Sri Lanka won by one Murali. That’s what it should say next to the match result for Sri Lanka’s two Test wins in England prior to 2014.

Other batsmen scored important runs, and other bowlers took wickets in both matches. But Muttiah Muralitharan was the reason Sri Lanka won, with 16 wickets at The Oval in 1998 and 11 wickets at Trent Bridge in 2006.

The 1998 win meant Sri Lanka were given more than one-off Tests when they toured England, and the 2006 win meant the series ended at one-all.

Murali was the attack in 1998, especially in the absence of Chaminda Vaas. Arjuna Ranatunga believed in Murali, maybe more than any captain has ever believed in a bowler. Ranatunga may have had to believe in Murali, but what made his faith so effective was the clear sense that even if he didn’t have to, Ranatunga would have believed in Murali. Ranatunga also believed that anyone who didn’t believe as he believed in Murali deserved only contempt, whether they were opposition players, umpires or fans.

In 1998 at The Oval, every other Sri Lankan bowler had a job to do: bowl as economically as possible, to relatively defensive fields, to allow Murali to do his job of taking most of the wickets. Pace bowlers Pramodya Wickramsinghe and Suresh Perera had to accept being hermetically sealed in a box when the ball wasn’t new if conditions called for it. Sri Lanka’s other spinners were expected to keep the run rate in as close competition with the number of overs bowled as possible.

It was simple, and in that match highly effective.

By 2006, things were somewhat different. Mahela Jayawardene was captain, Vaas was playing this time, and Lasith Malinga was in the side. Needing to win for a drawn series, Sri Lanka’s batsmen couldn’t manage performances like in 1998 when Sanath Jayasuriya scored 213, and Aravinda De Silva 152, but they scrapped enough together over two innings to leave England with a nominal target of 325, which might as well have been 3250. Sri Lanka’s attack shared the wickets in the first innings, but not in the second. Murali bowled 30 overs out of 68.5 and took 8-70, and again claimed man of the match.

“Sri Lanka is just a glorified county attack” – Michael Vaughan’s words captured the English media’s sentiment in England before the 2014 Test series between England and Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka could win the T20. They could win the ODI series. And they could even Mankad Jos Buttler. But they were never going to take 20 wickets. Never.

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There was no explosive pace, no left-arm variety, and no right-arm mystery spin.

Sri Lanka won the toss and fielded first at Lord’s. They took early wickets but then Joe Root, who had been dropped in Australia, was solid as a rock with 200 not out, while Matt Prior was the best of the rest with 86. England ended up declaring on 9-575. But Sri Lanka refused to roll over. Kumar Sangakkara and Angelo Matthews made centuries, while Kaushal Silva and Mahela Jayawardene made half-centuries to bring Sri Lanka within 122 runs of England’s score. Five and a half sessions remained on a flat pitch. But Sri Lanka kept kicking. Shaminda Eranga and Rangana Herath struck regularly to make sure England had to be careful, at a time when caution was becoming more and more expensive for England. Slow over-rates had swallowed overs out of all the days in the Tests, and as the team in front England suffered for it. Gary Ballance got England out of the hole, and brought up his own milestone, but it came at a price. Cook had been forced to forego a bowl on the fourth night.

But an entire day five of batting still loomed large. It was something Sri Lanka had only done in an overseas Test once before, 23 years ago. When it was 2-159 off 54.3 overs, with Jayawardene and Sangakkara together once more, that didn’t seem to matter. For Sri Lanka, play was reassuringly dull.

Then Anderson struck once before tea, and twice in his second over after the break, and the match was wide open once more. Both key men were gone, as well as Lahiru Thirimanne, who seemed to have developed something of an allergic reaction facing Anderson.

Cook immediately turns to Anderson’s long-time new-ball partner, Stuart Broad. But Captain Angelo Matthews looks solid and despite being spent, uncomfortable and injured, keeper Prasanna Jayawardene is able to stay with him until the last drinks break. Five overs until the new ball, fifteen overs to go.

Cook looks to throw the best of everything that is not Anderson or Broad before that magical 80-over mark with reverse swing, bouncers, spin, Joe Root’s mouth, anything. Chris Jordan hits Jayawardene. Then he nearly causes to give a catch to the wicket-keeper, leg-slip, and short-leg. In his next over, Jordan bowls a fuller ball that hits Jayawardene, and Jayawardene can’t shrug this off. The LBW appeal is rejected on the field, but that only delays the inevitable and one of the quickest DRS overturns ever leads to the fall of Sri Lanka’s sixth wicket.

The next over is the 80th over. If no wicket had fallen, Stuart Broad would not have been bowling it but since a wicket has fallen, he is on, no matter how much his knee is feeling the pain. But his full over at Matthews is unsuccessful.

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Jordan receives the 81st over, but after that, Cook decides to go all in with Anderson, Broad and a new ball under the Lord’s lights. Matthews can’t farm the strike without unduly risking his own wicket in such conditions.

6.4 overs from the end, Broad dismisses Kulasekara and Herath, unsuited to this situation as his batting style is based on the same type of fun Murali’s was, has to come in. Despite the dismissal, Matthews decides that he has to take Anderson’s end, and hope the tailenders can fend off Broad’s assaults from the Nursery End just long enough. The best possible plan. The best possible plan until Anderson causes Matthews to edge one to Cook’s gut at first slip off the last ball of the 87th over.

Now it is Herath, Eranga and Pradeep, versus Anderson and Broad for 18 balls in good bowling conditions, surrounded by fielders, with the soundtrack of Joe Root at silly point.

Cook decides to try an over of Plunkett. Then Anderson bowls his last over. Herath and Eranga endure both, missing the right balls and angling the balls past close-in fielders. It is not pretty. It is excruciating for Sri Lankan supporters. But they only have six more balls to face.

Broad has to bowl those balls. He knows it, Cook knows it, and everyone else knows it. The first ball takes Herath’s glove and he walks, even though his hand was off the bat. Now Pradeep, the man who can’t bat, the man who might be one of the five rawest professional cricketers in the world, the man Broad had embarrassed through a hit-wicket dismissal in the first innings, has to go out to the middle. He survives a bouncer, an LBW originally given out, and an edge just short of second slip. 0 not out off five 0-0 in the series.

England dominated the first three days of the Headingley Test. But they are never able to quite put Sri Lanka away. Sri Lanka managed to just get a competent 257 in the first innings after being sent in. Then, when England reached 3-311 near the end of day two, Sri Lanka’s much derided quicks restricted England’s lead to 108, starting with Eranga strangling Bell down the leg side. Angelo Matthews’ four wickets was the first time he had taken more than two wickets in a Test innings, and Shaminda Eranga again bowled well to also take four wickets.

Sri Lanka rallied in their second innings to reach 4-214 at stumps, with Jayawardene and Matthews at the crease, as England’s bowlers struggled to find either their line, or more frequently, a fuller length. But for all that, England were still ahead. On day four they would take 20 wickets for the first time in the series, chase down the runs and officially declare the new era of the English cricket swallowable for mass consumption.

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England regressed on day four. They wasted the last seven overs of the old ball, dropped even more catches, wasted the new ball, and yet somehow were able to have Sri Lanka at 7-277 at one stage. But the dismissals made Matthews angry, on top of his already obvious determination.

After lunch, his new partner Herath plays and misses three times in a row. Then he defends. Matthews had stern words with him after each ball. It took three balls to get through, but those words meant Herath stayed with Matthews for a whole session. At the other end, Matthews plays one of the greatest Test innings of the 21st century. The match goes from England’s favour to solidly in Sri Lanka’s in the space of a session. England was poor, and employed poor tactics, but it was Sri Lanka’s good play which earned them the advantage. They had a lead of 316 with two wickets left at tea, and avoided the problem of timing the declaration by scoring quickly and getting out, eventually setting England 350 to win.

The Sri Lankans had heard every taunt, every joke about them from the opposition’s team, media and fans on every day of the series. This innings allowed them the opportunity to throw it all back in England’s face, and they had no hesitation in taking it. Joe Root came in for ferocious sledging on day five, Mahela Jayawardene stuck the boot into Alastair Cook’s captaincy at the end of day four – though how he had reached it through the hole everyone else had put it in remained an unanswered question – and generally were willing to exploit every means necessary to win the Test.

Meanwhile, the glorified county attack began their work.

The one thing – the one thing – Sri Lanka’s attack had managed throughout the series was keep Alastair Cook down. He hadn’t got going once. Every other English batsman had scored runs, or had the secondary skill of bowling.

Dhammika Prasad had been out first ball in the second innings, upper-cutting a shot straight to third man, leaving his captain furious. Skiddy medium-fast pace bowlers can’t afford to infuriate their captains too often.

When England is 0 for 39, the skiddy medium-fast pacer bowls a shortish ball to Cook. Cook has pulled for four an uncountable amount of times, both awake and asleep. But this ball stays a bit lower and takes the under edge. The next sound is of the ball hitting the stumps.

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Unlike England’s bowlers earlier in the day, Prasad capitalises on his luck by finding the ideal length immediately afterwards, trapping Ballance LBW for a golden duck. Then he dismisses Sam Robson and Ian Bell with the length the English bowlers couldn’t find for two sessions. The length glorified county bowlers are never supposed to find.

Within 12 balls of Ian Bell’s dismissal, Prasad forces England to use two reviews to save Root and then Plunkett, and has a dropped catch off his bowling. Then Plunkett, off the fifth last ball of the day from Herath, played a cover drive to a wide ball that a Geoff Boycott impersonator is still ranting about, and England closed day four on 5-57.

England put up stubborn resistance on day five. An early lunch due to the rain, that doesn’t affect the number of overs, is what Sri Lanka need and receive. Afterwards, the sledging increases even further. Eranga takes aim at Joe Root’s body and head and while Root sees Eranga off, Pradeep returns to the fuller length and picks up Root.

Moeen Ali is then kept company by Matt Prior for a little over an hour. Sri Lanka starts to get tense again. Prasad comes back. He goes with the short and nasties, and forces Prior to fend to short-leg. Seven down, but Jordan stays with Moeen until tea.

Rangana Herath had never been like the rest of the Sri Lankan attack in the eyes of England. He was respected. Respected while every seam bowler Sri Lanka had was being rubbished for having Test bowling averages over 50. Respected while he wasn’t taking many wickets.

This situation is Herath’s meat and drink, mainly because he never experiments too much. He knows what works for him, and what doesn’t. Not a mystery spinner, but no less a Test spinner for it. He hasn’t got a wicket on day five up to day five. However, Sri Lanka are about to get a new ball.

The quicks can’t get a wicket with the new ball, but the harder ball instantly helps Herath more than the old ball. It skids instead of spins, and traps Jordan LBW. Eight down, and Broad now has to come in. Soon after, it is drinks, with 24 overs scheduled in fading light. Broad goes to the toilet for so long it is almost as though Broad had spent the time bowling a Twenty20 spell. With the Sri Lankans sensing a win, this is like handing even more ammunition to someone who is already armed to the teeth.

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The light forces Sri Lanka to temporarily bowl spin from both ends. It means Sri Lanka is relying solely on Herath to take the wickets, for the first time in the series. Herath bowls over the wicket to Broad. Broad gets the big stride in every ball. Herath goes around the wicket, and lowers his arm action. Within four balls, Herath manages to trap Broad so obviously LBW he doesn’t even review. One more for Sri Lanka. One more required, with the light having improved enough for the quicks to return. Sri Lanka regains four bowlers with that decision from the umpires.

But accompanying the superb Moeen is Anderson, and Anderson is not Pradeep. He has the ability to make this go down to the wire. Everyone is tried. Eventually Eranga bowls that fateful second last ball of the day that Anderson can only fend to Herath. Sri Lanka has won an overseas series away from Asia for almost two decades.

Sri Lanka has won, not with an attack of just Murali, but with an attack of Herath, Prasad, Eranga, Pradeep and Matthews. The match result shouldn’t be put down to one man, even allowing for the wonderful match of Angelo Matthews.

Sri Lanka has won with an all-round Test attack that knows how to fight, take advantage of their luck, and find a way to use their strengths to overcome their weaknesses despite adversity. That’s about as far from a glorified county attack as you can get.

Recently, Sanath Jayasuriya described the current Sri Lankan attack as the “top best bowling side in the world.”

But in 2016, Sri Lanka has neither a glorified county attack nor the top best bowling side in the world. It has a Test attack, with a shared memory of a wonderful achievement – an overseas win in England. It isn’t a great Test attack, maybe struggling to be a good one. It has some good days, some bad days, and needs the batsmen to start scoring more runs, which it has struggled to do since Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene, have left the game. It isn’t an attack to be feared, but it is one to be respected. For a country that relied for so long and so heavily on one man, and then two, this flawed but shared attack is something that should be enjoyed for what it is, not denigrated for what it isn’t.

English critics didn’t respect them last time, and those critics risk being caught with their pants down again if they repeat their mistake, regardless of whether Sri Lanka win.

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But in the absence of a Sri Lankan win, I would settle for another Mankad!

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