Jayasuriya plays in a team in which on the spiciest greentops they can genuinely consider leaving out a spinner entirely and, in fact, they had almost made that choice for this second Test. But the way this game has played out, Sri Lanka would not still be in the match – however marginally – were it not for Jayasuriya’s 5 for 129 in the second innings.
“An overseas five-for is something that I had targeted for a long time,” Jayasuriya said after the fourth day. “Getting wickets away from home was something I had worried about at times, because people questioned my ability to do that. When we play outside home, and in SENA [South Africa, England, New Zealand and Australia] countries, my role is quite different. I always try to do what I can do for the team. I’m very happy I was able to get this five-wicket haul in a place like South Africa.”
Much of his success on day four, when he took three wickets including that of the series’ best batter Temba Bavuma, came from bowling over the wicket into the rough outside the right-handers’ leg stump.
“It’s still a good pitch to bat on, and will be tomorrow as well,” he said. “The decision was between bowling into areas that were still good for batting, or to bowl into areas where there was some help in the surface. At that time, between the captain, coach and head coach, we decided to try that strategy [of bowling into the rough], and it was successful.”
Jayasuriya had returns of 1 for 84 on a very grassy surface that did not have a lot of turn on offer in the first innings. But he revealed that he was unhappy with his bowling in that innings, and made tweaks to be in better shape for the second.
“There was a technical error, and I was able to come the next day, train for a bit, and though I wasn’t able to fix it 100%, I was able to get it about 90% right.”
Jayasuriya likely has a further role to play in this Test – with the bat, he is the next man in. If Sri Lanka are to clinch an unlikely victory from this position (they are 143 runs shy, with five wickets in hand), they will almost certainly need runs from him as well.
“Kusal Mendis and Dhananjaya de Silva have experience and the potential to do this [win the game],” Jayasuriya said. “The first hour tomorrow is vital. That hour will decide where this match goes. If we win that hour, we’ll definitely win the game. We only need 143, and between these batters and the tailenders, we have to plan and figure out how to get there.”
