NEW ZEALAND TOUR OF SRI LANKA, 2024

Dhananjaya de Silva plays down WTC final prospects

by   •  Last updated on
Sri Lanka dominated New Zealand in the series.
Sri Lanka dominated New Zealand in the series. © AFP

Sri Lanka jumped up to third spot on the World Test Championship 2023-25 table - behind India and Australia - following their thumping 2-0 series win at home over New Zealand, but Dhananjaya de Silva played down the prospects of getting into next year's final. Sri Lanka have four Tests to go in this cycle - two away in South Africa and two at home against Australia.

Sri Lanka have now won three successive Tests, starting with a memorable victory against England at the Oval earlier this month. They were then at their dominant best against New Zealand in the two-game series at home - taking the first game by 63 runs and the second by an innings and 154 runs.

"We're only looking at it from one match to another. If you look too far ahead you can miss out on what's immediately important," Dhanajaya said when asked about being in the mix to reach the Test final. "It's what I always tell the young players as well, if you do what's required from one match to another, then what needs to happen in the points table will take care of itself."

The Sri Lanka skipper was, however, proud to have pushed the team up to 5th in the ICC Test rankings. "I have been part of the side for six years and we've always wanted to come up in rankings but we tried and failed. We just couldn't get the right team makeup, but we have got it right now. And now we also have combinations that can work on any surface, both at home and overseas," Dhananjaya said.

Sri Lanka's big win in the second Test came as a result of burying New Zealand under a mountain of runs in the first innings as they posted 602/5 before declaring. Dhananjaya's declaration came with Kamindu Mendis batting on 182 but he did back his decision even as the batter was only 18 short of a double ton.

"More than Kamindu's double hundred, I wanted Kusal Mendis to get a hundred because he hadn't scored one in quite some time. But once we got to that point in the match, I think that was the best decision to take," Dhananjaya said. To his credit, Kamindu himself agreed with the decision.

"We had put a big total on the board, even at lunch I had 136. So the plan even then was to score a little bit more and then put them into bat. I think the decision was taken at the right time because we all know that in Galle batting in the last hour is quite difficult," Kamindu opined. "And I think it's because of that decision that we were able to bowl them out the following morning."

After bowling New Zealand out for just 88 runs and enforcing follow-on, Sri Lanka's win rested on spinner Nishan Peiris's six-wicket haul in the fourth innings. Dhananjaya lauded the debutant for justifying his decision to pick him for the game. "Nishan had bowled really well in domestic cricket for quite some time, and what I had stressed on was to bring in a bowler that could keep the economy rate low, especially on a turning track. That's how you put pressure on the opposition, with Prabath [Jayasuriya] at the other end. And I think he did his job excellently in this game," Dhananjaya said.

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