Mumbai: The Indian fielders have been in a chirpy mood in Sri Lanka. On Tuesday, substitute Sarfaraz Khan tried to get under the skin of Dhananjaya de Silva, asking him not to resort to time wasting being the captain. Someone else tried to provoke Keshara Nuwantha to bring out some strokes.
The Niroshan Dickwella-Yashasvi Jaiswal verbal exchange in the Galle Test has already gained viral status. But India’s close-in fielders tend to lose their voice against Sonal Dinusha. And their bowlers, the spirit to breach his defence.
For the last hour’s play on Day 3, all India tried to do was to get Dinusha to the non-strikers’ end. Getting the tail-ender at the other end out seemed far more achievable than striving to get the better of the diminutive left-hander.
Deep Dive
What records has Sonal Dinusha achieved in the current series against India?
Why is Sonal Dinusha considered difficult to dismiss by Indian bowlers?
How has Dinusha's performance impacted Sri Lanka's standings in the Test series?
Often, opposing sides are the best judges of a batting effort. You could hear from the stump mic Dhurv Jurel, keeping wicket in place of Rishabh Pant, constantly giving suggestions and alternate strategies to the spinners. What they were trying against the 25-year-old batter from Colombo was simply not working.
Dinusha’s unbeaten 85 comes on the back of his twin knocks at Galle – 100 and 84, 269 runs and counting. Dinusha has already matched a 44-year Sri Lankan record of scoring three consecutive fifties in the first three innings against India. The last man to do that was one of the renaissance batters of Sri Lankan Test cricket – Duleep Mendis.
{{/usCountry}}Dinusha’s unbeaten 85 comes on the back of his twin knocks at Galle – 100 and 84, 269 runs and counting. Dinusha has already matched a 44-year Sri Lankan record of scoring three consecutive fifties in the first three innings against India. The last man to do that was one of the renaissance batters of Sri Lankan Test cricket – Duleep Mendis.
{{/usCountry}}It’s far too early to form a judgement but it is not unreasonable to be optimistic. Test-capable batters are in short supply around the world, more acutely in Sri Lanka. They rarely get to compete in anything more than concise two-Test series. There’s little room to build form and confidence in such contests.
But Dinusha got the scorers busy from the word go. Assured against the pace and spin dished out by India, he has plundered runs as the series has progressed. In only his fifth Test, Dinusha is comfortably Sri Lanka’s leading run-scorer (455 runs in 8 innings) in the current World Test Championship cycle.
One reason Indian spinners found it tough to trouble Dinusha was his ability to meet them early with his horizontal bat strokes. Using the sweep shots liberally, Dinusha’s interception points against spin were considerably higher than all other batters. You can do that when you are seeing the ball early off the hand and the pitch and not troubled by spin.
Debutant Saransh Jain found that out when he was slog swept with ease before he could settle. Even left-arm spinner Manav Suthar, who was getting the most turn at the Sinhalese Sports Club Ground, wasn’t spared.
Equally adept at using his feet, Dinusha’s wagon wheel showed a heavy leg-side bias. But as his previous efforts at Galle show, he’s got the tools to score where he wants. With the burden of India’s tall first innings total to withstand, Dinusha chose to tap it around rather than risk driving against India’s crafty left-arm spinners, Suthar and Ravindra Jadeja.
Currently, Dinusha is ably controlling the lower middle-order, but a promotion may be in store. If he can thwart India’s design of pulling off a clean sweep, such a performance could be career defining.
Sri Lanka were 265/8 when rain forced early stumps, still 238 runs behind India’s first innings 503/9 declared. The word from the Indian camp is that they are aiming to enforce the follow on if they bowl out Sri Lanka quickly in the morning. For that, they first need to blunt Dinusha’s big batting blade. Or find a way to break his gameplan of batting with the tail.