Daily Times

GALLE: Sri Lanka stampeded towards a big win in Galle on day two, with Dinesh Chandimal and Sadeera Samarawickrama hitting unbeaten centuries, before Prabath Jayasuriya claimed a five-wicket haul in the 19 overs he delivered before stumps on Monday. The hosts’ dominance was more-or-less unceasing through the course of the day, leaving Ireland in a woeful situation at stumps – they are still 474 runs behind, with three first-innings wickets in hand. The pitch has begun to take significant — if not unplayable — turn too. To challenge Sri Lanka in Galle in April’s unrelenting heat was always going to be difficult for Ireland, who have never played a Test here, and are playing their first two-Test series ever. But they will likely need to battle hard on Tuesday to avoid a defeat inside three days.

It was Jayasuriya who did most to advance the match on day two, collecting five wickets for 42 runs, after Vishwa Fernando had removed two Ireland batters in the second over of the innings. Jayasuriya generated drift and dip, as well as biting turn on occasion — the ball frequently testing the outside edge of right-handed batters. Harry Tector, who had put on a 70-run stand with James McCollum for the third wicket, and had clubbed Jayasuriya over midwicket for six, was Jayasuriya’s first victim. The bowler drew Tector into a drive by looping it up, but collected his outside edge with dip and spin, the ball eventually finding its way to slip. Two balls later, he would get the tetchy Curtis Campher pushing one gently to cover.

He would later get Peter Moor caught behind, and George Dockrell lbw with a slider, but Jayasuriya’s best dismissal was his third, and would have been fatal to many more experienced batters than McCollum. This was a tossed up ball, drifting in, pitching on middle and off, drawing the batter into a forward defence, before bouncing and beating the outside edge by a whisker, then clipping the top of off stump. McCollum was Ireland’s highest scorer on day two, hitting 35 off 85. They went to stumps with wicketkeeper-batter Lorcan Tucker, and Andy McBrine at the crease.

Ireland had started the day nicely, with Campher dismissing nightwatcher Jayasuriya in the second over of the morning, before McBrine trapped Dhananjaya de Silva in front not long after. But that was as good as it got for them. Samarawickrama and Chandimal then put on an unbeaten 183 runs together, the attack wilting in extremely hot and humid conditions.

Chandimal’s century — the 14th of his career — was the innings of an old pro. He’d begun the day on 18, and eased himself into the day, as the two early wickets fell at the other end. Ireland tried stacking the offside and bowling wide of off stump to Chandimal, to deny him his favoured legside strokes, but this did not bother Chandimal much, as he found boundaries through cover and deep third, and occasionally down the ground. Chandimal got to a hundred with a cover driven four in the second half of the middle session, before Samarawickrama struck two boundaries in succession to complete his own first trip to triple figures. Sri Lanka declared at the end of that over. Ireland’s bowling analysis was not pretty. Spinners McBrine, White, and Dockrell all claimed a wicket each, but conceded 393 runs between them. The seamers fared a little better – Campher taking 2 for 84 from his 21 overs, while Adair claimed 1 for 95. Adair had had to go off the field in the middle of an over in the first session, with a suspected intercostal injury. But he returned later to deliver more spells.