*Official* Sri Lanka Tour of South Africa 2019

[MrPrez]

That was phenomenal.

I'm gutted and thoroughly excited at the same time. What an incredible innings.

Big credit to Fernando too for sticking around. Looks an absolute bunny yet showed tremendous grit. Top work.

Wish we'd bowled Keshav rather than Rabada - I understand giving him the new ball but he really just never looked to find his rhythm, whereas Keshav was both bowling well, and looked up for the occasion. Plus it would have meant taking the pace off the ball.

On a side note, I know 1/36 and 2/35 weren't the worst performances for Olivier, but something about me really wants to see him dropped. Not only does he feel one-dimensional and likely to be exploited by better batting line-ups; he looks like a spoiled teenager whenever something doesn't go his way. If it was fiery like a Steyn, it'd be okay, but he just seems annoying.

Unfortunately I imagine Vern will be left out for Mulder in the second test because of his injury.

 

[h_hurricane]

How many chances did South Africa have that they squandered though? It’s not like the 2015 WC S/F where they’re dropping catches, missing catches and mucking up easy runouts. Perera took a chance and almost everything he hit came off. Think you have to credit the batsman here.

Certainly. This was from SA perspective. Perera certainly played an innings for the ages, possibly the greatest innings ever. Privileged to have seen it.

 

[Heboric]

You had a bet on the 99 match being mentioned in this thread?

Nah not that match particular, just someone bringing up the old tired rhetoric whenever Proteas lose a close game

 

[StephenZA]

I dont like the lame choking talk, but all these things kinda happened haha.

Sometimes you get beaten by a guy playing the innings of his life. Perera's innings ending up on the losing side would've been tragic.

Hell the hell did my name end up on that comment.... i must be going nuts posting things i did not say.

 

[mr_mister]

Nah not that match particular, just someone bringing up the old tired rhetoric whenever Proteas lose a close game

I'm more interested on the fact you had a bet related to CW. Unless you were kidding

 

[OverratedSanity]

Hell the hell did my name end up on that comment.... i must be going nuts posting things i did not say.

Lol I have no idea how that happened. Perera's innings might have scrambled our brains.

 

[sunilz]

SL now have a chance of becoming the first Asian team to win a test series in SA .

 

[Maximas]

It's honestly so insane, Sri Lankan cricket was on the brink of going down the toilet, lets do a recap...

Lost pretty much every test since the SA series at home, including 3-0 to England at home, going down by an innings at the Gabba and being decimated at Canberra.

Injuries to
- Matthews
- Kumara
- Chameera (probably all of whom would be in a first choice XI at the beginning of this tour had they been available)

Lakmal was considered the only able seamer, the frontline spinner was on debut, Chandimal - our (ir)regular captain was dropped unceremoniously, our only top order player of any class has barely crossed 50 since the England series, our youngsters in Mendis and DdS were underperforming, as was our 2nd opener, Kusal Perera was in and out of the team and no. 3 was also on debut, only Dickwella was carrying any sort of form into the match.

Behind the scenes our head coach had lost selection privileges while on tour in Australia, Thisara Perera and ****ing Lasith Malinga's wife were having that weird row on twitter, and of course the administrators were up to their usual tricks, allegations of match fixing among them.

There are of course still huge issues of course, but this really couldn't have come at a better time, i hope it really catapults the career of Kusal Janith

 

[OverratedSanity]

Thisara Perera and ****ing Lasith Malinga's wife were having that weird row on twitter

I am very intrigued, what was this?

 

[Borges]

SL now have a chance of becoming the first Asian team to win a test series in SA .

Woo! I really hope they can pull it off; that would be the stuff of dreams. Even if it be because it rains for five full days.

 

[StephenZA]

Unlikely to rain for 5 days.... but they have a shot here in PE, most subcontinental test wicket in SA.

 

[Maximas]

I am very intrigued, what was this?

Thisara calls for SLC intervention after social media squabble with Malinga's wife | ESPNcricinfo.com

Basically it transpired during the NZ ODIs that Malinga's wife had made a public post saying Thisara had gone to the SLC president's house to try and secure his ODI place (pretty funny given his heroics that series) and Thisara in retaliation posted a bunch of his recent stats and asked SLC to intervene.

This was all happening while Malinga was captaining the ODI side

 

[fredfertang]

Nah fair enough actually, I was just a little hyped. Faf's interviws always rub me the wrong way for some reason though.

Likewise - for me it's because he was such a disappointment when he was Lancs' overseas player, but I suspect that's not your explanation

 

[randycricfreak]

How on earth was this possible.

We just picked a squad out of nowhere and it worked.

Chandimal was dropped.

Mathews was injured.

Dilruwan Perera was dropped. (fastest to 50,100 Test wickets from SL surpassing Murali)

Lahiru Kumara injured.\

Ambuldeniya who I am pretty sure was like the fifth or sixth spinner in contention did a brilliant job taking a 5 fer

Oshadha Fernando making his test debut at 3, looked promising.

Tbh this was the least expected team to win in SA, and guess what they did so in grand style

Regarding Kusal Perera, I don't think anyone fancied him to be in a SL test XI.

 

[Fuller Pilch]

Just woke up in the middle of the night and checked result (better half still asleep) Sounds like an amazing innings and test.

If NZ beat Bangladesh 3-0 in the tests we'll go to no 2 in the rankings for the first time ever (probably get a rained out draw now)

 

[Maximas]

How on earth was this possible.

Dilruwan Perera was dropped. (fastest to 50,100 Test wickets from SL surpassing Murali)

Nah he needed to be binned, played pretty much all of his tests on spinning decks and was completely shown up as well below test status in NZ and Aus, plus he was contributing nothing with the bat.

 

[Stefan9]

The arrogance of picking 5 bowlers coming back to bite SA in the ass.

Well played sri lanka and kusal.

 

[mr_mister]

Perera went from Thrimanne/Siriwardena tier to playing an actual contender for best test innings ever lol

 

[randycricfreak]

Perera always had talent.

Never thought he was a Test crickter to be honest.

Most of the time he'd just give it away. Today's knock was surreal.

 

[Days of Grace]

PEWS get on it. This has got to be top 5 innings of all time. From a guy averaging 28 in tests before this match lol

Edit - I mean DOG not PEWS lol. Confusing my acronyms

Comes in 2nd, just behind VVS!

I’ll post an update tomorrow.