It will once again be merry-making time for Sri Lanka’s beleaguered cricketers to enhance their batting averages and bowling achievements as the second and final Test against Ireland begins in Galle on Monday.
The Sri Lankans move into the match after massacring the Irish in the first Test by an innings and 280 runs, the highest recorded margin by the home team in Test matches.
It was a match that every batsman had a century for the taking apart from Angelo Mathews who was out for a duck but is expected to make his century against Ireland in the second Test.
The occasion was most rousing for Dinesh Chandimal and Sadeera Samarawickrema who returned to contention with centuries after Dimuth Karanaratne (179) and Kusal Mendis (140) set the course for a grand total of 591 for 6 declared.
While the batting line-up is expected to be the same, indications are that Sri Lanka will opt to drop a fast bowler in favour of an additional spinner who could be the uncapped Dushanth Hemantha after the slow bowlers accounted for 15 of the 20 wickets in the first Test with Prabath Jayasuriya grabbing a match bag of 10 wickets.
Jayasuriya was the eventual player of the match and it was the bowling that made the biggest difference with the Ireland bowlers conceding as many as 67 fours in just one innings as their batters taking to the crease twice were able to score just 40 fours in both innings combined.
The manner in which Ireland lost after being bowled out for totals of 143 and 168 in both innings has also raised questions on whether they are worthy of Test recognition after becoming the 12 country to be granted what is called full member status by the International Cricket Council.
They played like mere schoolboys with 12 of the 20 wickets to fall unable to reach 10 runs with 45 being the highest made by Lorcan Tucker.