Zimbabwe Cricket Union

2ND MATCH -- ZIMBABWE v SRI LANKA

At Sinhalese Sports Club (Colombo); 21 February 1996. ZIMBABWE 228/6 (G J Whittall 35, A D R Campbell 75, C N Evans 39*). SRI LANKA 229/4 (A P Gurusinha 87, P A de Silva 91; H H Streak 3/60). Sri Lanka won by six wickets (full scorecard).

This was the tournament where, because of civil unrest in Sri Lanka, Australia and the West Indies refused to play their World Cup qualifying matches there and conceded their matches. Zimbabwe and Kenya, though, were both prepared to do so.

The Zimbabweans were naturally rather apprehensive about the security in Sri Lanka, but at the start of the tournament in Bombay they had a team meeting in which the president of the Sri Lankan board reassured them that there would be no problems regarding security. This proved to be reliable and the visit there took place without any problems.

The suggestion was made that, because of the situation on the island, the Zimbabweans might be flown by helicopter from Colombo airport to the hotel, and then to the ground the following morning, and back out of Sri Lanka after the match. This was eventually deemed to be unnecessary -- much to the regret of Guy Whittall, in particular. Instead they were given the use of a motorcade with a large police escort to travel. They stepped off the plane straight into a bus with tinted windscreens and driven straight to the hotel, which was laced with security guards throughout their brief stay. They found the lack of practice and acclimatisation time in Sri Lanka to be a handicap, though, as they had to stay in Hyderabad until the eve of the match instead of travelling to Colombo four days in advance, and the Sri Lankan climate and conditions need time to adjust.

The weather was very hot and the humidity almost unbearable. Zimbabwe, again batting first on winning the toss on another flat pitch, the usual good batting wicket on this ground, soon suffered two crippling run-outs. Andy and Grant Flower have always run well together between the wickets, but they naturally have to accept an element of risk, and this was one of the occasions when it did not work for them. Both dismissals were due to direct hits from the fielders; Grant remembers turning Muttiah Muralitharan to short fine leg and being called for a quick run by his partner Guy Whittall, only to be run out at the bowler's end by a brilliant direct hit from Sanath Jayasuriya. Andy's dismissal was felt by his team-mates to be controversial; umpire Steve Dunn gave him out without calling for the television replay, which the players felt when they saw it was completely unclear, even after several repetitions.

Whittall batted particularly well in his 35, hitting the ball over the top of the field. Arjuna Ranatunga brought himself on to bowl his little seamers, but only lasted two overs, Whittall being mainly responsible for the 14 runs he conceded. Then he was out unnecessarily; Muralitharan had been bowling with his mid-on in, but later in the over moved him out and his midwicket squarer, to reduce the chances of a boundary. Whittall then hit the next ball straight down the throat of the new deep mid-on.

Alistair Campbell, who so often succeeds against Sri Lanka, played a good innings, hitting the spinners straight and powerfully in spite of the considerable amount of turn they were getting. He was completely drained at the end of his innings in the humid conditions. Craig Evans hit some powerful strokes towards the end, playing some innovative shots, walking across his crease to the seamers and then backing away to hit them square on the off side, and also swept the spinners well. Unfortunately wickets would fall just as a partnership was beginning to get on top of the bowling, and this kept down the eventual total.

For the Sri Lankans, Chaminda Vaas bowled a good opening spell, while Muralitharan and Jayasuriya helped keep a brake on the scoring rate with their accurate spinners. The Sri Lankan policy was to bowl most of their seamers' overs at the start of the innings, and then hand over almost exclusively to the spinners in the middle, and almost all of Campbell's innings was played against spin. He found Jayasuriya quite impressive, bowling almost round-arm and with a good arm ball that was deceptively quick.

This was actually Zimbabwe's best batting display of the tournament and they thought they were in with a fighting chance. But it was to prove quite inadequate against the Sri Lankans, who were just beginning to build their reputation as superb chasers of targets. The Zimbabwean bowlers were again too erratic, with 17 wides being conceded by the pacemen, although they did take two early wickets.

Romesh Kaluwitharana fell to the first ball he faced, trying to pull and being caught off the splice at mid-on. Jayasuriya found himself pinned down early on, and was bowled lashing out rather wildly at Heath Streak and getting an inside edge on to his stumps. With two wickets down for 23 in the Sri Lankan innings, Zimbabwe did appear to be in with a good chance. It was spoilt, though, by some inaccurate bowling which allowed a great recovery.

Then came a superb partnership between Anura Gurusinha and Aravinda de Silva which ripped the match completely out of Zimbabwe's grasp. Gurusinha had a reputation of being a notoriously poor player of spin, so much so that according to Andy Flower it was a joke among the Sri Lankan players. But on this day, although playing the seamers conventionally, he handled Paul Strang brilliantly; both Strang and off-spinner Stephen Peall were soon hit out of the attack. He used a heavy bat and lashed out with remarkable results. Eddo Brandes in particular pays tribute to Gurusinha's 'incredible' innings and the way he took the spinners to pieces. He hit a remarkable six sixes in his 87, three in one over off Peall. De Silva was in his usual brilliant form against Zimbabwe and never looked like getting out, paying particular attention to handling Strang. The pair added 172 in 27 overs. So inaccurate were some of the bowlers that Andy Flower was forced to chop and change them all the time, but without being able to find an effective combination.

The Zimbabweans all suffered greatly with the humidity. Brandes bowled his eight overs without a break, and says that he had not a dry piece of clothing on after that; he felt as wet as if he had jumped into a swimming pool. He couldn't shine the ball at all, or even hold it properly. Heath Streak and Charlie Lock were again very erratic. Streak remembers this as the most uncomfortable match he ever played in, with the intense humidity making it difficult for him to breathe. A light drizzle began just before the end, but the Zimbabweans were willing to stay on the field until the match was completed.

There was a big, patriotic crowd at the match, but a lot of goodwill was shown towards the Zimbabweans for their willingness to play.

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Date-stamped : 04 May1999 - 03:14