It was mainly the biting cold that went to cause Sri Lanka's defeat by an innings and 36 runs against the New Zealanders, here on Monday. They also did not switch on and lacked desire.
True once a side is beaten no excuse is good enough. But the near freezing cold that the Sri Lankans experienced on the first two days on the field must be experienced to be believed.
After winning the all-important toss the Lankan bowlers could not bowl the way they would have liked to. Gripping the ball was not at all easy and pitching it on line and length required a lot of labour.
That is why the bowlers Chaminda Vaas, Nuwan Soysa and Pramodya Wickremasinghe failed to bowl to one side of the wicket. When Ranatunga won the toss the Kiwis looked dejected, because the wicket had a fair amount of grass on it, and they were aware of Vaas' ability to bowl on a wicket like this. It was Vaas who caused their defeat in a Test in Napier on a wicket similar to this, when the Lankans played here the previous time.
Also the Lankan frontline batsmen failed to be positive and apply themselves. They were waiting for things to happen instead of making things happen.
Of the bowlers everyone acknowledged that the gangling paceman Nuwan Soysa was easily the best although he had only a wicket to show for his trouble.
Not one of the Kiwi batsmen looked comfortable against him. Yard- ley thinks the world of him and as his career progresses should be a frontline Lankan bowler.
It was also noticeable that the Lankans were underprepared. They just had two days of light-hearted cricket in Taupo but failed to do their thing in the middle for three days in Gisborne owing to the rain and the inability of the hosts to have proper covers.
Spinner Muttiah Muralitheran who was expected to tease the opponents did not look his usual threatening self. He tended to bowl off the back foot and lost his penetration. On the next day Yardley was seen putting the youngster right.
As for the batting most of the top order were guilty of throwing their wickets away. Concentration and application was what was required when a team is fighting for survival, but this was sadly lacking in the frontliners.
Another sad sight was the inability of the batsmen to get their bats out of the way of the ball when letting it go. Jayasuriya, Mahanama and Wickremasinghe were guilty of this offence.
It was pleasing to see the way Marvan Atapattu was going. It is not easy to slot into the number three position, but Atapattu who did not get big scores seems temperamentally and technically sound to make this spot all his own. He is a bit nervous at the start. But things will come right with more experience.
It is not the done thing to talk about the umpiring, but shortcomings of the umpires must also be told so that they could learn from their mistakes. Mahanama, Atapattu, Kaluwitharne and Aravinda de Silva were at the receiving end of some bad decision
'The' Otago Daily Times' with a colour picture of Lionel proudly waving the national flag in an article headlined 'Lionel livens art of watching cricket', gave Sri Lanka's cheer leader a big boost and praised him for the encouragement he is providing the cricketers with his cheering and words of encouragement. Lionel is certainly doing a wonderful public relations job for his sponsors Ceylinco Insurance Co. Limited.