Allrounder exceeds 16.5 overs on day two in absence of Kasun Rajitha and Dhananjaya de Silva
Dasun Shanaka hit the tail well to complete his first fifty test on the second morning of the Centurion test, and yet his most significant contribution thus far may have been with the ball. Shanaka is a hitting all-rounder, but was required to deliver nearly 17 overs after two Sri Lankan bowlers – a third of his serious bowling resources – were unavailable due to injury.
Sri Lanka is unwilling to elaborate on the extent of Kasun Rajitha’s groin injury, believing that hiding such information confers a competitive advantage, however miniscule. But the first signs are that Rajitha, one of Sri Lanka’s three front-line closers, will not release more than the 13 deliveries he made in this Test. Since Dhananjaya de Silva’s scion is also not officially available due to a second-degree tear to her thigh, Shanaka may have a heavy bowling workload during the course of this game.
“Kasun Rajitha’s injury is really going to affect us, we all know how well he played on the last tour here,” Shanaka said at the end of the second day at Centurion. Rajitha, it is worth remembering, took nine wickets at 11:22 p.m. on Sri Lanka’s last tour of South Africa. “Dhananjaya de Silva also comes in and bowls when they’re hitting well, and he dries up our runs. He does that job. I think we’ll feel his absence,” Shanaka said.
It is understood that both Rajitha and de Silva are tasked with playing the retention role in this Test. Without them in attack, South Africa scored 4.4 runs on the second day, getting within 80 runs of Sri Lanka’s 395, after 72 batting passes. Sri Lanka’s remaining bowlers were somewhat undisciplined for part of the day, but where captain Dimuth Karunaratne could normally replace a bowler after a poor finish, he was forced to persist with them, due to lack of resources. .
“There is a big effect with the loss of those two,” Shanaka said. “We only have four pitchers, but we’re going to have to cope. We have to think of it as an opportunity. More than the number of overs we threw today, we didn’t throw in such a way that we created a lot of opportunities today. I think that’s why they were able to score. Quick.
“It’s a great question for the other bowlers. But we will have to come up with a different plan in the morning and get the work done. Tomorrow morning there will be a bit of freshness on the field, so I think 70s – strange race [lead] we have might be enough to get back in the game. “
However, on a personal level, Shanaka has already impressed in her first test in three years. He may not have played this match if Angelo Mathews had been in shape, but he added vital runs with his tail, hitting a 66 of six clean instead of 87. And in a similar circumstance, it is unlikely that Mathews would ever have been able to. bowl 16.5 overs in a day, susceptible to injury like him.
Shanaka may, in fact, have been the most consistent operator on his team on the second day. He claimed the Dean Elgar wicket, and went 3.32 runs ahead, a better economy rate than any other Sri Lankan bowler.
“I was really happy to be able to play a test after three years,” he said. “I think now I have a lot more experience, and I also get a lot of support from the team. I was nervous, but I was able to change that.”
Andrew Fidel Fernando is the ESPNcricinfo correspondent in Sri Lanka. @afidelf
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