Sri Lankan cricket fans struggle to wake up at 3.30am but, like their faltering cricket team, they go about it manfully.
Those who woke in time to see Angelo Mathews win the toss should have been forgiven for thinking that, in overcast conditions, Lasith Malinga would rip through Afghanistan, and then going back to sleep. They must have been in for a rude shock when, a few hours later, they opened their bleary eyes and saw the scoreboard.
Sri Lanka were 0/1, 2/2, 18/3 and then 51/4 before Mahela Jayawardene and Angelo Mathews stopped the rot. The pursuit of 233 really shouldn’t have troubled any of the top-tier nations, but Sri Lanka, for some reason, don’t like to do things the easy way.
Most people woke at 3.30am on the first day of the World Cup hoping against hope that New Zealand would somehow succumb to Sri Lanka’s ‘big-match temperament’. The existence of this temperament in recent times is about as confirmed as the sightings of the yeti and the Loch Ness monster. However, with all the benefit of the doubt granted to divine beings whose existence is equally hazy, Sri Lankans blindly believe in this ‘temperament’ and in our surfeit of ‘match winners’. When New Zealand paid scant respect to the Sri Lankans’ faith, most of the cricket watchers in the country were disgruntled at being deprived of their valuable sleep. We are islanders, you see. Sleep is important.
After that letdown, fewer people woke up early on Sunday. Just as well, as the social media platforms got jammed at around 8am with fans realising that they weren’t in the middle of a nightmare, and the warmth of their coffee confirming the reality of what they were seeing on their screens. Eventually, it took a calm, collected and determined Jayawardene together with his bloody-minded captain to take Sri Lanka towards a scrappy victory.
Thisara Perera, who was left out for the game against New Zealand, had obviously spent the last week flaying his way to selection in the nets. He came out and played in the only way he knows: Hitting every ball harder than the previous one. His 46 off 27 added some gloss to the four-wicket victory, but nobody in the dressing room or their living rooms would have been kidding themselves as to how close Sri Lanka came to coming undone against an excellent Afghanistan bowling attack.
An excellent opening salvo from Dawlat and Shapoor Zadran got rid of Sri Lanka’s openers – it was only the second time in the history of the game that both openers had departed for golden ducks. Hamid Hassan then did his best Sylvester Stallone impression and launched a John Rambo attack on Kumar Sangakkara and Dimuth Karunaratne. The two batsmen tried their best to run themselves out before Hassan mercifully knocked them over. Unfortunately for Afghanistan, the class of Jayawardene was beyond them, and their inexperience showed. But their effort was so great that some Sri Lankans even confessed they wouldn’t begrudge the fighting Afghans a win.
Nevertheless, there was an enormous collective sigh of relief at the end of Thisara’s blitz.
Jayawardene’s brain took a leave of absence and he gave third man catching practice at a crucial time. And fans watched as the much-maligned Thisara Perera did what his captain and former captain couldn’t, taking Sri Lanka home with a bit to spare.
For a public that was spoilt last year by gripping cricket in the form of last-ball results in two Test matches, a World Twenty20 title, an Asia Cup triumph and other seriously good cricket, the recent downward slide has been unbelievably fast. This is disappointing for fans, who are scratching their heads to figure out how things went south so fast. But, like Jayawardene insists on playing to third man, Sri Lankans will continue to stubbornly believe. And, well, who can blame them?
