They may also remember other test victories that leveled the series, such as in 2018, when they won in Barbados after losing in Port of Spain. Or even at home, when, after being relegated to Australia in the first Galle Test of 2022, they roared back in the second.
“We have a very experienced unit and they’ve been in situations like this before,” Kandamby said. “We’ve come back before too. I don’t think the players are mentally depressed. We give them a lot of confidence.
“This year we started in a similar way in England. We came back to win a game. We have identified it and we need to give our best from day one.”
As in that England series, Sri Lanka’s top order struggled substantially against the moving ball, falling to a calamitous 42 not out in the first innings. Kandamby said “the choices we made were wrong”, particularly the wet surface offered a lot to the bowlers in the first innings.
Since that match, however, Sri Lanka has taken every opportunity to train. They arrived at Kingsmead on what would have been the fifth day of the first test for a long session, and will also train the two days leading up to the Gqeberha test, with Monday being their travel day.
“We talked and the key here is to lay off the new ball. There’s no point in being too aggressive, but we have to save the loose balls. Once the first hour is up, it becomes a lot easier.” “.
Sri Lanka also had a significant advantage in Durban as South African all-rounder Wiaan Mulder fractured his right hand while batting and as such was unable to bowl. And yet, after collapsing inside 14 overs for their lowest Test total, Sri Lanka were in no position to capitalize on this advantage.
“It’s really very disappointing – South Africa were missing a bowler and we should have made the most of it,” Kandamby said. “Even with Marco Jansen we didn’t force him into a second spell. But the good thing is that we were much more organized in the second innings. If we had batted all day in the first innings, it could have been very different.”
The biggest positive for Sri Lanka is perhaps that, unlike South Africa, there are no serious injury concerns for their players. They had to bowl more than 150 overs in the first three days of the Test, but will have had five days of potential recovery before the second Test begins. Although privately some players had expressed annoyance at having to play again so soon after dismissing South Africa for 191, at that point they simply got on with the job, Kandamby said.
“I take my hat off to the players. After an hour and a half they had to bowl again. They weren’t bitter. They just accepted the challenge.”
Andrew Fidel Fernando is a senior editor at ESPNcricinfo. @afidelf
