Sky covered in clouds of the most mysterious shade of grey color, the waves crashing with the shore a few miles away, and the old-world fort stealing a peek with curiosity at what’s happening in the ground, now and then. There is also a similar scent in the air. This scent usually gives away the meant-to-be concealed love affair of the ground with a certain type of spinners. Quite a few times recently, the locals got to olfact this very scent. Each time, they did nothing but smirk silently to themselves, knowing exactly what caused it, as if taking pride in being one of the confidants of this affair. The scent was at its highest intensity in a long time during the third day of the Galle Test against New Zealand. Rightly so, as a new off-spinner had once more etched a love tale on the treacherous soil of Galle.
It was Prabath Jayasuriya, this time. A slow left arm. Just like Rangana Herath, another of Galle’s lovers. As many as six scalps were arranged for the SLA in no time. The ground which historically acts rather doting towards the batters during the start of a Test match, started expressing its true love for tweakers as soon as Jayasuriya came out to bowl on the third day. He found the edge of his first victim and Dhananjaya de Silva nearly caught it in the slip. He, again, did the same to another of the Kiwis’ batters (no less than Kane Williamson himself) and the ball landed in DDS’s hands once again. Barring one catch that made its way to Angelo Matthews, the skipper de Silva caught all five of the remaining catches off Jayasuriya.
Third-wheeling, trying to take the limelight away from Jayasuriya and Galle, or filling the role of the antagonist who spices the romance up a notch in classic love tales–whatever DDS was intending to do, did not matter to Jayasuriya. Since it was not his first time doing what he did today. Taking a five-for at Galle Stadium has become something of a second nature to him. Of the 9 five-wicket hauls he has accumulated in his career spanning 16 matches, eight were transpired at this venue.
Yet Galle continues to nurture more of the kind. The on-debut off-spinner Nishan Peiris showed off a combination of his skill and Galle’s love thereof. He took three in the first innings and as many while bowling the second time. The ball he delivered to get the better of Rachin Ravindra had beauty dyed in every inch of its wool. An off-spinner’s classic which was a tad flighted, dipped in, and turned quickly–making it too much to handle for the young Kiwi batter.
At the end of the third day, Sri Lanka were floating dramatically towards a win. A win that would definitely put them amongst the serious contenders for the WTC final. And if they do reach the final, their recent tour against England proves that they are all but under-prepared for a decider in England, whoever the opposition may be.
