![Gossip - Lanka News [English]](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidMdjdmkZNNmQMdiyVyjHG0DAsid1JQzX2Wn_k0MMWpx93YaFp4Hv9rnCw1uuJZY1H60dquhLJCfg_uJg-gEz_FRlG07NUtWUslmZMhWhnOnm3dUim4hjUuNto_KPJrByj4iyXdSXuctY/s1600-r/GOSSIP-LANKA+LOGO.png)
After Sri Lanka set England a target of 350, the talk among many was that Herath will spin Sri Lanka to victory on day four and five. But Headingley was flat as a road. The spinners weren’t getting much purchase and they had to wait till the batsmen made a mistake. So the fast bowlers had to stand up and the trio of Shaminda Eranga, Dhammika Prasad and Nuwan Pradeep did a brilliant job with fine backing up by Angelo Mathews.
This tour has confirmed that Sri Lanka’s promising attack has the potential to be a match winning one. Eranga in particular looks set for a long career, provided agents don’t ruin his career showing him the riches available in various T-20 franchises around the globe.
When Suranga Lakmal returns after the hamstring injury that he sustained during the ODIs, Sri Lanka’s pace attack will look even stronger.
The hope that these fast bowlers will deliver soon started to develop prior to Sri Lanka’s tour of the UAE last year. At training, some of these bowlers showed enough promise and against Pakistan in the UAE they did really well.
Their form continued in Bangladesh where Sri Lanka played a bilateral series, the Asia Cup and the World T-20. But the confirmation that they could indeed win a match on their own came in England.
As Sri Lanka won the second Test by 100 runs, of the 20 wickets to fall, only three went to Rangana Herath. The rest were shared by Prasad, Eranga, Pradeep and Angelo Mathews.
The skipper claimed career best figures of four for 44 in the first innings and Dhammika Prasad claimed his career best five for 55 in the second innings. As Prasad ripped through England’s top order with four quick wickets on day four, Chatura Pinnawala, a former The Island freelancer tweeted, "Dhammika Prasad’s
Vaas certainly deserves credit for the hard work he has put in with the bowlers and so does Champaka Ramanayake, Vaas’ predecessor who identified some of these talents.
Nuwan Pradeep also picked up career best figures at Lord’s while Shaminda Eranga’s biggest contribution was a four wicket haul in the second innings in Headingley.
All three bowlers had their problems. While Pradeep was impressive at Lord’s in the first innings, at Headingley he struggled with his length and was constantly overstepping. During the Headingley Test he bowled 12 no balls.
Shaminda Eranga suffered the same problem at Lord’s. In the first innings he was bowling down the leg-side and England batsmen were happy to flick to square leg or midwicket.
But from day two onwards he shaped up nicely. It didn’t help that he didn’t feature in the warm-up game in Northampton.
At Headingley, after last man James Anderson batted for what looked like eternity, victory looked impossible and it was Eranga bowling the last over who provided the breakthrough and a historic win. He had the conviction that the rising delivery could do the job and he backed himself despite it being the penultimate ball of the game. When he got it right, Anderson couldn’t keep the ball down and the lobbed catch was snapped up by Rangana Herath.
There are areas to work on though. Umpires often check for no balls when Sri Lankan seamers take wickets and in Headingley, the tourists suffered due to this. They will regret it big time when a player comes up with a match winning or a match saving effort having survived due to the no ball. That is a definite area Vaas has to work on. During the series, England bowled nine no balls whereas Sri Lankans bowled 29.
Another area that needs some attentions is the batting of tail-enders. Sri Lanka had quite a few collapses with the tail unable to contribute anything significant. Comparatively England bated deep and gave them the added advantage. Sri Lanka’s tail also needs to work more on batting to contribute to the team.
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