Ireland Squashed in Three Days at Galle: Fidel & Danny Report

The fan wasn’t working behind our seats this morning. We asked the staff to try to fix it and about 6 people gathered around and looked at the two wires sticking out of the wall. Screwdrivers appeared and the wires were put back in place, but still there was no respite from the heat. The fan refused to rotate.

Prabath continued with his spell from the Fort End with overnight figures of 19 – 9 – 42 – 5. We were informed that Balbirnie’s dismissal the previous day involved the ball coming off the boot, shoulder and helmet of the fielder at short leg before the catch was completed. Tucker took three boundaries from Asitha Fernando’s second over of the morning and Vishwa immediately replaced him. Tucker managed to add a further 24 to his overnight total of 21 before being lbw to Prabath. Adair was stumped charging down the wicket to his second delivery (143 – 9) and Prabath had his seventh victim. McBrine was lbw to Ramesh Mendis in the next over and Ireland was all out for 143 from 52.3 overs after only 34 minutes of play in the morning.

We speculated whether Sri Lanka would bat again with a lead of 448 to ensure the game went into a fourth day to please the sponsors, but common sense prevailed, and the follow-on was enforced. Prabath continued bowling from the Fort End having already notched up figures of 7–52 in the first innings. Commins was caught at point playing a poor shot to a rising delivery from Vishwa Fernando (0 –1). Balbirnie survived a confident lbw appeal to his first delivery, the ball shown to be pitching just outside the line of leg stump when the Sri Lankans called for a Review. Three overs later Balbirnie edged a ball from Vishwa that moved away from him and Dhananjaya de Silva took a good catch at first slip (8–2). McCollum was also caught by Dhananjaya at slip attempting a drive to Prabath and Ireland were in trouble again on 24–3.

The clock in front of the Pavilion was going crazy spinning around before settling at 3.40 as if trying to predict the time the match would finish. Tucker took a big stride down the wicket and missed an attempted sweep only to be immediately given out lbw by Adrian Holdstock (32–4). It was Prabath’s 9^th wicket of the match. Moor was caught at short leg off Mendis (40–5) and at lunch Ireland had reached 41–5 from 16 overs. During the interval the Ireland supporters were either busy making plans for the extra two days or queuing at the bar or both.

Campher and Tector batted through the first hour after lunch without looking in any trouble apart from when Asitha hit Tector with a bouncer he probably wasn’t expecting. Campher was brilliantly caught at backward short leg by Madushka off Ramesh Mendis and the 60 run partnership was brought to an end (100– 6). The band had been annoying me all day and someone near me suggested we ask them if they would be amenable to taking requests. We wanted to ask them to play over the hill and far away, but were worried that they might come up with a song of that name.

Tragedy sometimes turns into farce when things go wrong on a cricket field and when Dockrell failed to move following Tector’s call for a run, the tall batsman slipped on trying to turn back, fell, lost his bat and was cruelly run out for 42 ( 108–7). A group of three crows landed on the DRS camera located in front of where we were sitting and clearly adjusted its alignment. McBrine was caught low at slip by Kusal Mendis ( 131 – 8 ) to give Ramesh Mendis his third wicket of the innings. The Tea interval rescued Ireland shortly afterwards with the score 135 –8 from 46 overs. 94 runs had been added in the session for the loss of 4 wickets from 30 overs.

With the game due to end soon after the resumption, a group of electricians turned up to address the problem with the electric fan. They produced a new model, or rather a used item that may have had only one owner. Having had the foresight to remove the plug in advance, they went about the task of trying to force the loose wires into the socket once again with a screwdriver. At least two different sockets were chosen for this experiment, and they still failed to get the fan to start working. They will have five full days to fix the problem, but rest assured no-one will even think about it until I complain that the fan isn’t working at around 9.30 am on 24^th April.

I overheard one of the expat drinkers behind me telling a story that may or may not have been a true tale regarding the driving skills and awareness of tuk tuk drivers in Sri Lanka. Apparently one of them was taking his driving test having been allowed some time to familiarise himself with a range of road signs in advance. The examiner asked him what was the most likely sign he would come across every day while driving on the road. The chap stopped to think about it and finally replied “Fresh strawberries for sale”. Meanwhile one of the technicians turned up to fix the camera the crows had attempted to thrash, and play resumed with Mark Adair swinging the bat.

A few clean hits to the boundary ensured the Ireland total would surpass the first innings effort and by the time Dockrell was lbw to Ramesh Mendis the score had risen to 167–9. White was lbw to Prabath in the next over and Ireland was all out for 168. Sri Lanka had won by an innings and 280 runs and for the first time in their Test history the Irish were well and truly trounced. Prabath finished with match figures of 10–108 and Ramesh Mendis ended up with 4–76 in the second innings. Stirling will join the Irish team for the next Test, but on this performance, they would need Bradman, Sobers and Warne too in order to have any chance of beating the Sri Lankans in Galle.