- Regardless of the outcome of the Test, Dimuth Karunaratne has marked himself out as a permanent thorn in SA’s side.
- Never fluent, but highly effective, his measured aggression kept the game open for the visitors.
- A big ton and lower order support though will be needed to give Sri Lanka a fighting chance.
Sri Lanka’s opening batsmen and by some extension, Asian openers, are not always equipped to succeed in South Africa.
This, after all, is a country where its own openers have been far more comfortable in overseas climes as compared to their home comforts.
So, when an Asian opener, especially one like Dimuth Karunaratne, whose career is speckled with inconsistency, picks up the cudgels and drives his team forward remorselessly, a very good thing has indeed taken place.
He’s the best Sri Lanka has from an opening perspective.
This is a country that produced Sanath Jayasuriya and Tillekaratne Dilshan; batsmen who electrified in most parts of the world, but didn’t come close to scoring a Test ton in South Africa.
The magical three figures in South Africa has eluded even the best of Sri Lanka’s willow-wielders.
For all his artistry, Mahela Jayawardene shrivelled up the face of the pace and bounce offered in South Africa.
It took Kumar Sangakarra, that beautiful batting technician, three tours to get a Test ton in South Africa.
But when he crossed that landmark in the 2011 Boxing Day Test at Kingsmead, it led to Sri Lanka’s first ever Test win in South Africa.
There’s absolutely no shame in Asian batsmen struggling in South Africa, England, New Zealand and Australia, in the same way the batsmen from those countries develop iron feet when they’re in Asia.
When Asian batsmen find their groove on pacier tracks, it cajoles the bowlers that little bit more because of the conditions that offer them a bit more than what they get at home.
India’s adaptability to different conditions despite an ever changing playing personnel is testament to this.
As his record over the years has shown, Karunaratne isn’t the heaviest run scorer on the road and only three of his nine Test tons have been scored outside of Asia.
However, only two of his Test hundreds have featured in defeats.
The fact that a mad-cap Niroshan Dickwella played a self-denying innings to take the game into the third day speaks volumes of Sri Lanka’s determination to take the game down to the wire.
Perennial let-downs like Lahiru Thirimanne and Kusal Mendis could have and should have done better, with the former again embellishing his reputation for pretty 30’s that for all intents and purposes, don’t win Test matches.
Frank Dimuth Madushanka Karunaratne embodied Sri Lanka’s fiery resistance; this time with the bat after his bowlers dragged the game back.
It is a forthrightness and clarity of batsmanship that Quinton de Kock could take on over the summer when South Africa go to Pakistan later this month and when they host Australia in March.
That Sri Lanka has been able to force South Africa to bat twice for the first time in three attempts at the Wanderers has had everything to do with Karunaratne.
It would be difficult to find a better example of leading from the front than Karunaratne’s assured display.