At his best, Chandimal is a free spirit – the kind of batter who goes out looking for run-scoring opportunities, then throws his entire body behind the aggressive shots.
The lofted hits down the ground struck so vigorously his helmet shifts on his head, the back arched as he spanks a ball through the covers, the big slog sweeps in which he almost loses his balance – these are all hallmarks of his greatest innings.
But Sri Lanka needed Kamindu to move up, and Chandimal made way.
“When the selectors and coach asked me to move up to No. 3, it was a new thing for me as well, because I’d only ever batted one innings at No. 3,” Chandimal told ESPNcricinfo. “I told them to give me a day to think about it. So I thought, well, I’m nearing the end of my career, and we need to groom youngsters. No. 3 is a big challenge, and that you face the new ball and fresh bowlers.”
Beyond this, on this particular tour, Sri Lanka are facing an exceptionally tall seam attack. Marco Jansen is a little taller than two metres. Kagiso Rabada stands a shade higher than 1.9 metres. Sri Lanka were perhaps guilty of not leaving as many balls on length as they could have, but they are also dealing with unusual trajectories.
“They gave me a lot of confidence that as long as they’re around, they will back me, whether or not the runs were coming at No. 3. It’s when there’s trust inside the team like that, that we are able to take decisions without being afraid”
Dinesh Chandimal on the team management
“In Sri Lanka, we don’t have fast bowlers like that – with this kind of height,” Chandimal said. “So there’s no way to train against those kinds of release points. They get a foot or a foot-and-a-half of extra bounce. That is why it’s tough for us to judge.
“It’s on length that you have to leave the ball, often. With a normal bowler, the ball has to pitch a little shorter for us to be able to leave on length. But with these bowlers, even if they pitch a couple of feet fuller than that, you can probably leave it based on length. If we get better at judging that length, we will be able to handle these bowlers much better.”
Of Sri Lanka’s batters in Durban, Chandimal was the best at negotiating that bounce. Though he was out for a duck to a spectacular inseaming delivery from Jansen in the first innings, Chandimal was Sri Lanka’s best batter in the second dig. Arriving at the crease in the fifth over, he struck 83 off 174 deliveries.
“When you play here, it’s not good to be tentative,” Chandimal said. “If you play a forward defence, you have to commit to it. If you play a shot you have to commit. And if you leave it, it’s the same. It’s that tentativeness that can get you.
“In the second innings, I just had it in my mind to be positive with every shot. If you’re in that mindset, you’re in a better place to pounce on the loose balls when they come also.”
“They gave me a lot of confidence that as long as they’re around, they will back me, whether or not the runs were coming at No. 3,” Chandimal said. “It’s when there’s trust inside the team like that, that we are able to take decisions without being afraid.”
In any case, If there is some spice in the Gqeberha pitch, as there is likely to be, Sri Lanka will be desperate for more such innings from their new No. 3. “There are some things you have to do for the team and for the future of Sri Lankan cricket, rather than thinking of yourself. I think I’ve always thought about Sri Lankan cricket first. I won’t complain about batting at No. 3. I’ll just take it as a challenge.”
Andrew Fidel Fernando is a senior writer at ESPNcricinfo. @afidelf
