Sri Lanka focusing on better scoring rate, bowling more maidens this WTC cycle

Sri Lanka's Test programme is about to dry up for 11 months, but their captain Dhananjaya de Silva is still grateful for the World Test Championship. Upon recording their first win of this cycle - the innings-and-78-run victory over Bangladesh at the SSC - he also made the point that for teams such as Sri Lanka, who play fewer matches in a WTC cycle, there is more on the line in every game.

Sri Lanka play only two-match series through the course of this cycle, as the schedule currently stands. The key number in a WTC points table is "percentage of points won", which means that teams that play far fewer games than others can still finish in the top two.

"The WTC is like other World Cups - a lot of matches are like knockouts for us," Dhananjaya said. "We've talked about how we win when we make the fewest mistakes, and we need those wins to get those extra points. In the last cycle, we made a few mistakes, and that's what cost us. Hopefully, we can correct that this cycle."

For Sri Lanka's Test cricketers, the WTC has long been a serious motivator, with previous captain Dimuth Karunaratne also having spoken glowingly about the league. Dhananjaya said the WTC had changed the way his team plays.

"It's become a competitive trophy. Even we've started thinking about our run rates in light of what's happening. The Championship is a great thing for Test cricket.

"We saw last time how well South Africa did and how they performed well recently and they deserved to win it. They hadn't won an ICC trophy and the Test Championship meant a lot to them. As a country, they can value that highly."

With the team not scheduled to play Tests until May next year, however, Sri Lanka's Test specialists face the challenge of keeping their games finely-tuned over many sparse months.

"We only have domestic matches," Dhananjaya said. "Right now there's a one-day tournament, and after that there will be a three-day tournament. There's also the National Super League. That's how we'll have to keep our form. Unfortunately, there are no Tests.

"We've made requests to SLC, to play more Tests. I think they are talking about it with other teams. Even if we can play three or four extra Tests, we'll be able to continue the good things we're doing."

Dhananjaya also revealed that in addition to emphasising scoring quickly, his team had also sought to bowl more maiden overs through the course of this series. In the Colombo Test, they bowled 18 maidens out of a total 123.5 overs - roughly 15%.

"Whenever we come into a Test series, we have some key performance indicators," Dhananjaya said. "One of the things we analysed this time was that our maiden percentage needed to be higher. So that's what we planned to do. We have to keep some pressure on the opposition in Tests, in order to get some wickets at the other end. I think our bowlers did that very well."