Sri Lanka vs Ireland 2022-23
A review of Sri Lanka vs Ireland in 2022-23
Sa'adi Thawfeeq
Dimuth Karunaratne congratulates Kusal Mendis on his century • AFP/Getty Images
Test matches (2): Sri Lanka 2, Ireland 0
Ireland's steep learning curve continued in Sri Lanka, where they completed their first Test series of more than one game. After not playing a Test since July 2019, at Lord's, they had now played three in a less than a month, doubling their total.
They had fought valiantly before going down to Bangladesh at Mirpur, and struggled again here, although a comatose pitch for the Second Test (both were at Galle) helped them amass 492.
However, the Irish bowlers were powerless to prevent Sri Lanka racking up 704 for three, and the home spinners ensured another innings victory - Ireland's sixth defeat out of six.
This trip had originally comprised one Test and two one-day games but, after deciding their 2023 schedule was short of five-day cricket, Sri Lanka asked to swap the ODIs for another Test, and Ireland agreed.
Paul Stirling had been expected to join the team for the ODIs, but played in the Second Test instead - and became the 24th (England's Heather Knight plus 23 men) to score a century in all three international formats.
Ireland's captain, Andrew Balbirnie, was realistic about his team's Test travails, exacerbated by the paucity of first-class matches at home. Since that Test at Lord's, Stirling, for example, had played one red-ball and 178 white-ball games. "Our domestic structure is based around white-ball cricket," Balbirnie said. "That's where a lot of our players have learned their craft. We've got to find a way to harness our 50-over skills and bring them to the Test arena. It's tough."
The Sri Lankans tucked in to the inexperienced Irish bowlers, racking up eight centuries: Dimuth Karunaratne and Kusal Mendis reached three figures in both games, with Mendis going on to 245 in the second; opener Nishan Madushka Fernando hit 205, and shared stands of 228 with Karunaratne and 268 with Mendis.
In all, they scored 1,295 runs and lost just nine wickets; the average of 143 had been exceeded only by England, at home to Bangladesh in 2005 (975 for six in two matches, at an average of 162).
The Sri Lankan attack was also fairly callow, but slow left-armer Prabath Jayasuriya took 17 wickets, and zoomed to 50 in his seventh Test - the quickest spinner to the mark.