Angelo Mathews on the target Sri Lanka are willing to chase in Gqeberha as the second test enters decisive phase.
Angelo Mathews believes Sri Lanka will give a right go at chasing whatever target is put in front of them. However, he added that his side will “really fancy their chances ” if they keep the target to anywhere near 300.
Mathews brought combative rhetoric to the third day’s post-play news conference, even though he conceded that South Africa, at 221 ahead with seven wickets in hand, had the advantage. Sri Lanka is hoping for a victory to maintain their chances of making it to the World Test Championship (WTC) final the following year.
“We are not giving up. Obviously they are in front of us, but if we can get a couple of early wickets tomorrow, we can still push them back,” Angelo Mathews said. “And if we can, you know, get through the new ball, if we can push them back into second and third spells and make them tire a little bit, then we have a chance.”
Australia’s 271 was the biggest score they were able to successfully chase at Gqeberha, 27 years ago, so neither side may find much value in that kind of history.
Instead, the last three days have shown that it is still good for scoring runs, which has given Sri Lanka faith that they can handle a challenging chase.
“It’s playing pretty well. It’s just the odd one, keeping low and taking off, but it’s playing pretty well. There’s something always for the seamers and also a couple of balls also turned,” Mathews said. “It’s a good, even wicket and even contest with bat and ball on this wicket so it’s a great wicket to play on.”
Sri Lanka have acquitted themselves well with the bat in this tour. Barring that catastrophic 42 where nothing went right, they have showed discipline and intent in equal measure. A much-improved 282 in the second innings at Durban was followed by a 328 in this innings. It is the 4th- highest score by the visitors in the country.
They can lament that it could have been significantly higher. They were aiming for a first-inning advantage at 242 for 3 overnight, but Mathews allowed that Sri Lanka was “unable to capitalise,” due to a “couple of good balls.”
“The ball is coming off six foot nine or something. Obviously, he gets bounce on any wicket,” Mathews said. “The Durban wickets also, he got a lot of bounce. We couldn’t really handle him in the first innings of the Durban Test. And also here he keeps troubling our batters. We played him pretty well this time around, but still he keeps troubling us. We need to come up with some more plans to try and combat his bounce. That’s what’s worrying: the odd one takes off on a good length as well because of his height.”
Aside from Jansen, Sri Lanka will face Dane Paterson, who is confident following his first five-for and is playing on a field that suits his style of play, and Kagiso Rabada, who was South Africa’s best bowler on the second day but only claimed one wicket.
“He [Paterson] reminds me of Vernon Philander. It’s really hard to score off him, and he’s just landing it on the spot consistently. So, yes, there’s a lot of hard work to put in, but yeah, we are willing to do that.”