Dhananjaya De Silva and The Sri Lankan Batting Line-up Finding Its Glory Days.

Going from 54-4 to 312 is tough work. When Dhananjaya De Silva joined Angelo Mathews, the Sri Lankan innings was threatening to derail quickly to some good pace bowling from Naseem Shah and Shaheen Shah Afridi. The Sri Lankan batting though, known for some really strong characters in the previous eras are finally finding peace with the new characters that they have backed for a good decade.

To save them at Galle, Dhananjaya De Silva, one of Sri Lanka’s most stylish cricketers at the moment kept the cool with him as he calmly took the game on and put pressure back on Pakistan. At the other end, he had Angelo Mathews, who was once seen as the next big thing for Sri Lanka before injuries and issues with the board hampered his progress. Mathews though stands happy still as he has completed 100 Tests and is in pretty good form at the moment.

Coming back to the star of the innings though, Dhananjaya De Silva has found his magic in artistry different from the flamboyance of the Sanath Jayasuriya’s and batters with signature shots like Kumar Sangakkara, with his cover drive. He has found his own way to look easy on the eye while making the tough runs, sometimes at rates that could look ugly.

While the start of an innings is the toughest phase for any batter, Dhananjaya De Silva finds that phase a lot tougher given the number of chances he often gives while looking for comfort. After getting in though, the ease with which Dhananjaya De Silva bats is as pleasing as ever. Throughout his knock, De Silva was confident in hooking and pulling the pacers while he also unleashed the sweep pretty well at the Galle, which is known to favor the spinners very well.

De Silva eased his way to a century, batting for a fair part with the tail, something he often does, and once again proved to be the savior of the batting line-up. While he did save the side, which is something he does often, De Silva and co will be a lot more pleased looking at the batters in front of him. Despite the top-order collapse, recent performances from Dinesh Chandimal and Angelo Mathews would keep the Sri Lankans happy. Their middle-order pillars are slowly looking solid again and Dimuth Karunaratne too has been as good as ever at the top in the last year. With Dhananjaya De Silva doing his job as well down the order the Sri Lankan batting is now starting to look a lot more stronger.