A day after Sri Lanka鈥檚 batting coach, Thilina Kandamby, urged Kusal Mendis to convert his starts into triple figures, the right-hander delivered a brilliant performance by scoring a century against Bangladesh in the third and series-deciding ODI at the Pallekele International Stadium in Kandy on Tuesday.
Mendis scored 124 off 114 balls, where he hit 18 boundaries, as Sri Lanka posted 285-7 in stipulated overs after opting to bat first.
The innings was full of class and composition and might be a lesson for the Bangladeshi batters on how to dig deep after getting the start.
After getting dismissed for just five runs in the lone innings of the first Test at Galle, Mendis started to find his rhythm but couldn鈥檛 convert his starts to big ones.
In the second Test, he hit 84 off 87 balls as Sri Lanka won the match by innings margin. In theirs ODI of the series, he struck 45 off 43 deliveries.
Then in the second game, he smoked a fifty off 20 balls, the fastest ever at the R Premadasa Stadium. He went on to make 56 off 31 balls.
But as he fell, Sri Lanka lost their way as they failed to chase down 248 despite Janith Liyanage鈥檚 fighting innings of 78 runs.
Now, when Kusal was getting the starts, he got one message from their batting coach Kandamby, who was also a former top-order batter for Sri Lanka.聽
The good double-figure scores of Mendis needed to become triple figures, said Kandamby, on the eve of the third ODI against Bangladesh in Pallekele.
鈥楬e gave us a cracking start in the first game and is an experienced player, and he has played a lot of cricket,鈥� Kandamby said.
鈥楬e has to understand that now, and he needs to convert those starts into hundreds. If he scores a hundred, we win 90 to 95 per cent of our games. He knows that too.
鈥榃hen you are in such good form, it鈥檚 a crime to throw away your wicket. He could have easily gone on to score 150 to 200 runs in the first match. We chatted about how to rotate the strike and other crucial aspects of batting,鈥� added Kandambi.
And so responded Mendis with a hundred in the very next match after coming to the crease when Sri Lanka were 13-1 in the fourth over.
When Mendis top-edged one back to the bowler Shamim Hossain, Sri Lanka were 255-6 in the 46th over.
Sri Lanka definitely would鈥檝e wanted some more fireworks from their experienced batter, but Mendis did his job fine.
Now similar thoughts were echoed from the Bangladesh camp as they felt the need for big innings too.
鈥業 didn鈥檛 bat long in the last match,鈥� said Parvez Hossain prior to the third game, who made 67 runs in the second ODI. 鈥業 was feeling guilty after getting out because I was set and the wicket was beautiful. I could have scored a hundred that day, and I felt bad about it.鈥�
Whether Parvez or any other batter from Bangladesh made the redemption remained to be seen. But certainly they got a lesson from Mendis in the first innings.
