Sri Lanka head coach Sanath Jayasuriya hailed the input of the Indian duo of consultant batting coach Vikram Rathour and fielding coach S. Sridhar in the wake of his team’s comprehensive 8-wicket win over Australia in their 2026 ICC Men’s T20 World Cup Group B clash at Pallekele on Monday (16).
Sri Lanka chasing Australia’s 181, got across the line at 184-2 with 12 balls to spare, for their first triumph over the tourists in 17 years, while pushing the latter to the brink of elimination in the crunch tie.
“Sridhar our fielding coach and Vikram our batting coach, both are from India – really good gentlemen we have, they do want whatever we want, working with players really well,” Jayasuriya, told Star Sports cricket commentator Mathew Hayden, in a pitch-side interview after the match.
Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) has enlisted the services of both Rathour and Sridhar, both specialists in their respective positions, till the conclusion of the ongoing ICC Men’s T20 World Cup.
The coach attributed the record-breaking victory to team work and praised the bowlers and fielders for having bowled out the former champions for 181, following an opening stand of 104 off 51 balls between Travis Head (56) and skipper Mitch Marsh (54).
“I think our bowlers and fielders deserve a lot of credit for coming back strongly to bowl them out for 181,” he explained.
“Because at one stage they (Australia) looked like topping the 200-run mark, but our bowlers and fielders came back and did well to contain them to 181, which still was not an easy target to chase.”
Jayasuriya said the way the team fronted up to the challenge even when faced with the loss of speedster Matheesha Pathirana who left the field in the third over of Australia’s innings due to a hamstring injury, showed their character.
He felt that adversity has brought the best in his charges and commended the bowlers led by leg spinner Dushan Hemantha who returned impressive figures of 3-37 alongside pacer Dushmantha Chameera’s 2-36, being the catalyst for their momentous win.
Hemantha was drafted into the squad to replace injured premier spinner Wanindu Hasaranga, whose World cup involvement was cut short due also to a hamstring injury suffered while bowling in their tournament opener against Ireland on 7 February.
The head coach was at a loss for words to describe the scintillating unbeaten century by opener Pathum Nissanka which ensured the co-hosts of their place in the Super 8 phase of the competition.
However, he also pointed to the equally critical contribution made by in-form one-drop batter Kusal Mendis (51), as the duo’s 97-run partnership off 66 balls for the second wicket knocked the stuffing out of Aussies.
Following Mendis’s exit, Nissanka, who broke a slew of records on Monday night, in the company of fast-rising batting prodigy Pavan Rathnayake put on 76 off 34 balls to ease the home team to victory, while being egged on by a capacity crowd.
“Very happy to score a hundred in a World Cup,” the Sri Lanka opener told a post-match news briefing.
“It has been one of my dreams to be honest. Our fielding was outstanding today. We spoke about how being sharp on the field is important on a flat wicket like this. We knew they were 20-odd runs short. Here the par score is 200. The instruction was for me to bat long even though the run rate kept climbing.”
Sri Lanka who arrived at the World Cup following a 3-0 home series whitewash to England, have managed to breathe new life into their campaign and have won all three of their games to date.
But, Nissanka cautioned against getting carried away by the resounding result over the Australians and put things into perspective.
“Happy to go through to the Super Eights,” the dashing right-handed batter observed. “We had put in a lot of hard work but we didn’t have much rhythm leading up to the World Cup. And yes glad things are falling in line. Still, it’s a long tournament and we need to keep fighting.”
