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He bowled Sri Lanka to its archetypal ever Test victory. That was successful 1985, but 4 decades later, Rumesh Ratnayake inactive remembers however helium got the amended of a world-class Indian batting line-up that boasted the likes of Sunil Gavaskar, Dilip Vengsarkar and Mohinder Amarnath astatine Colombo.
The quick, who utilized to deterioration a achromatic headband, took 4 for 76 and 5 for 49 to pb Sri Lanka to a historical 149-run triumph successful the 2nd Test astatine Colombo. The islanders went connected to triumph the three-match bid 1-0.
“For that series, we had wickets that were conducive to pace,” said Ratnayake successful an exclusive interrogation with The Hindu. “That was our strategy, but we astir apt would not person made pitches similar that if we were playing Pakistan, though.”
Gavaskar had chosen to bat successful the middle-order successful that series, successful which K. Srikkanth, debutant Lalchand Rajput and Ravi Shastri were the openers. “India had a large batting line-up those days, with Gavaskar, Amarnath and Vengsarkar, who had specified a lazy elegance to his batting,” said Ratnayake during Sri Lanka’s women’s T20I bid against India. Incidentally, the last lucifer successful the bid present was his past arsenic the coach.
He had taken implicit erstwhile the squad was going done a unsmooth patch, immoderate 3 years ago. Under him, the Lankan women bushed South Africa successful T20I bid successful South Africa and England and stunned India successful the Asia Cup final.
“I was perfectly caller to women’s cricket and I accepted the occupation lone aft the past manager Hashan Tillakaratne, my friend, joined the Bangladesh team,” said the antheral who took 149 wickets from 23 Tests and 70 ODIs. “I saw imaginable successful the squad and I gave them confidence. I wasn’t harsh connected them erstwhile they made mistakes, similar dropping a catch. In the precise archetypal lucifer we played, against South Africa astatine the 2023 T20I World Cup, we won.”
He believes women’s cricket is evolving fast. “Some of the sixes you spot successful women’s cricket contiguous are astir arsenic large arsenic the ones that were scored by the men 30 years ago,” helium said.
