Island Nation is burning - Lanka trounces Australia at Galle

  

It defies logic !  - the Nation is under severe crisis and is burning but there are thousands at Cricket ground – Australia is touring the island Nation and playing all forms of Cricket as the focus on the field was a 31 year old - Neketh Gedara Roshan Prabath Jayasuriya  ! 

 

The President of Sri Lanka   is the head of state, chief executive, and de jure head of government of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka. The president is the chief executive of the union government and the commander-in-chief of the Sri Lanka Armed Forces. The office was created in 1972 as a ceremonial head of state. Until 1972, Ceylon was a Commonwealth realm with Queen Elizabeth II as the head of state and Queen of Ceylon. It became an executive post in 1978, and since then has been the single most dominant political office in the country. The current president is Gotabaya Rajapaksa. 

Lieutenant Colonel Nandasena Gotabaya Rajapaksa RWP, RSP, psc, GR is a  former military officer who has served as the 8th President of Sri Lanka since 2019.  He has previously served as Secretary to the Ministry of Defence and Urban Development from 2005 to 2015 under the administration of his elder brother former President Mahinda Rajapaksa, leading the Sri Lankan Armed Forces to the military defeat of the Tamil Tigers, which ended the Sri Lankan Civil War. 

Before you read about the turmoil at Lanka, in the 2^nd test at Galle – Sri Lanka won by an innings and 39 runs  !!!  -  Australia scored 364 & 151 while Lanka scored 554.  The host had 3 debutants – Kamindu Mendis, Maheesh Theekshana & Prabath Jayasuriya -  Jayasuriya had a great match with figures of 36-3-118-6 in the first and bettering it with 16-2-59-6 in the second.  

Toda, Sri Lanka had one of their great days as they levelled the two-Test series against Australia in Galle. First, Dinesh Chandimal's double-century - also his career-best - carried them to a huge lead, and then Prabath Jayasuriya completed the best figures by a Sri Lankan on Test debut with a 12-wicket haul as they surged to an-innings-and-39-run win with time to spare on the fourth evening. They were ahead when play began, but not a position of such strength that this sort of finish was the most likely outcome. However, Australia had no answer to Chandimal - who helped the last four wickets add 145 [in comparison, Australia's last five in the first innings added 35]. And then their second innings resembled one of the subcontinent nightmares of the not-too-distant past. They lost all ten wickets for 102, across just 28 overs, and nine in the final session. Jayasuriya twice took two wickets in an over, breaking the back of the top order with the first brace of Usman Khawaja and Steven Smith, and fittingly wrapped up the victory with his record-breaking strike when he spun one past Mitchell Swepson. Just five bowlers in history have taken 12 or more wickets on debut, and for a spinner, he sits behind only Narendra Hirwani's 16, against West Indies in Chennai in 1988.

For Australia, it was their first innings defeat since losing to South Africa in Hobart in 2016, and the first ever after making more than 350 in their first innings.

 

While thousands were celebrating at Galle,  life came to standstill elsewhere with Petrol and every utility thing becoming not available and people protesting on the streets.  Protesters continued to occupy the official residence of Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa on Sunday, as they raised demands of him and his deputy Ranil Wickremesinghe stepping down immediately.  Sri Lankan police arrested three people for setting Prime Minister’s private residence on fire a day earlier.   Reports suggest that millions of rupees in cash left behind by Sri Lanka's president when he fled his official residence was handed over to a court Monday after being turned in by protestors, police said as a succession battle got under way. Protesters discovered 17.85 million in Sri Lankan rupee (about $50,000) in crisp new banknotes but turned it over to police following Saturday's takeover of the Presidential palace.

 

President Gotabaya Rajapaksa took up residence at the two-century-old building after he was driven out of his private home on March 31 when protesters tried to storm it. The 73-year-old leader escaped through a back door under escort from naval personnel and was taken away by boat, heading to the northeast of the island, official sources told AFP. His exact whereabouts were not known Monday morning, but Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe's office said Rajapaksa had officially informed him of his intention to resign, without specifying a date. The 73-year-old Wickremesinghe will automatically become acting president in the event of Rajapaksa's resignation, until parliament elects an MP to serve until November 2024. But Wickremesinghe has himself announced his willingness to step down if consensus is reached on forming a unity government. 

All is not well at our neighbouring island Nation.

 
With regards – S. Sampathkumar
11^th July 2022