The Law of batting on a final day pitch

Having spent several years in a senior coaching role with Sri Lanka, Stuart Law is as well placed as any local to interpret how the Pallekele pitch is likely to behave as the first Test approaches a potentially intriguing climax tomorrow.

And Law, who was assistant in the Sri Lanka set-up to current England coach Trevor Bayliss before taking on the top job in his own right when Bayliss departed in 2010, has a simple answer as to what fears lurk in the day five surface. 

Not many, he says – because it’s essentially not a day five pitch.

While chronology might suggest that five days will have elapsed at whatever time the Kandy hills weather allows the opening over to be bowled on Saturday, the traffic and exposure to the elements that the pitch has endured through that period has been considerably less. 

Due to the regular rain squalls, bouts of mizzle and the omnipresent cover of cloud that has seen the fleet of ground staff make more runs in the middle this Test than anyone save for Sri Lanka’s baby-faced saviour Kusal Mendis, the pitch has lived much of the game beneath a mass of plastic sheets.

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Of the minimum 360 overs that should have been bowled on it after four days of Test cricket, just 234 have been possible – a shortfall of a day and a half in cricket terms.

And almost two-thirds of those have been sent down by the spinners which means the surface has not suffered the usual pounding from fast bowlers who tend to gouge deep pits on the crease lines and break the surface further down the pitch in their follow-throughs.

“You walk out there and big Mitch Starc has been bowling left-arm over for a few overs (30 in total) and he’s hardly broken the surface,” Law said at the end of day four that saw Australia 3-83 and still 185 runs adrift of the victory target set by Mendis and Sri Lanka.

“It’s like concrete.

“There’s not many marks on it.

“It’s not going to be a day five pitch, I think we’ve played what – three days?”

Transposing Law’s assessment over a pre-match form guide that pitted the world’s number one Test team (and number one batsman, Steve Smith) against a revamped Sri Lankan outfit fresh from a winless Test and ODI campaign against England and carrying a pair of Test debutants, and the outcome should seem straightforward.

But anyone who’s found the patience to sit through this match that progresses at breakneck speed in between the insistent bouts of weather-induced tedium will tell you they might prefer to be in the home team’s waterproof shoes when play gets underway on the final day.

Which, if it bears any resemblance to day four could be when the head groundsman convinces the match officials that the threat (rather than the actuality) of rain has lifted and there is a window of good weather that has fleetingly opened long enough for some cricket to be played. 

Rather like air traffic controllers scouring for holes in the sky through which planes are able to hastily escape a fog-bound runway.

Certainly Law, who after his stint with Sri Lanka went on to coach Bangladesh for almost a year to glean further insights into subcontinental conditions and characters, knows that the prima facie evidence offered by the playing surface does not make for an open and shut verdict.

As Australia’s parlous overnight scoreline, with their top three batters David Warner, Joe Burns and Usman Khawaja already reduced to spectating the remainder of the Test, clearly hints at.

“While I think it’s got a little bit better to bat on, I still think it’s not easy to come out and start going from ball one,” Law said of the pitch on which Pakistan piled on 3-382 in the fourth innings of the Test played here a year ago against a Sri Lanka attack missing principal spinner Rangana Herath.

“History says that teams have chased down big totals in the last innings but (those pitches) might have been prepared differently for those teams coming in than they do for us.”

While Adam Voges rode his luck to remain unbeaten at stumps after he was granted a rare reprieve by the decision review system that overturned an ‘umpire’s call’, Law – in his current guise as Australia’s batting coach – thought his charges approached their task with greater clarity of purpose than they did on Wednesday. 

When they were bowled out for 203, a performance that will doubtless haunt a few of those involved should this Test ultimately fall the way of the hosts.

In the coach speak that dominates meetings of batting groups, bowling groups and playing groups the ‘game plans’ that each individual Australian batter has been asked to formulate in these unfamiliar conditions and to which they are expected to stick ‘from ball one’ are becoming clear.

Except for Warner, who’s not had a chance to lay his out for public examination.

In the main, as Burns showed when he skipped down the pitch to Herath and lifted him over the long-off rope in a more controlled and prosperous version of the stroke Smith perished to a couple of days earlier, it involves attacking the spinners using deft footwork.

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“While I think it’s got a little bit better to bat on, I still think it’s not easy to come out and start going from ball one,” Law said of the pitch on which Australia could have a minimum of 98 overs to make the remaining runs for victory should the weather miraculously defy the forecast and allow a full day’s play.

“Only one ball turned sharply (today) to get rid of Joe Burns, the rest haven’t really spun sharply yet but I think our boys are using our feet the way that Australians play.

“We saw the Sri Lankans sweeping a lot, but us being a bit taller the sweep shot is a little more difficult so we tend to use our feet and I think Joe Burns and Steve Smith played it very well.

“The wicket here dictates how you play.

“Being aggressive isn’t hitting fours and sixes, it can be defending the ball and letting the ball go.

“But if you are aggressive with your mindset it’s amazing how good your feet and body position ends up.”

Just how Australia ends up in this first match of the three-Test Qantas tour of Sri Lanka will likely be decided by their batting effort in the first hour or two of the final day. 

Whenever the Pallekele micro-climate allows that to begin.