Ken Borland

“You can’t get away with much here,” Proteas paceman Beuran Hendricks said on Tuesday after their training session at the Premadasa Stadium in Colombo, where their limited-overs series against Sri Lanka starts on Thursday with the first of three ODIs.

“I’ve played in these conditions before so I have an idea what to expect, but here it might be a bit slower and have less bounce. That’s the main difference for us seamers, we can control our lines wherever, but your lengths are utterly important here and we are training accordingly. Back home on the Highveld you can afford to bowl a touch fuller because there is that extra bounce.

“But here is like bowling on the coast at home, you have to be that half-a-metre shorter. You can’t get away with much here and we’ve been topping up our skills because the execution of those skills needs to be spot-on. Sri Lanka are a good outfit and they are in their home conditions so we can’t take anything for granted. We need to adapt to the conditions,” the left-armer said.

The 31-year-old Hendricks first played for the Proteas in 2014, but his career has enjoyed a renaissance over the last couple of years since he moved from the Cape to play for the Highveld Lions. One of his team-mates with the franchise was all-rounder Dwaine Pretorius, another of the more skilful bowlers in the national squad, and the man responsible for the big black eye Hendricks was sporting on Tuesday.

“It was Day One in camp and everyone was excited and doing their skills. I had just finished bowling in the middle and I went to the nets to throw a bit to Dwaine. He was clearly very excited too, and we all know he hits the ball very hard, because I landed one a bit too full and wide, and he smashed it back at me, it burst through my fingers and into my eye.

“I went down, but I felt okay and there was no dizziness and I passed a concussion test. Luckily it did not hit me too hard, but I still needed eight stitches, which was a bummer for the first day back. I’ve had to come back slowly to make sure the eye doesn’t burst open again, and it feels weird, it’s the first time I’ve had stitches. My perfect record is over, so thanks Dwaine!” Hendricks laughed.