This being an article about Dhananjaya de Silva, one of Test batting's foremost stylists, it must necessarily begin with an overwrought appreciation. (I don't make the cricket-writing rules.)
Let's get the imagery out of the way. His batting brings to mind a cool, sweet drink on a scorching day, a dip in a babbling mountain stream, the sound of birdsong on a still morning, silk moving through air… look, you get it. You've probably read it before… batters whose movements at the crease are gloriously economical, whose cover drives reduce old men to tears, and whose lap sweeps fill the hearts of orphans.
It helps that in de Silva's case, he commits to the coolguy aesthetic completely. Long sleeves even in the suffocating Sri Lankan heat, plus the signature popped half-collar. These are reminders that while the rest of us collapse into sweaty puddles, de Silva's got ice in his veins. When he is fielding, there are the shades. If you've watched him once, you could look over any field in the world on which he is playing and instantly pick him out.
If this was all de Silva brought to Sri Lanka cricket, it would have been plenty. Sri Lanka doesn't swoon over graceful batters in the way, say, England does. The island's tastes have long run towards the M Sathasivam, Duleep Mendis, Aravinda de Silva, Sanath Jayasuriya types - batters better defined by their audacity. But still, there is a separate bloodline, populated by Roy Dias' flicks, Sidath Wettimuny's drives, and Mahela Jayawardene's late cuts. Y'know. The artists.
Artists aren't all fragile cut-your-own-ear-off types, though. And right now, de Silva is trying to prove it. Increasingly, he is making tough runs.
In this match, he arrived at the crease with the score on 54 for 4, Shaheen Afridi and Naseem Shah in glorious rhythm. He edged his first ball into his pad, poked nervily down the ground second ball, and clung white-knuckled (light-brown-knuckled?) to his wicket for the first 24 balls, during which he made eight. An artist forced to descend into the trenches. It doesn't always look natural.
But then the game eases, and de Silva feels the flair come back into his fingers, and the bat is a paintbrush again. Pakistan's quicks went short at him, on a Galle surface that had more bounce than most. De Silva's pulls and hooks were imperious. To the spinners, he largely stayed at home, late-cutting often, sweeping sometimes. When he slunk down the track to lift Abrar Ahmed high over long-off, the casual ease had returned to his batting.
Several overs later, he did the same to Noman Ali. That's how he got to fifty, off 89th ball faced. Not long after that, a breezy sweep over cow corner, a slicing late cut off Abrar, then a flick through midwicket when the bowler went too full and straight, overcorrecting. These are the tropes. The Dhananjaya de Silva areas.
Meanwhile, having quelled high-quality fast bowling on a pitch that has seen some rain, he was in the midst of a vital 129-run stand that revived his team. When Afridi and Naseem came back with reverse swing, he saw those spells out too. When Sadeera Samarawickrama came out for his tenth Test innings, de Silva was constantly in his ear, the pair putting on 57 together. When he got to his tenth century, he was batting in the company of the tail - something he's become accustomed to.
In 24 innings at No. 6, he averages 50.90 - his best in any position, by a distance.
"I think the best chance I got was to bat in the same spot - at No. 6," de Silva said after this innings. He'd been yanked up and down the order in the early part of his career. "I've been there for three or four years. It's easy to put a gameplan together when you've played in one spot for a while. You figure out how to bat when wickets have fallen, and how to bat when a partnership is under way. These are things that naturally enter your body and your head when you play consistently in one spot."
On other recent occasions, he's helped provide substance to what is - let's be fair - a decidedly non-elite batting order. Some examples of this includes his Wellington 98 in an innings defeat, a 46 and 47 not out in the previous match in Christchurch that helped Sri Lanka stay in the match, and the 109 against Pakistan in Galle last year, when Sri Lanka sought to level the series.
And then there are the other things. The catching behind the stumps off the spinners. Today, a sharp diving take, low to his right, sent Abdullah Shafique packing off the bowling of Prabath Jayasuriya. Plus the handy offspin overs, which come with the very occasional breakthrough (he has 34 Test wickets, one more than Angelo Mathews, by the way).
For someone who makes the game look so easy, this is no insignificant body of work.