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Sri Lanka threw their wickets away through reckless shots, conceded 17 runs through wides and about 10 through misfields, but still won by 37 runs

The Report by Sidharth Monga01-Jun-2012
Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
Angelo Mathews stood out with figures of 2 for 8•AFP

Sri Lanka threw their wickets away through reckless shots, conceded 17 runs through wides and about 10 through misfields, but thanks to the Josephian Mafia – a moniker Thisara Perera and Angelo Mathews have earned from the school they shared – still won by a whopping 37 runs. It was an unremarkable night of cricket with most of the wickets owing neither to the bowling nor the pitch, but many will argue it’s a trait that can be attributed to Twenty20 cricket in general because of the devaluation of a wicket.Perera and Mathews, though, stood out. Perera first scored a two-a-ball 32 to give Sri Lanka a fighting chance from 89 for 7. Mathews then bowled a testing spell of outswing for eight runs and two wickets. The two came together when Perera flew at third man to catch Shoaib Malik off the bowling of Mathews. Perera and Mathews were the highlight of the night, which featured a lot of inexplicable cricket otherwise.At the top of the innings, having won the toss, three Sri Lankan batsmen used to Twenty20 cricket of late in the IPL, got themselves out in Sohail Tanvir’s first three overs. Jayawardene got a leading edge before judging the pace of the pitch, Dilshan picked out fine leg, and Sangakkara dragged a full and wide delivery on. On another day all three could have gone for boundaries, and the bowler and the pitch would have had just as much to do with it.The remaining batsmen struggled to find balance between rebuilding and keeping the rate up. Both Dinesh Chandimal and Angelo Mathews survived run-out chances before slogging and connecting with thin air.Thirty-three-year-old debutant wicketkeeper Shakeel Ansar then missed a chance to stump Lahiru Thirimanne. The batsman proceeded to add 22 to his eight then. Ansar made a comeback, though, when he broke 24-run partnership between Thirimanne and another debutant Kaushal Lokuarachchi with a direct flick. Thirimanne followed it up with a reverse-sweep straight down short-third man’s throat. At 89 for 7 in the 17th over, Sri Lanka threatened to not even bat out their allocation.Perera, though, turned the momentum a little with some clean hitting. Most of it came off the bowling of Umar Gul, whose last two overs went for 30. Still, going into the break, Pakistan were the favourites. Only for two balls. Two inexplicable deliveries when first-time captain Mohammad Hafeez and Ansar indulged in a spot-the-point-fielder contest. Nuwan Kulasekara laughed his way to two wickets with short and wide deliveries. Last checked, Hafeez and Ansar were watching replays and arguing as to who found Dilshan better.The others didn’t find fluency at all as Pakistan confounded all by not sending Umar Akmal in before No. 6. Ahmed Shehzad played a long innings, but his strike-rate of under 100 could have worked if other batsmen had hung around. Mathews got Khalid Latif and Malik, and at 46 for 4 in the 10th over, Akmal felt obliged to hit out. Except it’s not easy when Malinga is bowling. A top edge ended it for Akmal, and it was all over bar Shahid Afridi.That lasted two deliveries as Afridi heaved at offspinner Sachitra Senanayake, and edged him to third man. The formalities were finished soon, with Perera fittingly taking the last wicket.

“But he obviously has to go and have a scan at some point,” Warner said of Natarajan’s knee issue

Hemant Brar21-Apr-2021T Natarajan’s knee issue is keeping him out of action at IPL 2021, but he has not left the bubble to have a scan yet as that would mean he would need to quarantine for seven days to re-enter the team’s bubble. Sunrisers Hyderabad captain David Warner said as much after Natarajan missed a second game in a row, against the Punjab Kings on Wednesday.”He obviously has got a sore knee,” Warner said at the post-match press conference. “Given the circumstances in these bubbles, if he goes and gets a scan, he obviously has to sit out for seven days; he has to go back into quarantine. We are just monitoring at the moment. The physios are doing their best to analyse from a face point of view. But he obviously has to go and have a scan at some point.”In Natarajan’s absence, his replacement Khaleel Ahmed picked up 1 for 24 and 3 for 21 against the Mumbai Indians and the Kings respectively.Last month, Natarajan had missed the first three T20Is against England as well because of knee trouble. He was picked for the fifth T20I in which he went for 1 for 39 in four overs. He also played the final ODI against England in Pune, registering figures of 1 for 79 from ten overs.Natarajan had risen to prominence in the last IPL, where his yorkers made him a difficult bowler to score against in the death overs. After that his life took a fairy-tale turn: he was picked as a net bowler for the Australia tour but ended up making his debut for India in all three formats. Overall, he has played one Test, two ODIs and four T20Is for India.

Umar Akmal, the Pakistan batsman, has said he needs to bat higher up the order to covert his double figures scores to three figures.

Umar Farooq30-Apr-2012Umar Akmal, the Pakistan batsman, has said he needs to bat higher up the order to covert his double figures scores to three figures. He scored his only ODI hundred three years back in Sri Lanka and has pressed for the chance to make more when Pakistan return to the country in June.Pakistan’s ODI line up is currently in transition with Umar moving around the middle order. He has been tried from No 3 to No. 7 with most of his success coming at No 6, where he has scored 935 runs in 28 matches at 40.65, and at No. 5, where his record stands at 811 in 21 matches at 40.55.But Umar believes that a rise in the order will improve his record and he is making no secret about his ambition.”It’s a matter of the batting order that I’m not able to score a hundred,” Umar told reporters in Lahore. “When I am batting down the order, sometimes I have to bat in a crisis when the top order has stumbled and sometimes I get fewer overs to bat otherwise I have the tendency to score in three figures.”Apart from the first three, Pakistan are flexible with their batting order, sending in batsmen accordingly to the state of the game. Umar said: “If I bat at the top of the order, mainly at No. 4, then it would be easy for me to extend my innings and convert my 30 and 40-odd scores to a hefty innings.”I am doing all the necessary training with the coaches in the Academy and playing club matches to apply my learning. I am building myself to get ready for the Sri Lanka series where I had a wonderful debut. I am setting my target to be the man of the series.”Umar, 21, scored his maiden ODI hundred in his third match of his career while, on the third day of his debut Test, he hit a century, becoming only the second Pakistani to score a hundred on debut away from home.He has gone on to play 63 ODIs and 16 Tests so far, but reaching a hiundred has been a rare instance for him since his hugely-impressive debut in 2009. His Test place is still uncertain though has an assured place in limited-over squad.

Anthony McGrath used all the experience gained over a 17-year career as he guided Yorkshire through a perfectly time, but very tense, run chase

Les Smith at Scarborough31-Aug-2012
ScorecardAnthony McGrath used all his experience in Yorkshire’s chase•Getty Images

Anthony McGrath used all the experience gained over a 17-year career as he guided Yorkshire through a perfectly time, but very tense, run chase to keep them firmly in the mix for County Championship promotion. After the near-miss on Friends Life t20 Finals Day last week this win with two overs to spare was a hugely significant moment – the way their season is remembered could well have hinged on it.McGrath has been through a lot with Yorkshire; trophies (including a Championship title), relegation, upheaval and rebuilding and has amassed well over 14,000 first-class runs. In 2003 he played Test matches against Zimbabwe and South Africa but there was a thought last year that time was catching up with him. This season he has moved down the batting order to provide ballast to a relatively inexperienced middle order and it was his position at No. 6 that proved so vital on this occasion.When Phil Jaques fell for a well-compiled 79 there were still 109 runs needed for victory and although the lower order had depth it was fair to say that if McGrath had followed him the game would have been up for Yorkshire.He finished unbeaten on 76, having offered one life, on 53, when Anthony Ireland put down a return chance. But the main concern for McGrath was running out of partners as Gloucestershire kept chipping away. He started unobtrusively but as time passed he began to accumulate, being especially strong on the leg side off both front and back foot.Adil Rashid unleashed one sumptuous extra cover drive but was caught behind shortly afterwards. That, though, only brought in Azeem Rafiq whose stature has grown immensely during a season where he captained for a period in the t20. McGrath was full of praise for his young team-mate: “We kept the run rate in check pretty well throughout, and then Azeem came in and we decided he was going to play a few shots and try to get the target down to the teens, which he did really well”.When Rafiq was dismissed for 24 Yorkshire required just two more and one delivery later McGrath finished the job with 16 balls to spare when he cut Liam Nowell to the boundary.Top-scorer Jaques led the plaudits for McGrath. “He just oozed experience, oozed class, didn’t look fussed at any point,” he said. “He’s invaluable for our team, great for our changing room, and he showed his class today.”When play resumed on the final morning after two washed out days Yorkshire had the options of attempting to bat through the day for a draw and the additional bonus points it would bring, or of coming to an arrangement with Gloucestershire to set a target and going for the much more lucrative win.Yorkshire captain Andrew Gale negotiated a target of 310 in 84 overs with his Gloucestershire counterpart, a total which to many observers seemed generous. As it turned out it made for a compelling day’s cricket, once the shenanigans of the first 25 minutes were over with 10 overs of lobs to Rob Nicol and Benny Howell, and led to a climax which had the crowd gripped. Ironically, the Yorkshire supporters who booed and slow handclapped during this passage of play were also among those cheering at the end.The way in which Joe Root and Adam Lyth set about launching the chase gave no hint of the anxieties which were to emerge later in the day. Both played with composure and some style, Root in particular impressing with his play through the off side. When, ten minutes before lunch, Lyth was out for 40, falling to an ugly hoik to mid-on off Ireland, it came as a surprise. So too did Root’s dismissal when he holed out to square leg off Norwell for 43.At lunch Jaques was eight not out, and in the afternoon session he built confidently on the start the openers had provided. However, three middle-order wickets fell at the other end, and doubts began to creep into the minds of the crowd. Gale never got going and was held at slip off Jack Taylor’s offspin during an impressive spell of 2 for 38 off 18 overs. Taylor’s second victim, Gary Ballance, swiped the fourth ball after tea straight to cover for 5, and later Andy Hodd was lbw to Will Gidman but through it all McGrath held steady.The 19 points Yorkshire took from this match mean that they leapfrog Hampshire into second place. With Kent also winning at Grace Road the last two rounds of matches look tasty. On the face of it, Yorkshire have the easiest run-in of the top four, and in two weeks’ time today’s events may appear to have been crucial.

“Never faced a situation like this,” says Sri Lanka captain after losing three members of six-man attack

Andrew Fidel Fernando29-Dec-2020Sri Lanka were in such a good situation in the early stages of the first Test they could even have dominated had multiple injuries not hit. This, at least, was the view of Sri Lanka captain Dimuth Karunaratne, whose dressing room was decimated by injury through the course of the four days at Centurion.Sri Lanka made 396 in the first innings – their highest ever score in South Africa – but lost Dhananjaya de Silva to a thigh strain during what was arguably their most fluent innings of the Test. In subsequent days Kasun Rajitha and Lahiru Kumara withdrew from the attack due to injuries, meaning Karunaratne had only three good bowling options remaining.Despite the good first-innings total, they went on to lose by an innings and 45 runs, after South Africa racked up a total of 621 against a substantially depleted attack.”I’ve never faced a situation like this and maybe no one has, where in one match you lose three bowlers,” Karunaratne said. “When we started we had a balanced attack, with bowlers I could use for various roles. But in the first innings we lost that. We had been in a position where we could have even dominated the game. We had been in worse situations than this on our last tour to South Africa when we won those games. Losing this [game] by an innings is a huge disappointment.”We had scored the most we’d ever scored [in South Africa] in the first innings. We knew after making that total that it’s going to get harder to bat on later in the game as well. If our bowlers had stayed fit we would have been able to do something. Our batsmen did a good job in this match.”Karunaratne was unwilling to be too severe on the second-innings batting effort either. Sri Lanka conceded a first-innings lead of 225, but aside from the absence of de Silva, they also had to contend with a niggle that Dinesh Chandimal picked up, as well as Rajitha and Kumara’s inability to do anything but hobble between the wickets. Wanindu Hasaranga was also struggling to run after injuring his thigh diving on the ball on day three.Related

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Karunaratne suggested that Sri Lanka’s collapse to 180 all out in the second innings was at least partly due to injuries having wiped out their prospects of victory.”We were 200 runs behind and if we’d chased that down and set a target, we still wouldn’t have had any bowlers to defend it,” he said. “We had two wicket-taking bowlers, and once their spells finish, the next bowlers we had available are myself, Kusal Mendis and Dasun Shanaka.”We have three wicketkeepers in the XI, so we don’t have a lot of part-time bowlers. I think that must have been in the batsmen’s minds in the second innings, because no matter how well we set up a target, it’s still not going to be easy. And when batsmen can’t run, that makes it tough because then you can only score with fours or sixes. Sticking around for two and a half days on this wicket would have been tough. It was still seaming and the bounce was inconsistent.”Sri Lanka hope to have senior seamer Suranga Lakmal back for the second Test, but he is battling against time to recover from a hamstring niggle by Sunday. Chandimal is also doubtful with what seemed to be groin problem sustained while batting. Top-order batsman Oshada Fernando is expected to be fit for the second game, however. Sri Lanka also have fast bowlers Dushmantha Chameera and Asitha Fernando in reserve, while Vishwa Fernando got through the first Test unscathed – the only frontline quick to do so.”We’re not sure about Suranga’s fitness. We hope he’ll be fit, but we’ll have to watch a few more days. Chandimal’s injury also needs to be observed. We don’t know yet whether he’ll be able to play, but I suspect he’ll be able to. We’ll need to replace Dhananjaya de Silva. The big loss going to Wanderers is that we don’t have our best attack anymore. We’ll do what we can with the players we have left.”In the dressing room, it’s not easy to handle this kind of situation. As a captain I need to work out how to keep my head up and keep the players together. There’s a lot of disappointment because we arrived on this tour with a lot of hopes. We’d been in a positive mindset. But the series isn’t over yet. I’m sure the replacement players will do well in the second Test.”

Both teams have struggled for batting consistency this season while the Heat have been smart with the X-Factor

Alex Malcolm29-Jan-2021Brisbane Heat and Adelaide Strikers have to win four games in a row if they want to take out the BBL title and it starts with Friday night’s Eliminator at the Gabba.Both sides scraped into the Eliminator with the Heat winning their last two matches to qualify while the Strikers had to sweat on both Hobart Hurricanes and Melbourne Stars losing on the final day to book a ticket to Brisbane to face the Heat.After a 14-game regular season there is plenty of evidence as to how the two teams are likely to line up, but these are three key areas that could decide the contest with views from the BBL’s player acquisition and cricket consultant Trent Woodhill.Batting-order challengesBoth sides have struggled with the bat throughout the season and both teams have consistently tinkered with their batting orders. The Heat have finally settled on Chris Lynn and Max Bryant as the opening combination with Marnus Labuschagne at No.3 after Bryant was made an X-Factor sub and batted at No. 6 in the Heat’s 82-run loss to the Strikers in Adelaide.The Strikers have also returned to the trusted opening combination of Jake Weatherald and Alex Carey that won them BBL 07, with both men finding form late in the tournament which means overseas batsman Phil Salt is out of position in the middle order.ESPNcricinfo Ltd

Balance of the bowling attackXavier Bartlett bowled well in the two previous meetings against the Strikers. He was the only bowler to escape unscathed during Carey’s scintillating century at Adelaide Oval taking 1 for 30 from four overs, while he took a career-best 3 for 24 in the other meeting with the Strikers at the Gabba.The Strikers face a similar dilemma with Daniel Worrall. With the new ball often swinging at the Gabba, he seems a good option to include in the XI. The Strikers opted for him instead of left-arm spinner Danny Briggs in their last match against the Thunder and he knocked over Usman Khawaja with the new ball.”I think they’re just working through getting their bowling right,” Woodhill told ESPNcricinfo. “Is it an extra spinner or is it an extra quick? I think that’s the first one.”From the Heat’s point of view it probably then goes to, are they looking to utilize a [Matt] Kuhnemann, but if not, are they looking to utilise a Bartlett or a [James] Bazley. I think it’s then working out which way they want to go, what are their X-Factors and where they need support.”Related

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An important X-Factor?</bThe Heat have been the most adventurous side in the BBL with the use of the X-Factor.Bartlett was subbed out of the last win over the Scorchers without bowling a ball as the Heat opted for an all-round option in Jack Wildermuth to give extra batting after batting first. He has also previously been subbed out for Morne Morkel after bowling just one over upfront with Morkel bowl four overs in the last 10."It's not just about picking your XI," Woodhill said. "It's about how do we cover our bases if things go pear-shaped or we lose the toss or if we don't read the wicket right. That's a great match-up straight away with [Jason] Gillespie and [Darren] Lehmann."Briggs bowled four overs in each of the wins over the Heat taking 3 for 20 and 1 for 28. The Heat have not used a single left-hander in their top order in their last eight games with the left-arm orthodox of Briggs and the right-arm legspin of Liam O'Connor looking like an excellent option for captain Travis Head to turn to despite the absence of Khan."Obviously having no Rashid Khan brings them back to the pack," Woodhill said. "Do you play Worrall with a view that if bowl first you bowl him one upfront? If you bat first, you'll see if there's any movement. Do you bring in another spinner or another batter?"That's the beauty, they'll lob up on matchday with a plan but that may change once they look at the wicket which I'm guessing is going to be flat."