Sports
Exciting series on the cards
by Rex Clementine
in Galle
Every time Sri Lanka play Pakistan, they introduce a teenage prodigy who has played little First-Class cricket, but the rookie takes up to Test cricket like a duck taking to water. In the 1980s it happened with Saleem Malik and Saleem Yousuf. In 1990s, it was Saqlain Mushtaq and Ijaz Ahmed. Since the dawn of the new millennium there have been champion players like Younis Khan, Mohammad Amir, Fawad Alam, Abid Ali.
Each of the players mentioned above made their Test debuts against Sri Lanka and went onto have a major impact in the game. You wonder what’s in store this time? We will have a better idea on Sunday when the first Test between the teams gets underway in Galle.
Sunday will mark the return of Shaheen Afridi to Test cricket. It was last year around this time, ironically at the same ground, the 23-year-old was fielding in the deep and dived to stop a boundary and hurt his knee. It looked like a minor niggle but not so. Not only did he miss the second Test but has been out of Test cricket for a year. He was on 99 Test wickets and with the new ball due was expected to become the 11th Pakistani quick to the milestone, but it has been a long wait.
There’s no better sight in cricket than to see Shaheen charging in from the Dutch Fort End armed with the new ball. You are in awe at the rate Pakistan are producing quality left-arm quicks. It’s as good as the quality chocolates that Kandos put out all too frequently.
Wicketkeeper Mohammad Rizwan is Pakistan’s vice-captain, but he may not get a game on this tour as Sarfraz Ahmed pipped him as Pakistan’s leading stumper.
Sarfraz of course is no stranger to Sri Lanka. In 2006, he skippered Pakistan to the Undre-19 World Cup tittle at RPS beating arch-rivals India in the final. It was a star-studded Indian side comprising Rohit Sharma, Cheteshwar Pujara and Ravindra Jadeja. Pakistan had only made 109 but their quicks bowled a couple of unplayable spells to bowl out India for 71 inside 19 overs.
Sarfraz was also the captain of Pakistan when they won the Champions Trophy in England beating India again in 2017. Pakistan were down and out and were almost knocked out of the competition by Sri Lanka in Cardiff but then Thisara Perera at mid-on dropped a dolly, Sarfraz survived and sealed Sri Lanka’s fate. Like Imran Khan, he didn’t quite say ‘we will fight like cornered tigers’, but he got under the skin of Sri Lankans by saying, ‘I’ll remember that dropped catch for the rest of my life and Thisara will remember it for the rest of his life.’
As for Sri Lanka they are a very settled unit. Test cricket is one form of the game where they have been quite steady and were in with a chance to make it to the finals of the World Test Championship.
Skipper Dimuth Karunaratne was contemplating to quit but kudos to the selectors for convincing him to have another go at the World Test Championship.
The absence of Asitha Fernando has opened up a slot. A selection panel headed by Sidath Wettimuny or Aravinda de Silva that aren’t afraid to take bold decisions would have handed someone like Dilshan Madushanka his Test debut. But the current lot are as conventional as the Vatican and they are unlikely to take the new ball away from Kasun Rajitha and Vishwa Fernando.
A few questions have been asked about Ramesh Mendis as he struggled with his lines and lengths during the recent Ireland series. Fellow off-spinner Lakshitha Manasinghe, the former Nalanda College player, has done well in recent months and it remains to be seen whether he makes his Test debut.
Sri Lanka (Probable XI)
Dimuth Karunaratne (Captain), Nishan Madushka, Kusal Mendis, Angelo Mathews Dinesh Chandimal, Dhananjaya de Silva, Sadeera Samarawickrama, Ramesh Mendis, Prabath Jayasuriya, Kasun Rajitha and Vishwa Fernando.
Pakistan (Probable XI)
Babar Azam (Captain), Imam-ul-Haq, Abdullah Shafique, Shan Masood, Saud Shakeel, Sarfraz Ahmed (wk), Agha Salman, Abrar Ahmed, Naseem Shah, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Noman Ali or Mohammad Nawaz.
Umpires: Alex Wharf (Eng) and Rod Tucker (Aus)
Television Umpire: Chris Gaffaney (NZ)
Match Referee: David Boon (Aus)
Pallekele was the stage, just under a week ago, for Sri Lanka’s turbo charged victory over a shell-shocked (and soon-to-be-eliminated) Australia. One minute the Aussies were 104 for 0 in the ninth over, and the hosts themselves were the ones contemplating an anxious exit from an unexpectedly competitive Group B. The next thing you knew, their spinners had ripped out Australia’s soul, and Pathum Nissanka had come howling through the breach with his wonderful 52-ball century.
Pallekele’s passionate, opinionatwd, fanbase made their presence felt that night, and as the concurrent scenes in Colombo have indicated, Sri Lanka is somewhat gripped by World Cup fever right now – notwithstanding their team’s shock loss to a surging Zimbabwe in their final group game.
That six-wicket defeat made no odds to the Super Eight, with the pre-seeded pools now awkwardly featuring all the group winners on one side of the draw and all the runners-up on the other. But it was conceivably an untimely bump back to earth, just in time for Sri Lanka’s reunion with a familiar set of foes. England won five matches out of six on their white-ball warm-up tour of the country last month, including three out of three in the T20I leg.
None of these wins were emphatic, but each of them was sealed by subtly different means – Adil Rashid’s spin strangle in game 1, Tom Banton’s middle-order awakening in game 2, Sam Curran’s guts and glory on a tricky turning deck in game 3, in which England’s back-up tweakers, Will Jacks and Jacob Bethell applied the coup de grace.
The net effect was to give the impression of a well-rounded England team, one that was ready to march into the main event with form to fall back on and faith in their myriad methods. And while that might still be the case in an eminently surmountable Group 2 which also features the known unknowns of New Zealand and Pakistan, the sheer terror of those near-misses against Nepal and Italy cannot be easily forgotten. Nor the disturbing passivity of their old-school trouncing in Mumbai by West Indies.
The stage is therefore set for Sri Lanka to pounce on the big occasion, as they have often done in the recent past, most notably with their wins at the 2019 and 2023 ODI World Cups, when their brace of victories went against the grain of their one-sided bilateral records.
Sri Lanka’s batting has broadly fired across the group stages, with Nissanka leading the line and Kusal Mendis contributing a trio of fifties in four matches, but agonisingly they’ll have to take the stage without the raw pace of Matheesha Pathirana, whose slingy action had England’s top order in all sorts of bother throughout their bilateral engagements. He lasted just four balls of the Australia game before succumbing to a calf strain, and has been replaced by Dilshan Madushanka.
Pathum Nissanka joined a curiously niche club when he smoked Australia to the brink of elimination last week. Only Chris Gayle before him had managed a T20 World Cup hundred, in addition to an ODI double-hundred and a century in all three formats – and if he’s got some way to go to match Gayle’s twin Test 300s, then a career-best 187 in his last series against Bangladesh suggests he’s tracking in the right direction. England did not see the best of him in the bilateral series just gone, but they’ll remember it alright. At The Oval in 2024, he blazed a superb fourth-innings 127 not out from 124 balls to swipe the third Test from under his opponents’ noses. At a time when England’s own batting lacks a touch of bravado, Nissanka is perfectly placed to steal a march once again.
Adil Rashid has been an unlikely barometer of England’s struggles. On his day, he remains absolutely integral to his team’s hopes of adding to the silverware that he has been instrumental in collecting over the course of the past decade. In England’s loss to West Indies, he did not concede a single boundary in serving up figures of 2 for 16 in four overs, while a combined haul of 5 for 69 in 12 in Pallekele last month suggests he will be right back on the mark on his return to a happy hunting ground. In between whiles, however, he has been treated with rare disdain by a succession of Associate batters, serving up combined figures of 4 for 121 in 11 overs, including a brutal outing of 3-0-42-0 against Nepal. Part of that might come down to a lack of inhibition from a succession of unfancied opponents who had licence to take him on. But with Brook’s tournament stratergy lean8ng so heavily on spin, England cannot afford many more bad days from their veteran. They aren’t programmed to cope when he goes missing.
England’s nerves haven’t been settled, but their team certainly has. Their depth of batting and bowling options came to the fore on their previous trip to Pallekele, and while there’s no expectation of wholesale changes, Brook did hint that some tweaks might be needed to avoid becoming predictable. Whether those are personnel or positional remain to be seen, although Luke Wood’s skiddier left-arm seam might be restored in place of Jamie Overton’s heavier lengths. The cut to Jacob Bethell’s bowling hand (sustained during the match against West Indies), may prevent him from bowling, because those fingers are still strapped. Brook hoped he’d recover in time, however.
England: (probable) Phil Salt, Jos Buttler (wk), Jacob Bethell, Tom Banton, Harry Brook (capt), Sam Curran, Will Jacks, Liam Dawson, Luke Wood, Jofra Archer, Adil Rashid
Pramod Madushan made his first appearance of the campaign in the Zimbabwe defeat, with Dushmantha Chameera taking a break with qualification already assured. That short-term arrangement is likely to be reversed, with Madushanka keeping his spot.
Sri Lanka: (probable) Pathum Nissanka, Kusal Perera, Kusal Mendis (wk), Pavan Rathnayake, Kamindu Mendis, Dasun Shanaka (capt), Dunith Wellelage, Dushan Hemantha, Maheesh Theekshana, Dilshan Madushanka, Dushmantha Chameera
(Cricinfo)
New Zealand and Pakistan will share the points after rain forced a washout in Colombo. The officials waited over two hours from the official start time for an improvement in the weather conditions, but the steady drizzle that began at the toss only grew heavier and never quite relented.
With puddles forming on the covers and the overhead conditions no closer to improving, the umpires made the inevitable call.
There was a strong chance of showers as toss time approached. The previous day, Pakistan’s evening training session had to be cancelled due to rain. At the toss, which Pakistan won with Salman Agha opting to bat first, a drizzle began as the captains were speaking, and the ground staff began to move the covers into position. From thereon, the fate of the game was sealed.
Pakistan had left Khawaja Nafay out and brought in Fakhar Zaman, while New Zealand made three changes, including welcoming their captain Mitchell Santner back into the XI.
Both teams got off the mark in the Super Eight, but are left with little room for error. Pakistan will play England next on Tuesday and Sri Lanka a week from today, while New Zealand take on Sri Lanka on Wednesday and England on Friday. All games in this group take place in Sri Lanka.
(Cricinfo)
Sri Lanka took a 1-0 lead in the ODI series with a tense ten-run win over West Indies, thanks largely to a match-defining performance from Inoka Ranaweera.
After being asked to bat, Sri Lanka posted 240 for 6, built on half-centuries from Hasini Perera (61 off 86) and Harshitha Samarawickrema (66 off 105). Captain Chamari Athapaththu made 27, while useful middle-order contributions from Nilakshika Silva and Kavisha Dilhari kept the innings moving at a controlled rate. A late cameo from Dewmi Vihanga, who struck 14 off six balls, ensured Sri Lanka pushed towards a competitive total in St George’s in Grenada.
But it was Ranaweera who tilted the contest. The experienced left-arm spinner returned figures of 4 for 44 from her ten overs. She removed the No. 3 Shemaine Campbelle cheaply, dismissed Chinelle Henry soon after, and then returned to break the dangerous stand of 89 between Stefanie Taylor and Jannillea Glasgow in the 40th over, just as West Indies were threatening to surge ahead. Ranaweera also accounted for Shawnisha Hector at the death.
Taylor’s 66 off 83 balls and Glasgow’s 50 off 67 had revived West Indies from early setbacks, and with Aaliyah Alleyne in the middle, the chase remained alive deep into the game. West Indies needed 18 from the last two overs, and 12 from the last six balls. However, Sri Lanka’s spinners held firm, with Dilhari finishing with three wickets, including two in the final over, to complement Ranaweera’s starring role.
West Indies were eventually bowled out for 230 in 49.4 overs. Sri Lanka have now won four of their last five ODIs against West Indies since 2017.
Brief scores:
Sri Lanka Women 240 for 6 in 50 overs (Harshitha Samarawickrama 66, Hasini Perera 61; Hayley Matthews 2-46, Karishma Ramharak 2-57) beat West Indies Women 230 in 49.4 overs (Stefanie Taylor 66, Jannillea Glasgow 50; Inoka Ranaweera 4-44, Kavish Dilhari 3-49) by ten runs
[Cricinfo]
Stage set for Sri Lanka to turn the tide and pounce on England
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