Sports
Bumrah’s career-best 6-19 sets up India’s comprehensive win
A sizzling performance with the ball, led by Jasprit Bumrah’s career-best show, set up India’s comprehensive victory in the opening ODI against England at The Oval on Tuesday (July 12). Bumrah’s 6 for 19 was supported well by Mohammed Shami, who bagged 3 for 31 en route to becoming the joint third fastest to 150 wickets, as England were restricted to a paltry 110 – their lowest ODI total against India.
An unbeaten century stand between Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan powered India’s reply, with the pair becoming the fourth to cross 5000 partnership runs for the opening wicket in the process. Rohit favoured the pull shot as he struck 6 fours and 5 sixes during his 58-ball 76, helping India register their maiden 10-wicket victory in ODIs against England.
Dhawan, who should have been run out of the first ball when Rohit took off after playing the ball to short midwicket, got off to a sedate start while the Indian captain was a bit edgy. But he got over it and started playing his shots, including a hook for a six off David Willey. Dhawan, who was on 2 off 17, got going with a couple of cover drives for boundaries off Reece Topley in the 7th over, and the bowler was also pulled for a four by Rohit as he conceded 16. The half-century stand – the 33rd fifty-plus partnership for this pair – was raised when Rohit pulled Craig Overton for two successive sixes in the 10th over.
Overton also tried bowling short to Dhawan, having struck on his finger on one occasion, but was pulled for a four this time. Dhawan, however, scored his first 20 runs at a strike rate of only 50 but Rohit was finding the fence regularly, welcoming Brydon Carse into the attack with a square drive for a four. Carse went up in a leg-before shout and an England review ensued but the umpire’s call went in favour of Rohit, who crossed 50 with dispatching a short ball from the same bowler for another six, bringing up his half-century off 49 deliveries. The openers registered their 18th century partnership before Rohit pulled Carse for another six while Dhawan finished it off with a four as India won with 31.2 overs to spare.
Earlier, on a pitch that had plenty of bounce and with some swing also on offer, Bumrah rattled England with early strikes, dismissing four of the top six, after England were asked to bat. Having had Jason Roy in trouble with a couple of deliveries swinging in sharply in the second over, he set the dismissal up well, bowling one slightly wide and the batter ended up inside-edging it onto the stumps. Joe Root probably expected the ball to swing in but it held the line and had some extra bounce and the No. 3 outside-edged it to Rishabh Pant. England were in more trouble as Ben Stokes also departed without scoring – the second occasion of three ducks among the top four for England in an ODI – when he got an inside edge to the ‘keeper while trying to defend Shami who came in from round the wicket.
Bumrah bagged his third, getting one to come in to Bairstow, having previously moved the ball away from the batter, and forcing an outside edge. Liam Livingstone also departed for a duck, getting far too much across and exposing his stumps, getting bowled by an in-swinging delivery from Bumrah. Hardik Pandya, who replaced Shami, nearly picked up a wicket in his first over when Jos Buttler rode the bounce and almost chopped it on.
Bumrah, given a fifth straight over, would have picked up the wicket of Moeen Ali had Pant not put down a tough chance down the leg side. Buttler and Moeen played their shots as they tried to build a partnership to resurrect England. They added 27 before Moeen, who played an uppish drive past Prasidh Krishna for a four, chipped a catch back to the bowler soon after. With Buttler getting out to Shami while playing the pull, and Craig Overton being bowled by the same bowler, England were in shambles at 68/8.
That they managed to cross 100 was thanks to a useful ninth wicket association between Willey and Carse. In terms of runs scored (35) and balls faced (41) this was the best partnership in the innings but it came to an end when Carse had no answers to a searing yorker from Bumrah. Topley struck a six off Yuzvendra Chahal but Willey (21), the second highest run-getter in the innings, was bowled by Bumrah, who registered the third best bowling figures for India in ODIs, as the hosts were bowled out inside 26 overs.
Brief scores:
England 110 in 25.2 overs (Jos Buttler 32, David Willey 21; Jasprit Bumrah 6-19, Mohammed Shami 3-31) lost to India 114/0 in 18.4 overs (Rohit Sharma 76*, Shikhar Dhawan 31*) by 10 wickets
(Cricbuzz)
A quick glance at the head to head record is enough to show the gulf between India and Sri Lanka in women’s T20Is. Despite that, the manner in which India have swept Sri Lanka aside two games in a row would have surprised watchers and the hosts alike. The story in the second T20I followed a similar script to the first. Once again, India’s spinners squeezed Sri Lanka’s middle order before one of their top-order batters made easy work of the chase.
Left-arm spinners Vaishnavi Sharma and N Shree Charani picked up two wickets apiece after Sneh Rana, in the XI in place of the indisposed Deepti Sharma, sucked out the momentum from Sri Lanka’s batting. If it was Jemimah Rodrigues’ half-century in the first game, Shafali Verma was at her brutal best in the second, finishing on an unbeaten 69 in just 34 balls, to help India get to the 129-run target at a run-rate close to 11 an over with 49 balls to spare.
India went 2-0 up at the end of the Visakhapatnam leg, with the next three games to be played in Thiruvananthapuram.
Sri Lanka were jolted in the opening over after being asked to bat. Vishmi Gunaratne’s uppish drive was caught by Kranti Gaud in her follow-through. Chamari Athapaththu then started the charge. After the defeat in the first game, she asked her batters to step up and find ways of scoring. She was intent on leading from the front. She used her feet against Gaud to slash her in front of point. Two balls later, Gaud almost got back at the Sri Lanka captain.
Charani, who dropped two simple catches on Sunday, misjudged Athapaththu’s slash and conceded a six. She charged in from the boundary line and then ran back, missed the ball completely despite a leap. Athapaththu blazed away with the field restrictions on, scoring 31 off 24 balls out of Sri Lanka’s 38 in 5.3 overs at that stage.
After her dismissal, Hasini Perera and Harshitha Samarawickrama continued to bat with high intent. They primarily scored square of the wicket and added 28 in the three-and-a-half overs. And then came the squeeze from India.
On a day she was newly crowned the No. 1 T20I bowler in the ICC rankings, Deepti missed a T20I for the first time since 2019 – after 92 straight games – because of a mild fever. Harmanpreet Kaur has often turned to her when in search of control, but on Tuesday, Rana fit into the role with ease.
Playing her first T20I in India since 2016 – she played 15 away from home in between – Rana’s first task was to stop a belligerent Athapaththu, and she delivered. She kept the Sri Lanka captain guessing with flight and dip before dismissing her. With Athapaththu itching to cut loose, Rana generously flighted one. It landed slightly shorter than Athapaththu expected because of the dip, and she ended up miscuing it to long-off.
Rana then returned with Perera and Samarawickrama scoring at a good tempo, bowled a maiden and that turned the tide. It allowed left-arm spinner Charani to slip in a few quiet overs, which resulted in Perera’s dismissal. Vaishnavi also returned to pick up her first international wicket, with Charani, who denied her in the first T20I by dropping a dolly at short fine leg, taking a simple catch at the same spot after Nilakshika Silva top-edged a sweep.
Sri Lanka hit 11 boundaries in the first nine overs, but could hit only two fours in the rest of their innings. They lost six for 24 to be restricted to a below-par total for the second game in a row, which was never going to challenge the hosts. Three run-outs for a second game in a row did not help matters either.
If Sunday was an opportunity missed by Shafali, she more than made up for it on Tuesday. She was happy to bide her time at the start, with Smriti Mandhana being the aggressor. Once Mandhana fell, caught at point in a bid to hit Kavisha Dilhari’s offspin inside out over the off side, Shafali took centrestage. Inoka Ranaweera’s left-arm spin with the field restrictions in place was just the tonic she needed.
Shafali hit Ranaweera for successive fours in the penultimate over of the powerplay – both by dancing down the track and lofting her over cover. She then took apart Athapaththu’s offspin, hitting here for 4, 6, 4 in the sixth over of the chase: first sweeping a short ball through backward square leg, then thumping a full ball straight into the sight-screen and then lifting one over extra cover.
With the in-form Rodrigues for company, there was no respite for Sri Lanka’s bowlers. Rodrigues also tore into Ranaweera, hitting her for two fours and a six as the left-arm spinner was taken for 31 in her two overs.
In an attempt to maintain the high tempo, Rodrigues holed out to long-on. Shafali soon completed her fifty from just 27 balls. She picked Shashini Gimhani’s left-arm wristspin from the hand and thumped her for back-to-back boundaries in a 12-run over that put India on the brink.
Sri Lanka earned a consolation when Malki Madara’s dipping yorker deceived Harmanpreet. But they knew, as Athapaththu conceded after the game, that the batters failed to make the helpful conditions count in successive games.
Brief scores:
India Women 129 for 3 in 11.5 overs (Smriti Mandhana 14, Shafali Verma 69*, Jemimah Rodrigues 26, Harmanpreet Kaur 10; Malki Madara 1-22, Kavya Kavindi 1-3, Kavisha Dilhari 1-15) beat Sri Lanka Women 128 for 9 in 20 overs ( Chamari Athapaththu 31, Hasini Perera 22,Harshitha Samarawickrama 33, Kavisha Dilhari 14, Kaushini Nuthyangana 11; Kranti Goud 1-31, Sneh Rana 1-11, Shree Charani 2-23, Vaishnavi Sharma 2-32) by seven wickets
[Cricinfo]
Stripped of the captaincy on the eve of a World Cup, Charith Asalanka finds himself skating on thin ice. Suddenly, runs are not just runs; they are legal tender. In a game that is brutally transactional, weight of runs is the only currency that guarantees a seat on the flight. The soft will curse their luck and sulk in the corner. The tough roll up their sleeves, take guard, and play the long innings.
History, as ever, offers a handy cue card. Take Arjuna Ranatunga. Axed as captain after the controversial 1991 tour of New Zealand, he was reduced to a mere batter for the 1992 World Cup. What followed was one of the great redemption arcs. A backs-to-the-wall knock at the Basin Reserve against South Africa, with Allan Donald huffing and puffing fire and then that audacious chase against Zimbabwe that rewrote the laws of possibility with the game’s first successful 300-plus pursuit. By the time the confetti settled, Ranatunga was back at the helm, having dragged Sri Lanka to glory almost single-handedly. Asalanka, a fellow left-hander, could do worse than study that script.
When Asalanka took charge of the white-ball sides last year, the sense was that destiny had tapped him on the shoulder. This was a leader in the making, groomed patiently by Sri Lanka Cricket for over a decade. An Under-19 captain, exposed through development squads and domestic leadership roles, he appeared primed to become an all-format captain in due course.
With the bat, particularly in ODIs, he often played the role of the fireman, dousing flames after collapses or steering run chases with a cool head. As a leader, he spoke well, kept the dressing room together and was generous with praise. But just as the talk turned to a long reign, the wheels began to wobble and then, slowly but surely, came off.
Asalanka began treating First-Class cricket like a contagious disease, scarcely turning out for SSC. That absence hurt. The country’s premier club slipped into Division Two, losing First-Class status for the first time in its storied history and his name was firmly in the dock.
Then came murmurs of a clique, largely made up of his Richmond College schoolmates, a charge that rarely ends well in any dressing room. The Asia Cup only deepened the scrutiny. His bowling changes were pedestrian, with holding Dunith Wellalage back for the final over against Afghanistan’s Mohammad Nabi standing out as a tactical misread. The feeling grew that he wasn’t squeezing the most out of his resources.
Pakistan was worse. He looked out of shape, which is never a good look for a captain and the runs dried up in T20 internationals.
When Dasun Shanaka, the man he had replaced, was installed as his deputy, the writing was on the wall in bold capitals. Asalanka, though, failed to read the signs. His brinkmanship in Pakistan, including threats to pull out of the tour, proved to be the final straw.
At 28, Asalanka is still young and this episode may yet prove a necessary dressing down. He is no villain. By all accounts, he is a humble bloke who has momentarily lost his bearings. It happens, particularly to young athletes thrust into leadership before they fully understand the traps that come with it. Right now, he needs support, a steady arm around the shoulder and the chance to rediscover his game.
There is little doubt about his value. Asalanka remains the country’s best finisher, not the sort who clears the ropes four times an over, but the kind who finds gaps, runs hard, rotates strike and before the opposition realises it, has them gasping for air. These are not the fireworks merchants who hog the highlights, but they are the players who win you matches quietly and consistently.
If he is to reclaim his place and perhaps the T20 armband again, the path is simple and unforgiving. Bat first, talk later. In cricket, as in life, nothing silences critics quite like runs on the board.
by Rex Clementine
The Kelaniya Dharmaloka Central College swimming team won the Overall Championship at the swimming meet organised by the Biyagama Swimming, Diving and Life Saving Association and held at the Kiribathgoda Vihara Maha Devi Balika Vidyalaya Swimming pool recently.
The boys school championship was won by Mahara President College while the girls championship was won by Kadawatha Mahamaya Balika Vidyalaya. The mixed school championship was won by Kelaniya Dharmaloka Central College. The Club championship was won by Yakkala Wave Runners Swimming Academy.
Text and pics by DELGODA W.D.VITHANA
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