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Bumrah bags five but Head, Smith tons flatten India

Published

1 year ago

2024/12/15

Priyan

Travis Head and Steven Smith brought up centuries in a 241-run stand [Cricket Australia]

Centuries from Travis Head and Steven Smith, those two great India tormentors, put Australia in control of the third Border-Gavaskar Test at the Gabba, on a fast-moving second day that produced 377 runs and seven wickets. Five of those wickets fell to the exceptional Japrit Bumrah, who kept India in the contest almost single-handedly while swelling his overall Test tally in Australia to 49; Kapil Dev (51) is now the only Indian bowler ahead of him.

Almost single-handedly, because Bumrah wasn’t the only India quick to trouble Australia here. Akash Deep kept landing the ball in testing areas and induced almost as many false shots (45) as Bumrah did (46), but ended the day wicketless. Mohammed Siraj put in a solid shift too, and for most of the first session India applied pressure from both ends and had Australia on a tight leash.

The lack of depth in India’s attack began to tell as the day wore on, though, and Australia pulled away as Head and Smith added a rollicking 241 for the fourth wicket in 302 balls. The second new ball gave India some respite, with Bumrah dismissing Smith, Mitchell Marsh and Head in the space of 12 balls, but Australia were already in a superb position by then.

At stumps, they were 405 for 7, and in a position to dictate the shape of the rest of this Test match, although time (all but 13.2 overs of day one were washed out) and the weather may yet complicate their push for a win.

India yet again had no answer to the thorny problem Head poses: how do you bowl to a batter whose stock response to the top-of-off line and length is a fast-hands square cut? They tried various options, but nothing really worked, and their attempts at going short proved particularly futile: their bouncers weren’t hostile or accurate enough to cramp Head consistently for room, and the pace and bounce of this Gabba pitch too true to cause indecision. Instead of tucking him up and making him look awkward, India typically allowed Head to lean back and ramp the ball away over the slips.

The bigger issue for India was their lack of sustained wicket threat beyond their three main quicks. Nitish Kumar Reddy and Ravindra Jadeja, their fourth and fifth bowlers, gave away 141 runs over a combined 29 overs, while picking up just the one wicket. That wicket was a vital one, leaving Australia 75 for 3, but it was revealing that it was the result of a loose drive from Marnus Labuschagne rather than a genuine wicket-taking delivery.

The problem of the fourth and fifth bowler was particularly pronounced after the tea break, when India resumed with a 70-over-old ball. It left them with a conundrum: they could either start the session with their best bowlers, or preserve them for the second new ball which was 10 overs away. They started with Reddy and Jadeja, and went on to concede 63 runs in the first 10 overs of the session.

Smith, in particular, blossomed during this period, and surged in confidence after having had to struggle through his first half-century. He came into this innings with the big, back-and-across trigger movement that he had shelved following his first-ball duck in the first innings in Perth, and it took him a while to find any fluency. He was beaten numerous times in the corridor, particularly by Akash Deep, and had played 30 false shots by the time he’d reached his half-century.

It was a measure of how much he was struggling, because each of the other 11 innings in Smith’s Test career with 30 or more false shots were centuries. But perhaps it was a portent too, and his wagon wheel blossomed after he brought up his fifty, with India no longer able to restrict him to just the leg-side scoring shots. Smith’s first fifty took him 128 balls, and his second just 57. And he only played eight false shots after reaching the half-century mark.

The last of them was an expansive drive off Bumrah that he edged to slip after India had taken the second new ball. In his next over, Bumrah struck two more times to send back Marsh and Head, and like the wicket of Smith, these two also came from balls that landed in the perfect length to bring the batters forward without allowing them to drive safely, in the perfect channel to force them into playing, and with just enough seam movement to find the outside edge.

It’s the most fundamental thing about bowling in Test cricket, but finding that right area for a particular pitch can be a long and arduous process for even the best of bowlers. Bumrah had himself taken his time finding it on day one.

It was almost inevitable, however, that he would find it as soon as day two dawned. His six-over spell in the morning was all but unplayable, with 14 of his 30 balls inducing false shots, and two of them sending back Australia’s openers.

He drew Usman Khawaja onto the front foot and got him feeling for the ball three times in a row, beating his bat with the last two balls of his first over of the day and finding his edge of the first ball of his second.

An over later, Nathan McSweeney had fallen to Bumrah for the fourth time in his five-innings Test career, squaring up and edging an away-seamer to second slip, where Virat Kohli took the first of his three catches on the day. Bumrah had bowled five overs on day one, but McSweeney had only faced three balls from him. Now he was out, having been exposed to his nemesis for three balls in a row, leaving their overall Test-match head-to-head reading 52 balls, 12 runs, four dismissals.

A tense period followed, with Labuschagne and Smith putting on 37 off 89 balls, with their doggedness at leaving the ball on length standing out as the main feature of their partnership. It may not have made the pulse race, but it served an important function for Australia, allowing Head to walk in when the ball was 33.2 overs old and doing significantly less than at the start of the day, and when the three main quicks had already bowled 29 overs between them.

Brief scores:
Australia 405 for 7 in 101 overs (Travis Head 152, Steven Smith 101, Alex Carey 45*; Jasprit Bumrah 5-72) vs India

[Cricinfo]

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Workshop Explores Integration of Enterprise Development Programmes with the “Prajashakthi” National Movement

Published

3 hours ago

2026/06/6

Priyan

A special workshop was held today (06) at the Presidential Secretariat to explore the possibility of integrating programmes currently implemented by state institutions that directly contribute to enterprise development with the “Prajashakthi” National Movement.

Discussions focused on identifying development projects undertaken by government institutions for micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) and incorporating relevant information into a unified data management system.

Attention was also directed towards formulating a strategic framework for the coordinated implementation of these programmes, as well as identifying the nature, scope and eligibility criteria of the initiatives carried out by the respective institutions.

The participating government officials were further briefed on the criteria for selecting beneficiaries for programmes directly related to enterprise development.

In addition, discussions centred on identifying programmes that could be implemented independently or jointly by the relevant state institutions and the “Prajashakthi” National Movement. Particular attention was paid to preventing duplication and overlap in programme selection and implementation.

Senior Additional Secretary to the President Kapila Janaka Bandara, Secretary to the Ministry of Rural Development, Social Security and Community Empowerment Sampath Manthrinayake, resource persons Kalum Jayaveera and Madhava Muthukudaarachchi, officials of the Ministry of Rural Development, Social Security and Community Empowerment, government officials, and representatives of the Prajashakthi Secretariat were among those who attended the workshop.

(PMD)

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England make inroads after New Zealand set 254 to win

Published

13 hours ago

2026/06/6

Priyan

Gus Atkinson claimed a wicket with his third ball [Cricinfo]

After a 16-wicket opening day of the English Test summer, a further 17 fell on the second on an up-and-down Lord’s surface that left batters guessing. Despite a mid-afternoon wobble when they lost four wickets in 11 balls, England ended it firmly on top by striking three early blows to New Zealand’s attempts to chase 254 in the fourth innings.

A wicket has fallen every 25 balls across the first two days – with 11 batters out bowled and nine lbw – and neither captain has seen fit to use a spinner on a pitch defined by its variable bounce. Emilio Gay’s 57 on Test debut is the highest score on either side so far, and he would have been out lbw to Matt Henry for 24 if Tom Latham had reviewed the on-field decision.

Henry was limited to four overs on the opening day by back spasms and New Zealand’s three other quicks shouldered a heavy workload as a result. But his only wicket summed up the challenge for batters: the ball shot low from a good length, sneaking under the toe-end of Jacob Bethell’s bat to knock back his off stump.

Oliie Robinson the protagonist of the opening day in reducing New Zealand to 29 for 6 with a superb new-ball burst on his comeback to Test cricket, led England off after just under an hour on the second morning after completing his first five-wicket haul in four years. Their first-innings lead stood at 29 after Kyle Jamieson’s three sixes put a small dent in the deficit.

Glenn Phillips had counterattacked on the first evening but lost his off stump to Josh Tongue’s first ball of the morning. Tongue struck again in his second over when Nathan Smith left one that jagged back sharply, Atkinson bluffed Will O’Rourke with a full ball that he edged to slip, and Robinson roared in celebration after knocking back Henry’s middle stump.

Gay’s maiden Test innings had lasted only 14 balls as Jamieson worked him over, but he played tightly and patiently in his second in adding 52 with Ben Duckett. He slowly went through the gears after a cautious start, reaching an 84-ball half-century – the first by an England opener on debut since Keaton Jennings in 2016 – when taking 16 runs off a Smith over.

But New Zealand will rue a series of missed opportunities. Rachin Ravindra and Devon Conway both dropped catches for the second day in a row – Ravindra shelled Duckett at short midwicket, and Conway gave Bethell a life at gully – while Daryl Mitchell and Tom Latham left a slip catch for one another when Henry found Gay’s outside edge.

Duckett made 33 before slicing O’Rourke to gully while camped on the back foot expecting a short ball before Henry’s daisy-cutter did for Bethell, but it was Gay’s dismissal – fiddling Smith’s outswinger behind – that prompted England’s collapse: Harry Brook and Joe Root were pinned lbw, while Ben Stokes lost his off stump to Smith as 126 for 2 became 127 for 6 in 11 balls.

It took a 57-run stand between Jamie Smith and Atkinson – the highest partnership of the match – to drag England’s lead past 200. Smith, promoted above Stokes to No. 6, was bowled shouldering arms in the first innings but played with far more conviction in the second, driving Henry to both the cover and mid-off boundaries in the over before tea.

Atkinson miscued a flat-batted swat straight up to be caught-and-bowled by Jamieson but Robinson took over from him by swiping at New Zealand’s short balls. Nathan Smith was rewarded when he went fuller, bowling both his namesake Jamie and Tongue before Robinson’s heave to midwicket gave him a second successive six-wicket haul.

It left New Zealand needing the highest score of the match to secure only their second win at Lord’s and while higher targets than 253 have been hauled in across the previous 149 Tests at this ground, few of those can have been on surfaces offering fast bowlers as much encouragement as this one.

Latham decided to chance his arm, chasing Atkinson’s third ball with a hard-handed drive which he steered straight to Brook at second slip. Unsurprisingly, Robinson’s first over was less eventful in the second innings than his three-wicket effort in the first, but he very nearly had Kane Williamson bowled shouldering arms in his second.

Robinson was chuntering when Stokes brought the keeper up to force Williamson to stay in his crease, and his attempts to send Jamie Smith back were ignored. But the argument came to a natural end between overs as Williamson was pinned lbw by Tongue, reviewing only in desperation as his fifth and likely final Test at Lord’s ended with scores of 0 and 18.

O’Rourke was given the unenviable task of walking out as nightwatcher, and lasted six balls before he was castled by Atkinson. Devon Conway, who reached the close unbeaten on 12, will need substantial support from New Zealand’s middle order to reel in the remaining 218 runs.

Brief scores:
New Zealand 113 in 29.5 overs (Kyle Jamieson 38; Gus Atkinsonn2-09,Ollie Robinson 5-39, Josh Tongue 3-40) and 36 for 3 in 11.5 overs (Devon Conway 12*; Gus Atkinson 2-10) need 218 more runs to beat England 140 in 39.4 overs (Harry Brook 56; Kyle Jamieson 5-62, Nathan Smith 3-38, Will O’Rouke 2-25) and 226 in 5 overs (Emillo Gay 57, Jamie Smith 39; Nathan Smith 6-70, Will O’Rourke 2-46)

[Cricinfo]

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Rusty West Indies face upbeat Sri Lanka with series on the line

Published

13 hours ago

2026/06/6

Priyan

Kusal Mendis scored a vital half-century in the first ODI [Cricinfo]

A first ODI win in the West Indies since 2013 and more importantly, a winning start to Gary Kirsten’s tenure as head coach. The action now returns to the same venue for the second of three games, as the hosts seek to keep the series alive and both sides look to implement any learning from the first game.

For Kirsten and Sri Lanka, there were elements of the veteran coach seeking to come to terms with the talents at his disposal and identifying their best fit. The promotion of Kamindu Mendis to the top of the order – while not coming off on Wednesday – is one such example, while Kusal Mendis’ aggression through the middle overs showed that captaincy has not dulled his attacking instincts.

But there were concerns too. Pavan Rathnayake had a breakout 2026 T20 World Cup, but having been positioned in a pivotal No. 4 role, his 24 off 38 only served to snuff the momentum Kusal had created. Kirsten will no doubt have taken note, as he would have of Janith Liyanage’s pivotal contributions at the death. Perhaps trialing Liyanage at four instead?

For West Indies, the problems certainly outweighed the positives. Despite the quick start provided by their openers – something that in most scenarios ought to have helped break the spine of a 300-plus chase – the middle order struggled to contend with Sri Lanka’s spinners.

There also seemed to be a distinct lack of clarity in their batting approach; unlike in T20s where they are a side renowned for their ability to clear the boundary with regularity, in the 50-over format – perhaps owing to the fact this was their first such assignment in six months – there seemed to be some rustiness and even unease around the need to build at pace through the middle.

Nevertheless, there will be strands to cling to heading into Saturday’s second ODI, particularly the execution of their plans in shackling Pathum Nissanka. At the same time, it will have been impressed on the top-order the importance of capitalising on their starts.

In the opening game, Roston Chase showcased his utility, delivering a tidy ten-over spell of 2 for 47 before chipping in with a steady 33 off 46 balls during the chase. Those numbers kept the home side competitive, but in a must-win second game, West Indies will be hoping he ramps things up, particularly with the bat. Chase’s technical expertise against spin will likely prove pivotal in combating the pair of Wanindu Hasaranga and Maheesh Theekshana, and that anchor role will ideally allow the team’s designated boundary-hitters to play with freedom around him.

Dushmantha Chameera proved that absolute pace remains lethal, regardless of the type of surface on offer. The quick turned up once more with his now customary consistent displays of hit-the-deck bowling, as he ran through the West Indies middle-and-lower order to finish with match-winning figures of 4 for 67. His capacity to extract sharp bounce from a good length will also once more prove a challenge for the West Indian openers.

West Indies will most probably go in with an unchanged XI.

West Indies (probable): John Campbell, Justin Greaves, Keacy Carty, Shai Hope (capt & wk), Sherfane Rutherford, Roston Chase, Matthew Forde, Gudakesh Motie, Alzarri Joseph, Shamar Joseph, Jayden Seales

Sri Lanka will likely field an unchanged lineup. Though considering Sri Lanka’s stacked seam-bowling department, and the reverse swing on offer in the first game, it wouldn’t be surprising to see Eshan Malinga brought into the XI.

Sri Lanka (probable): Pathum Nissanka, Kamindu Mendis, Kusal Mendis (capt & wk), Pavan Rathnayake, Charith Asalanka, Janith Liyanage, Wanindu Hasaranga, Milan Rathnayake, Maheesh Theekshana, Dushmantha Chameera, Asitha Fernando/Eshan Malinga

[Cricinfo]