Sports
Cricket’s invisible men
Rex Clementine in Mohali
As the national cricket team made a mockery out of the opening Test match against India here in Mohali with wrong selections and combinations the team is faced with more trouble as they are unable to fly in replacements due to delay in processing visas.
Asitha Fernando, who has featured in three Test matches was the possible replacement Sri Lanka were trying to bring in but that’s not gone to plan and even if he gets the visa, he is unlikely to be available for selections for the second Test in Bangalore as he has to undergo a three day quarantine before joining the team.
With Lahiru Kumara ruled out with a hamstring injury, Dushmantha Chameera, who was expected to feature in the second Test is complaining of ankle pain and Sri Lanka are wary of exposing the injury prone fast bowler ahead of a hectic cricket season. Although Binura Fernando is the automatic choice, the team management have concerns about him as he has previously broken down in middle of games. That makes Chamika Karunaratne the Hobson’s choice and he’s expected to feature in the side along with Suranga Lakmal and Vishwa Fernando. If Chameera doesn’t play, it will be a killer blow for Sri Lanka.
In the first Test, playing Kumara without a single First Class game under his belt since his last injury as if weren’t a bad enough, it surprised many when he limped out to bat struggling to move his feet. Assuming it was a case of Sri Lanka needing ten runs to avoid the follow on, sending out the injured last man would have made sense. But here Sri Lanka were trailing by 400 runs. Then with the team all set for a massive defeat, Kumara was sent out again in the second innings. Surely, your number 11 is not going to make a hundred. The only thing that could have happened with him coming out to bat was the fast bowler aggravating the injury.
The coaching staff seems to be heavily relying for input from Colombo, worried to take decisions independently. Video footage of the Mohali pitch was sent to Colombo to ask what combination the team should play. Sri Lanka went with three seamers and one spinner whereas India went with three spin options. Eventually, the team became the laughing stock as seamers got little purchase while India’s spinners were handful with Ravindra Jadeja and Ravichandran Ashwin accounting for 15 of the 20 wickets.
Young Pathum Nissanka had done a terrific job as an opener having scored three half-centuries in the two match series against West Indies in December. What crime he had committed to be demoted to number three remains a mystery. Interestingly, his replacement Lahiru Thirimanne since playing the Bangladesh Test match last year had not featured in any First Class games. Tactically, it was a blunder sending two left-handed batsmen against the off-spin of Ravichandran Ashwin.
As expected, Ashwin came onto the attack in the fifth over of the innings and had his man. In the second innings, Ashwin didn’t wait that long. He bowled the first over and once again dismissed Thirimanne, this time for a duck. The invisible men in Colombo had thought it was fit that Thirimanne was good enough to open batting against world’s best bowling attack having not featured in a First Class game for nearly a year.
The confidence level of the team is at a low ebb. The coaching staff seems to be not putting their foot down in areas where they need to show authority as they know they are all on borrowed time with interim appointments.
For every minute thing the invisible men in Colombo are consulted and the results have been disastrous with Sri Lanka suffering their third heaviest Test defeat in history. Team’s planning has been awful.
Sri Lanka Cricket often gets the blame for team’s sorry performances, but this debacle can not be placed on the doorstep of the board for they clearly mange only the administrative part with cricket being run by invisible men. They are not in India with the team but very soon will arrive here after the Test match is over as the carnival is set to begin. By then, the horse has bolted and the image of nation’s cricket team would have taken a huge blow. The invisible men will not get exposed. They will get their men like Mubaraks and Kandambys to run the show now that they have failed to bring in Farbrace and Ford. Cricket remains their private property and only their friends will play a role in cricket. Invisible men will continue to be invisible.
The most prolific batter of the WPL and the ever-so reliable Nat Sciver Brunt has finally broken the century drought in the tournament, 1059 days and 82 matches since the league started in 2023. Even though the conditions continued to be slow in Vadodara, Sciver-Brunt switched gears after the powerplay with a 32-ball half-century to pick the gaps and middle the ball in unparalleled fashion.
She powered Mumbai Indians (MI) to 199, the highest total on this ground this season, and the scoreboard pressure told on the Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) batters who collapsed to 35 for 5. They were given a late lift by Richa Ghosh’s bludgeoning 90 off just 50 balls that tried to rescue a sinking ship but the asking rate and lack of partners kept the task too stiff and they went down by only 15 runs in the end after her stunning assault.
Sciver-Brunt’s maiden T20 century could have hardly come at a better time for MI; they were fourth on the table after losing their last three games and needed to win this game to keep their knockouts fate in their own hands. They did it by taking down the table-toppers to go second and RCB have now lost two in a row after kicking off the season with five wins on the bounce that had taken them to the knockouts.
MI’s powerplay woes continued as S Sajana fell early to Lauren Bell’s swing for 7, and they trudged along against the moving ball to reach 38 for 1 in the powerplay, with just four fours and no sixes.
The experienced duo of Sciver-Brunt and Hayley Matthews then lifted MI with a rapid partnership that raced from 50 to 100 in just 21 balls. Sciver-Brunt was the first to cut loose when she made room against Nadine de Klerk to smash her down the ground. As the pitch again lacked pace, Sciver-Brunt and Matthews rocked onto the back foot to collect boundaries. Sciver-Brunt slapped two through the covers off Shreyanka Patil in the eighth over, Matthews went behind square off Arundhati Reddy for two more fours in the next, and the fifty stand was up.
Soon after she topped the run charts for this WPL, Sciver-Brunt increased RCB’s headaches by piercing the gaps all around the park. After smacking de Klerk for a six, she punished Shreyanka for three consecutive fours – the first two off sweeps that brought up her 32-ball fifty, her fourth of the season. Matthews ended the 18-run over with another boundary before Sciver-Brunt carved Radha Yadav for three fours in the next, bringing up their century stand off just 61 balls.
Matthews soon got to her 35-ball fifty – her first of this WPL – and the dominating partnership ended only when Bell returned and rattled Matthews’ stumps after the ball ricocheted off both pads. Harmanpreet Kaur lasted 12 balls for 20 runs before holing out to long-off, and Sciver-Brunt ended the 19th over by carving a wide yorker for four to move to 99, the highest individual score in the WPL until Monday.
She went past the barrier after holding the record for the most runs (8,883) and fifties (57) without a hundred in women’s T20s, across 348 innings. Shreyanka bowled a tidy last over for just five runs, keeping MI just short of 200.
After she missed the first few games with a shoulder niggle and then struggled for rhythm with both bat and ball, Matthews turned the tide against the best side of this WPL. Her offspin match-up worked instantly against Smriti Mandhana, who top-edged to backward square leg for 6, not long after Grace Harris had edged Shabnim Ismail behind. No. 3 Georgia Voll also handed a catch to the wicketkeeper when Matthews erred with her line down leg and Rahila Firdous took a sharp catch off the bottom edge.
Two balls later, Ismail hit the stumps off an almost-frozen Gautami Naik to reduce RCB to 31 for 4, which soon became 35 for 5 in the last over of the powerplay when Radha Yadav found long-on off Matthews.
Ghosh was the only bright spot for RCB, who had been bundled out for their lowest WPL score in their previous match. She made the most of getting two lives: the first was a tough chance for the keeper off a spinner, while the second was a sitter for Matthews, who put down a skier running in from long-off and covered her mouth in disbelief.
Ghosh also lost de Klerk in the 12th over but started to hit out even as RCB needed 120 from 48 with six wickets down. She dispatched anything with width or length and went after anyone who came her way. The big charge came in the 16th over when she clobbered three consecutive fours off Amelia Kerr. Amanjot Kaur fought back with a wicket in a six-run over next, but she was at the receiving end of a stunning assault in the 19th.
RCB needed 59 from 12, and Ghosh went 6, 6 and 6, starting by putting away a full toss before relying on brute force. When she managed only a single on the fourth ball, Shreyanka carved two fours to keep RCB in the game, with 32 needed from six.
Ghosh started the final over with a four, but Kerr bowled a dot next that virtually sealed MI’s victory unless there was an illegal delivery. Ghosh, however, executed an unbelievable six off the next ball when Kerr looped it well outside off; Ghosh came down the track, reached out, and sent it sailing over the covers before ending up flat on the ground. She miscued the last ball of the game and was finally caught, as MI breathed a sigh of relief.
Brief scores:
Mumbai Indians Women 199 for 4 in 20 overs (Nat Sciver-Brunt 100*, Hayley Matthews 56, Harmanpreet Kaur 20; Lauren Bell 2-21, Nadine de Klerk 1-40, Shreyanka Patil 1-34) beat Royal Challengers Bengaluru Women 184 for 9 in 20 overs (Grace Harris 15, Richa Ghosh 90, Nadine de Klerk 2, Arundhati Reddy 14, Shreyanka Patil 12*; Shabnim Ismail 2-25, Hayley Matthews 3-10, Amanjot Kaur 1-51, Amelia Kerr 2-37) by 15 runs
[Cricinfo]
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