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Malinga on Pathirana: ‘I somehow want to make this guy even better than me’

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Malinga on Pathirana: “I think in the next Test tour, try to get him involved, and give him some ODIs as well”

Lasith Malinga, now a bowling consultant with Rajasthan Royals, has been watching Chennai Super Kings’ games with particular interest. Matheesha Pathirana, CSK’s death-overs specialist, not only bowls with the same, unusual round-arm action with which Malinga dominated the IPL for many years, but is also in a sense a protege. Over the last three years, Malinga has worked sporadically with Pathirana in Sri Lanka’s high performance centre, and has advised him on what he needs to do to build a career.

In this interview with ESPNcricinfo, Malinga shares his insights on the 20-year-old’s technique and progress. And he couldn’t disagree more vehemently with MS Dhoni’s suggestion that Pathirana “shouldn’t even get close” to red-ball cricket.

When did you first hear about Matheesha?

I found out about Matheesha Pathirana after the Under-19 World Cup [in 2020], when I got a call from Mahela Jayawardene, who was working as a consultant with SLC (Sri Lanka Cricket). He said: ‘Mali, there’s a boy from Kandy, who bowls just like you, and he bowls fast. But it’s hard to play him in a match because he bowls two sides of the wicket and doesn’t have the control. Can you do something with him?’

So he sent Matheesha to me, and we met at Khettarama. He didn’t have a lot of experience. But I knew straight away that he’s a fearless and strong cricketer. That’s really important. I started off very simply with him, and I told him this: ‘Don’t think about picking formats yet. You have to play whatever Sri Lanka needs you to play. If you get injured and then have to pick formats, that’s a different thing. But you’ve been bowling with this action since you were little and you haven’t had problems. So I don’t think it’ll be that difficult for you.’

You know this action better than anyone. What did you think about the way he was bowling?

In terms of skill, I told him he needs to learn how to bowl with the new and old ball, not just one. With this kind of action, you need the same skillset for Tests, ODIs, and T20s. It’s just that the way you use different skills varies for each format. He doesn’t really swing the ball, because his wrist is too straight as the arm comes around. I told him he has to raise that wrist about an inch-and-a-half. That’ll take him about two or three years, because he has bowled the way he’s bowling for 19 years.

For now, he can manage with what he has. He can bowl good yorkers, but he didn’t have a lot of consistency. I told him how to bowl the slower one as well. Because he bowls with my action, it’s easy for him to dip his slower balls. So I told him: ‘Let’s work on the dipping slower one.’ Now he bowls it pretty well. Still, he needs a bit more control, but it’s in a good place.

What do you think of his success this season? (Pathirana has 15 wickets from 10 matches for CSK, with an economy rate of 7.56, having bowled mostly at the death.)

He’s bowling well in the IPL, but he needs to improve a bit to be ready for international cricket. You don’t get to play 12 players in internationals, like you can in the IPL this year. They use him as a death bowler only at CSK. But if you play for the national team you’re definitely going to have to bowl some powerplay overs. That’s where he needs the swing, which he doesn’t have right now.

It goes back to his wrist position. The advantage of that wrist position is that you get good dip, and you can swing balls into the ground. But you won’t swing balls from side to side. You won’t get it to tail into the batter’s legs. He needs to start creating that angle with the seam, where it comes out diagonally, rather than horizontally. If he fixes that, he can do some great things.

He needs bowling intelligence too, because after a few matches the opposition will work out who you are, and you need to learn how to survive from that point onwards. I think the best thing for that is playing 10 Tests. That’s how you build your bowling fitness. I’ve played 30 Tests, and that was vital to me building up bowling fitness for ODIs and T20s, because when you’re bowling 25-30 overs an innings, you have to sustain your skill through all those spells.

CSK have asked him to do one job, and do it well…

He got a great opportunity because of the Impact Player rule. He can start bowling in the 12th or 13th over. So the weakness he has – bowling with the new ball – gets minimised. He’s also bowling when batters really have to take him on. When you bowl with this action, batters have trouble picking up the ball. And with the control he has for now, and because he’s mentally strong, he’s been able to do well. He’s also got a good captain who will set good fields for him.

His yorker is 145kph and is fantastic. But he needs more control. If he bowls five yorkers, he’ll only land two correctly. But I’m sure if he keeps working on it as he is, he’ll nail it in about a year or two.

You used to reverse-swing the ball into the ground, because of the way the ball came out of your hand. Is that how Pathirana is dipping it too?

Actually, he’s got an advantage over me there, because his arm comes even lower than mine. It’s really tough to hit a six off him, especially off the front foot. That’s his natural advantage. Especially in the subcontinent – and when there’s low bounce in the track – he’ll be really effective.

What have you thought of the way MS Dhoni captains him?

MS has figured out that he can’t bowl with the new ball yet. He also uses him against local Indian batters at the crease – players who don’t play international cricket. With the 145kph pace, and his action, it’s hard for them to play him. That’s just MS’ 20 years of experience at work. He also gets him to lower his pace against batters who are purely power players. Against batters who use the pace – like a Rohit Sharma, or a Mahela Jayawardene, or a Virat Kohli – those players Matheesha might struggle against for now.

Dhoni has said Matheesha shouldn’t play Test cricket, but it sounds like you seriously disagree with Dhoni on that.

MS Dhoni is saying he should just play ICC tournaments. I wonder if he’s just saying that for fun (laughs). It’s hard to do that when you’re playing for the national team.

I think anyone who tells him not to play red-ball cricket is doing that because they think he will get injured. I played red-ball cricket first. No one said anything like that to me. I played red-ball cricket between 2004 to 2010, but I had a 16-year international career, and I played a lot of IPL, plus Big Bash and all the other leagues. In all that time I never left the field after injuring a hamstring, or a groin, or my back, or my calf. Maybe a lot of people will oppose me, but I don’t think we should just presume that he will get injured. I’ve played cricket this way and bowled like him, so I know what the challenges are.

But you did have major ankle and knee injuries…

You can get bone injuries, but that is down to the effort you put in every ball. But I would tell him: get your Test cap. Maybe you’ll play just one. Maybe you’ll play 10. Maybe you will play 100 – who knows? When he plays 15-20 Tests, he will develop not just his bowling fitness and his skill, but also figure out how to set batters up for dismissals, and how to put a spell together. That’s not something you can just tell him about. He has to do it to understand it properly. If when he starts playing Tests, his body starts reacting badly, then you can reassess.

How should he be developed over the next little while?

I somehow want to make this guy even better than me. I think in the next Test tour, try to get him involved, and give him some ODIs as well. See how he plays in the next three years, and then see what the future course needs to be. If he plays 10 or 15 Tests in the next three years, that will be invaluable to his development.

As an example: you know, I only learned that you can dip and reverse the ball at the same time in the last Test that I played, in 2010. Usually they bowl me from the Fort End at Galle, and it’s really easy to reverse the ball from that end with the wind coming across the ground. After six years, I finally got a good spell from the Pavilion End, and I learned how to dip and reverse a cricket ball. No one can tell when Matheesha will get those important revelations about his game.

We’re talking about protecting him from playing for Sri Lanka, before he’s even properly played for Sri Lanka. He’s only 20 years old.

(cricinfo)



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IPL 2025: Venkatesh and Arora consign Sunrisers Hyderabad to their biggest-ever defeat

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Vaibhav Arora came in as an Impact sub and picked three wickets [BCCI]

While Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) regained the dazzling batting form they had lost somewhere on their trip to Mumbai, the Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) batting continued to be lackluster as they slumped to their third loss in a row after starting IPL 2025 with a mammoth 286. Four days after being skittled for 116 by Mumbai Indians, KKR posted a stiff 200 for 6, led by a 29-ball 60 from vice-captain Venkatesh Iyer and an unbeaten 17-ball 32 from Rinku Singh. Venkatesh and Rinku enabled KKR to finish with a bang – they scored 78 runs in their last five overs – after Ajinkya Rahane and Angkrish Raghuvanshi set things up with a third-wicket stand of 81.

SRH were punished for being sloppy in the field more than a few times, and managed just 120 in reply after the KKR quicks took their mighty top three down in just 13 balls. Last year’s runners-up slumped to the bottom of the table while the defending champions jumped five places from last to fifth.

Travis Head fell cheaply for the second time in a row against Vaibhay Arora as in the IPL final last year, while Abhishek Sharma and Ishan Kishan managed just 2 each. The eight runs scored by SRH’s top three was their second worst start in the IPL. In last year’s final, their top three – though Kishan wasn’t part of it – had managed just 11.

SRH barely recovered from 9 for 3 and slipped to 66 for 5 and eventually suffered their biggest defeat by a runs margin in the IPL.

There was no venom in the pitch, no unplayable bounce or movement either, but the SRH top order had no answers for the KKR pace attack, even though Mitchell Starc is no longer part of it. Head skied the second ball to mid-off, Abhishek edged a slower one from Harshit Rana in the second over to slip, and Kishan smashed one to cover where Rahane pouched a sharp catch on the tumble to delight the home fans. Nine for 3 could have become 9 for 4 had Andre Russell held on to an on-drive from Kamindu Mendis at mid-on and made it a double-wicket maiden for Arora. Russell, however, redeemed himself when he got the next wicket as soon as the powerplay ended, having Nitish Reddy caught at long-on. Arora picked up his third eventually, getting the big scalp of Henrich Klaasen for 33 when he returned for his second spell.

In between, Reddy showed glimpses of his ball-striking talent, Mendis heaved a couple of sixes on the leg side off Russell, and Klaasen tried to take the game deep even as the asking rate climbed past 15 an over. Rahane stifled SRH with five overs in a row from Sunil Narine and Varun Chakarvarthy, from the eighth to the 12th, which went for just 33 and brought two more wickets, before Arora removed Klaasen and Varun nearly scalped a hat-trick in the 16th over. SRH were eventually bowled out for 120, again raising question marks over their batting approach.

Even though the Eden pitch didn’t have the spice that was offered by the Wankhede’s in KKR’s last game, they lost their openers cheaply again. Narine fell to another yorker, edging one behind this time, for 7, and Quinton de Kock pulled a short ball to deep square leg for 1 off 6 as KKR crawled their way to 17 for 2 after three overs. They got a lift thanks to the Mumbai duo of Rahane and Raghuvanshi, who between them struck four sixes in 14 balls to help KKR end the powerplay on 53 for 2. Rahane smashed three of them, even before hitting his first four, peppering the leg-side boundary with two pulls and a majestic flick behind square.

Cummins brought on spin as soon as the field spread out and rookie legspinner Zeeshan Ansari rewarded his captain by stifling the set batters with turn, flight and different lengths to concede just 25 runs in three overs on the trot while the quicks continued to leak boundaries from the other end. Ansari conceded just one boundary off his first 14 deliveries, that too off a misfield from Reddy, before Raghuvanshi carted him for a six and four when he erred too full. Ansari, however, fought back with Rahane’s wicket for 38.

SRH could have had two in two had Reddy not put down Raghuvanshi at the rope on 43. Raghuvanshi made them pay with a cover drive for four later in the over and brought up his second IPL fifty in the next. His luck finally ran out against the ambidextrous Sri Lanka spinner Kamindu Mendis, and when Harshal Patel held onto an excellent catch that he dived for after running in from deep point.

KKR were going at just over eight an over after 13 overs, with two new batters in the middle. Harshal and Simranjeet Singh slowed them down further by taking the pace off the ball, but the trick didn’t work for too long. Rinku and Venkatesh took off once they got their eyes in and powered KKR to their first 200 total of this campaign. Rinku started the carnage with three consecutive fours off Harshal in the 17th while Venkatesh reeled off two in the next over, which Rinku finished with a towering six over long-on. Venkatesh then turned his purr into a roar in the penultimate over. Even though Cummins tried his cutter, a slower bouncer and a yorker among other things, Venkatesh went 4, 6, 4, 4 and brought up a 25-ball fifty before blasting Harshal for a six and a four at the start of the final over. He holed out next ball, and Harshal conceded just three off the last three, but the damage had already been done.

Brief scores:
Kolkata Knight Riders 200 for 6 in 20 overs  (Venkatesh Iyer 60, Angkrish Raghuvanshi 50, Ajinkya Rahane 38, Rinku Singh 32*; Mohammed Shami 1-29, Pat Cummins 1-44, Zeeshan Ansari 1-25, Harshal Ptel 1-43, Kamindu Mendis 1-04) beat Sunrisers Hyderabad 120 in 16.4 overs (Nitish Kumar Reddy 19, Kamindu Mendis 27, Heinrich Klaasen 33,Pat Cummins 14;  Vaibhav Arora 3-29, Varun Chakravarthy 3-22, Harshit Rana 1-15,Andre Russel 2-21, Sunil Narine 1-30 ) by 80 runs

[Cricinfo]

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New Zealand under 85kg rugby team set for historic tour of Sri Lanka

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New Zealand rugby team will feature in two games in Sri Lanka next month

Sri Lanka Rugby announced the historic visit of the New Zealand Under 85kg national team to Sri Lanka next month for two highly anticipated matches against the Sri Lankan team.

This landmark tour comes in response to an invitation extended by SLR early last year. The two-match series will see the sides face off on May 4, at the Nittawela Rugby Stadium in Kandy, and again on May 10, at the Race Course Grounds in Colombo.

While Sri Lanka may not boast the same storied rugby tradition as New Zealand, the island nation shares a special connection with the All Blacks through Sir Colin Meads. Widely regarded as one of the greatest rugby players of all time, Meads played his first game in the famous black jersey in then Ceylon in mid 1950s, as part of the NZ Colts side. That link adds a nostalgic touch to this exciting tour.

The matches promise to offer Sri Lankan players a rare and invaluable opportunity to challenge themselves against a technically sound and tactically astute side from New Zealand—arguably the world’s most celebrated rugby nation.

Crucially, the tour will also contribute to the continued development of the sport in Sri Lanka. Exposure to high-level competition is expected to equip local players with insights into advanced strategies, gameplay structure, and professionalism.

The Sri Lanka Tuskers will field an open-weight team, with one key restriction: all prop forwards must weigh under 105kg.

Notably, the Under 85kg rugby division is not currently played anywhere in Asia, making this event a groundbreaking initiative for the region. Despite their weight classification, the New Zealand side is expected to deliver a high standard of rugby, with their trademark skill and tactical sharpness on full display.

The Tuskers head into this series in strong form, having clinched the Asia Rugby Division 1 title in 2024. Their packed schedule continues in April 2025 with a crucial promotion-relegation match against Malaysia, which will determine whether Sri Lanka ascends to Asia’s top tier.

The New Zealand Under 85kg team, officially launched in 2024, represents a significant step in the development of weight-grade rugby globally. Initial discussions with a national union about a 2025 overseas tour have now materialized into this exciting visit to Sri Lanka.

Live coverage of both matches will be available on Dialog Television – ThePapare TV HD (Channel 126), as well as online via ThePapare.com and the Dialog ViU App.

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St. Peter’s reach 176 for seven wickets 

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91st Battle of the Saints

Electing to bat first St. Peter’s reached 176 for seven wickets at stumps against St. Joseph’s on day one of the 91st Battle of the Saints Big Match at the SSC ground on Thursday.

After skipper Oween Salgado was given out leg before wicket to paceman Manasa Madubashana in the fifth over of the day, the Petes were cautious in their approach and scored at just over two runs an over to reach stumps with three wickets in hand.

The Joes will consider it their day with Nusha Perera and Demion de Silva taking two wickets each to trouble their opponents

Open bat Dilana Damsara top scored with 44 runs. He faced 94 deliveries for his knock which contained six fours and a six.

Scores

St. Peter’s

176 for seven in 71.4 overs (Dilana Damsara 44, Nathan David 29, Asadisa de Silva 38,  Joshua Sebastian 27, Tharin Sanketh 20n.o.; Nusha Perera 2/29, Demion de Silva 2/47) (RF)

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