Sports
Arthur bemoans poor batting after second Test goes ‘horribly wrong’
Angelo Mathews was bowled attempting to sweep Dom Bess (SLC)
Sri Lanka “let it slip in one disastrous session”, says coach, after second Galle defeat
Sri Lanka threw it away. Their hyper-aggressive approach to the second innings wasn’t part of the plan. And their 126 all out ruined three days of good work.
These were Mickey Arthur’s takeaways after the dispiriting 2-0 loss against England. Sri Lanka had established a 37-run first-innings lead on the fourth morning, with England due to bat in the fourth innings. And yet, their batsmen crumbled to 66 for 6 before lunch – five of those players dismissed playing attacking shots. That phase of play essentially handed England the match, even if they eventually had to chase 164 for victory, thanks to a late 40 from No. 10 Lasith Embuldeniya.
“We fought and fought and fought for three days and got ourselves in a really good position, and in two hours we proceeded to throw it away,” Arthur said. “It was poor batting. It’s something I’m going to sit and talk with the players about now. When we lead the game, we’ve got to be able to put our foot on the neck of the opposition and we didn’t do that. That today just wasn’t good enough. We’ve got to learn to be ruthless.”
Such was Sri Lanka’s commitment to wanton aggression in this innings, that there were questions whether the team had agreed that all-out attack was their best way forward in this Test. Arthur said, however, that the plan had actually been to progress more gradually, and to bat time, as they had in the second innings of the first Test, when Sri Lanka made 359 in 136.5 overs.
“That was nowhere near our gameplan. Our gameplan this morning was to absorb pressure, grind away, and grind out a couple of sessions to make sure that we got ourselves into a very good position to push for the win tomorrow. That was our strategy. We had a long chat about that this morning. We used the blueprint of our second innings in the first Test match as something that we wanted to base our innings on. Somewhere it’s gone horribly wrong. That’s something I’m going to dig up and find tonight.”
The first Test was lost due to a similar collapse, in the first innings of the match that time. Sri Lanka were skittled for 135, again playing with extreme aggression.
“This isn’t the first time that it’s happened, and it’s something I need to look into with the team,” Arthur said. “We let it slip in one disastrous session. Much like in the first Test when we let slip in the first innings again. We can’t afford as a team to have those poor sessions. We’ve got to get our good and our bad closer together. The game was there for us to take and we didn’t take it. Extremely disappointed with that.”
Among the only bright spots for Sri Lanka for this series was the bowling of Embuldeniya, who took 10 for 210 in this Test, and also produced his best first-class score with the bat. Embuldeniya had not been selected for the Tests against South Africa several weeks earlier, but through the course of this series has presented a case for being considered Sri Lanka’s premier Test spinner.
“I was very excited for Lasith Embuldeniya,” Arthur said. “He works so hard at his game. When you get those rewards, in his ninth or tenth Test match, it’s unbelievable. I always tell him he’s got the gift of the fingers – he’s able to spin the ball. I think he’s got a wonderful future. He really is a very impressive young man and spin bowler. I’m very excited to be working with him in future, because I think he’s going to be very special.” (ESPN)
In IPL 2024, Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) took batting to dizzying heights. With Ishan Krishan’s addition to an already power-packed line-up, everyone wondered if they might be the first team to hit 300 in the IPL. In their opening fixture of IPL 2025, they seriously threatened to get there, thanks to Kishan’s 45-ball hundred on franchise debut and Travishek’s opening salvo. They eventually fell 14 short of 300, and just one short of the IPL record they had set last season, but it was another emphatic statement of their high intent and power.
Kishan is an upgrade over their previous No. 3 Rahul Tripathi. He seamlessly slotted into SRH’s line-up, clattering an unbeaten 106 off 47 balls, his first IPL ton. After Travis Head and Abhishek Sharma had helped SRH take 94 in the first six overs, the fifth-highest powerplay total, Kishan launched from there.
Rajasthan Royals (RR) made a decent fist of the chase, with Sanju Samson and Dhruy Jurel matching the intent and power of SRH’s batters with half-centuries. Late blows from Shimron Hetmyer, the only overseas batter in RR’s squad, contributed to a match aggregate of 528, the second highest in the IPL, but such a mammoth target was always going to unchaseable.
Brief scores:
Sunrisers Hyderabad 286 for 6 in 20 overs (Abhishek Sharma 24, Ishan Kishan 106*, Travis Head 67, Nitish Kumar Reddy 30, Heinrich Klassen 34; Maheesh Theekshana 2-52, Sandeep Sharma 1-51, Tushar Deshpande 3-44) beat Rajasthan Royals 242 for 6 in 20 overs (Dhruv Jurel 70, Sanju Samson 66, Nitish Rana 11, Shimron Heytmeyer 42, Shubnam Dubey 34*; Mohammed Shami 1-33, Simarjeet Singh 2-46, Adam Zampa 1-48, Harshal Patel 2-34) by 44 runs
[Cricinfo]
New Zealand’s fast bowlers crushed Pakistan in swinging conditions at Mount Maunganui and set up a massive 115-run win to help the home side clinch the series 3-1 with a match to spare. After chasing down 205 in Auckland to keep the series alive, Pakistan were all out in 16.2 on Sunday with New Zealand’s four-seam attack accounting for nine of the ten wickets. Jacob Duffy made early inroads, picking up three wickets inside the powerplay to dent Pakistan and they never recovered from the top-order collapse.
Earlier, Finn Allen top-scored with a 20-ball fifty and cameos fromTim Seifert and Michael Bracewell powered New Zealand to 220 for 6. New Zealand made the intent clear from the beginning as they raced to 79 for 1 in the powerplay. Even though there was a slowdown in the middle overs, New Zealand managed to post their second straight 200-plus total in the series, which proved too much for the visitors.
Pakistan’s chase never took off with New Zealand troubling them with swing and seam on offer. Unlike the game in Auckland, Pakistan couldn’t take advantage of the dew factor. The chase began with Will O’Rourke, playing his first match of the series, removing Mohammed Haris with an excellent delivery that nipped back in to disturb his stumps. Duffy then dismissed Hasan Nawaz, centurion from the last match, and captain Salman Agha in the second over to dent Pakistan. Zakary Foulkes, one of the two changes that New Zealand made to the XI, also struck instantly, as he cleaned up Shadab Khan in his first ball with an inswinger.
Eventually, Pakistan lost eight wickets for 56 runs. The game was all but over at the halfway stage of the chase even though the No.7 Abdul Samad fought a lone battle with his 30-ball 44.
Duffy came back for his final over and added one more wicket to his tally to end with 4 for 20 while Foulkes scalped three overall. Duffy is now the highest-wicket taker in the series with 11 wickets from four matches
Tim Seifert continued to give flying starts for New Zealand. He drove the second ball of the innings, a juicy half-volley from Shaheen Afridi, straight down the ground for four and followed it up with a six over long-on off Khushdil Shah in the next over. Abrar Ahmed’s first over, fourth overall, was the expensive one in the powerplay as Seifert smashed 6, 4, 6 in the 19-run over. The team’s fifty came up in 3.5 overs. But Pakistan got the breakthrough immediately as Haris Rauf was brought in for the fifth over with Seifert pulling a short ball to deep midwicket where Khushdil took a stunning low catch. New Zealand ended the powerplay at 79 for 1 – the second-highest powerplay total for any team against Pakistan in men’s T20Is. Seifert made a 22-ball 44.
Allen scored eight off his first six balls, but once the field was spread out, he took charge. Abrar, after his 19-run first over, conceded another 16 runs in his second as Allen hit him for two fours and a six. Allen continued his onslaught, slapping Shadab Khan for two fours and as many sixes in a 23-run 10th over to bring up his fifty off just 19 balls. But he perished the next delivery from Abbas Afridi after miscuing on to mid-off. From 134 for 2, New Zealand slipped to 149 for 5 as Pakistan bowled five boundary-less overs.
Rauf was the only Pakistan bowler to leak fewer than ten runs an over in the fourth T20I, as he returned 3 for 27 from his four overs.
Brief scores:
New Zealand 220 for 6 in 20 overs (Finn Allen 50, Mark Chapman 24, Daryl Mitchell 29, Michael Bracewell 46*, Tim Seifert 44; Abrar Ahmed 2-41, Haris Rauf 3-27, Abbas Afridi 1-38) beat Pakistan 105 all out in 16.2 overs (Irfan Khan 24, Abdul Samad 44; Will O’Rourke 1-29, Jacob Duffy 4-20, Zakary Foulkes 3-25, James Neesham 1-14, Ish Sodhi 1-15) by 115 runs
[Cricinfo]
Beth Mooney, Annabel Sutherland and Alana King starred in another dominant Australia performance to crush New Zealand by 82 runs in Mount Maunganui and close out their first women’s T20I series win in New Zealand with one game remaining.
Mooney scored 70 off 42, her fourth 70-plus score in her last five T20Is, to earn Player-of-the-Match honours again and underpin Australia’s mammoth total of 204 for 3, where all five of Australia’s batters on show reached 23 or more. Only Phoebe Litchfield struck at under 153. Georgia Voll’s blistering 36 off 20 set the tone for Mooney to follow before Litchfield, Ellyse Perry and Sutherland all produced valuable cameos.
Sutherland then ripped through New Zealand’s top order, taking three wickets in her first seven deliveries after King had knocked over Suzie Bates, to extinguish any hopes of a record chase as they folded for just 122. Sutherland finished with extraordinary career-best T20I figures of 4 for 8 from 2.1 overs. King, who was oddly left out of Australia’s XI in the first game of the series despite starring in the Ashes, took 3 for 27 having come in for the injured Ash Gardner.
Amelia Kerr took 1 for 27 from four overs and made 40 off 36, but no other New Zealand player conceded fewer than eight runs per over with the ball or scored more than 22 with the bat.
Mooney and Voll once again took the wind out of New Zealand’s sails, this time blasting a 57-run opening stand in 5.1 overs after Australia won the toss and chose to bat on a pristine surface.
Picking up from where the two had left off following their 123-run stand in Auckland, Voll was vicious in her assault on the new ball. She smashed seven boundaries in the first five overs and could have done more damage had she not picked out fielders in the ring with several powerful strikes. She clubbed Eden Carson for three fours in the second over on the innings and then produced back-to-back boundaries off Rosemary Mair in the fourth to reach 33 from 17 before Mooney had got to double-figures.
She fell in unusual fashion, bounced out by Sophie Devine with keeper Polly Inglis up to the stumps. Both Voll and Inglis thought she had missed a pull shot. But Devine thought she heard something, and a review showed a spike on real-time snicko as ball passed bat.
Mooney enjoyed a slice of luck when Devine misjudged an aerial square drive on the deep point rope. She came in too far and it sailed over her head but landed inside the rope.
The left-hand batter then continued her form, accumulating with ease. She shared a 69-run stand with Litchfield, who made a scratchy 32 from 29. When she holed to long-on, Australia upped the tempo with Perry pumping her first delivery over cover for four.
It sparked an electric finish to the innings. Mooney holed out to Amelia Kerr, who very nearly pinned Sutherland lbw first ball with a superb wrong’un. Sutherland needed a review to overturn a decision with ball tracking showing it was just going over middle. Sutherland and Perry proceeded to take 40 from the last 18 balls of the innings. Sutherland smashed an enormous six in her 23 not out from 15. Perry showed her class off the last two balls of the innings, lofting inside out over cover and then reverse lapping fine of third to finish unbeaten on 29 from 15.
New Zealand’s pursuit of the record chase never got going. King bowled Bates in the second over before Sutherland removed Georgia Plimmer and Devine in consecutive balls in the fifth. When Brooke Halliday miscued to mid-on off Sutherland’s first ball of the seventh over, New Zealand were 45 for 4 and Sutherland had 3 for 3.
Amelia Kerr fought hard alongside Maddy Green but the game was well and truly gone. Georgia Wareham trapped Green lbw for 22 before King and Darcie Brown tore through the tail. King removed both Kerr sisters within three balls before Brown picked up two in four balls in the next over.
Sutherland flattened Carson’s off stump to seal the win with New Zealand losing 5 for 13 to be bowled out for 122.
Brief scores:
Australia Women 204 for 3 in 20 overs (Beth Mooney 70, Georgia Voll 36, Phoebe Litchfield 32, Ellyse Perry 29*, Annabel Sutherland 23*; JessKerr 1-39, Sophie Devine 1-38, Amelia Kerr 1-27) beat New Zealand Women 122 in 16.1 overs (Suzie Bates 12, Amelia Kerr 40, Maddy Green 22, Jess Kerr 14; Annabel Sutherland 4-08, Alana King 3-27, Darcie Brown 2-23, Georgia Wareham 1-15) by 82 runs
[Cricinfo]
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