Sports
Dilruwan leaves having not fulfilled immense potential
by Rex Clementine
Of all Jesus’ disciples, Peter is the most famous one. Peter was there at every sermon, at every miracle Jesus performed and even cut off an ear of a guard when Jesus was about to be arrested. But, Peter was not Jesus’ favourite disciple. The favourite disciple of Jesus was John. Like Jesus, every leader had his favourite disciple. Some of our political leaders had Mervyn Silva while some other leaders had Sagala Ratnayake. Cricketer Dilruwan Perera was one such having been coaches’ favourite disciple. He announced his retirement from international cricket yesterday.
The national cricket team had many match winners since the big three retired in 2015. There was Dimuth Karunaratne, who was prolific overseas. Angelo Mathews was cut above the rest while Rangana Herath became the most successful left-arm bowler in the history of the game, pace or spin. But for Sri Lanka’s coaches from Graham Ford to Mickey Athur, their favourite was Dilruwan Perera.
Why is that the case you may wonder? That’s because Dilruwan did all the ‘dirty work’. If you needed a bowler to hold one end up, Dilruwan was your man. If there was an end from which your star bowler didn’t want to bowl, Dilruwan would gladly accept the role. If you needed someone to step up as night-watchman when Wahab Riaz was reverse swinging the ball to deadly effect, Dilruwan was your man. All the donkey’s work and thankless tasks were kept at the doorstep of Dilruwan and how well he performed them.
Dilruwan was a classical off-spinner. If you have no idea his impact on Sri Lankan cricket, be mindful that he was the nation’s fifth highest wicket taker in Test match cricket. The press often asked him why he didn’t try the doosra. His answer was curious. He used to say that it would be the end of his career if he tried the doosra. It could be taken in many contexts. One is that all his contemporaries who bowled the doosra chucked. Two is that ICC wanted to weed chucking out of cricket. Three is that it is impossible to bowl the doosra without bending your arm. Dilruwan would never explain his theory. He made us to find out the answer. He was quite a cheeky bloke.
You also tend to get the feeling that here was a man who never fully realized his potential. Dilruwan scored 95 runs on his Test debut against Pakistan in 2014. He should have scored more than the seven half-centuries he ended up with in Test cricket. His Test average of 18 hardly does justice to the immense talent he possessed as a batsman.
Some famous names of Sri Lankan cricket have been opening partners of Sanath Jayasuriya. There’s Roshan Mahanama, Romesh Kaluwitharana and Marvan Atapattu. Dilruwana opened batting as well with Sanath in an ODI against Australia at MCG. Such was his potential.
Dilruwan’s best game with the ball was against the Aussies in 2016 in Galle when he claimed a match bag of ten wickets for 99. Well, he did claim another match bag of ten wickets for only 78 against South Africa two years later also in Galle, but any performance that helps you beat the Aussies is special.
Some problems Dilruwan never overcame. He claimed more wickets in Test match cricket off no balls than the number of gazettes that Mahindananda has revoked as Minister of Agriculture. His fielding remained horrendous and there have been some costly drops
It’s been more than a year since Dilruwan last played for Sri Lanka. The demand to finish the kilometer run in less than eight minutes and 35 seconds was a killer blow for a 39-year-old. But to his credit, Dilruwan didn’t throw in the towel as soon as the time limit was set in place. He tried. He’s leaving the game having given some fine memories. But the question will always be asked could he have done more? He surely could have.
The break in the IPL witnessed the departure of two huge pillars of Indian Test cricket. It resumed with a 23-year-old and a 14-year-old taking T20 batting to new heights.Yashaswi Jaiswal and Vaibhav Suryavanshi put on a 76-run opening partnership where 74 runs had come in boundaries. But even with that head start, it was heartbreak for Rajasthan Royals (RR) as they lost by 10 runs. Punjab Kings (PBKS) are now up to 17 points. They aren’t assured of a playoffs spot just yet but it looks like a matter of time.
PBKS equalled an IPL record for most 200-plus totals in a season (6). They made 219 for 5. That it happened after they lost three wickets in the first 19 balls just added even more sheen to their achievement. The top-scorer Nehal Wadhera (70 off 37) attended a mid-innings interview where he said his captain Shreyas Iyer had told him to keep hitting despite wickets falling and that mentality was the reason why they made the most of beautiful batting conditions in Jaipur.
Most of PBKS’ firepower has come from their openers. But on Sunday, both Prabhsimran Singh and Priyansh Arya couldn’t get going. That though allowed Wadhera all the time he needed to come into his own. He is a lovely spin-hitter (strike-rate 156, average 84 this IPL). Two of his best shots came off Wanindu Hasaranga on either side of Iyer’s wicket – one where he picked the googly and hit down the ground for six and the next where he picked the leg break and slog swept it for six.
Wadhera could’ve been out on 48 had Hasaranga been able to hold onto a tough caught and bowled chance.
Tushar Deshpande went into death overs mode in the 15th itself, using yorkers and bouncers of varying pace to save himself. Akash Madhwal, who was having a rough evening, might have thought he’d bought his team some relief when he dismissed Wadhera with four overs still left. Shahshnak Singh, at the time, was looking scratchy. He could’ve been dismissed for 11 off 10 if Dhruv Jurel had not misjudged where the boundary line was at long-off while trying to take a catch.
Shashank made the most of the life he got and became a menace for an RR attack that had plans to deal with him. The wide yorker was a big part of that, but the finisher one-upped them by moving around in his crease, twice scooping off the wide line to find the fine leg boundary and once taking guard almost two feet outside his crease in order to meet the yorkers on the full. Shashank made 59 off 30 balls.
Nobody was ready for how the RR innings began. Jaiswal went 4, dot, 4, 4, 6, 4 in the very first over bowled by Arshdeep Singh. Suryavanshi wasn’t lagging behind. From his place deep in his crease, and with the kind of power that doesn’t really tally with his age, he found leverage to hit bowlers looking for his nose and his toes out of the park. RR were 51 for 0 in three overs. Fifty of those runs in fours and sixes. One run off a wide. The first scoring shot that wasn’t a boundary took 26 balls to arrive. On the back of this unreal partnership, RR put up their highest powerplay total (89 for 1) in IPL history.
With the ball flying to all parts – and regular captain Shreyas Iyer subbed out to manage a finger injury – PBKS turned to Harpreet Brar (4-0-22-3) to see if pace off the ball would work. It did. Brar bowled one in the powerplay, got the benefit of a spread-out field after that, he still had to deal with a left-handed batter for most of his spell, nothing fazed him. Because he was clear with what he wanted to do. If he went full, he was not going to give RR the chance to get under the ball. He offered no room either. If he went short, he bowled it quick and kept the stumps in play to deny the batter time to swing. Riyan Parag found that out when the speed of his hands was no match for the skid of Brar’s arm ball. RR hit 19 boundaries in the powerplay. Brar came on to control the middle overs and they hit only four boundaries between overs 7 and 14.
RR’s finishers have been under the scanner all season. Shimron Hetmyer has the fifth-lowest strike rate of all batters who have at least 50 runs in the death overs. Jurel has been found out by spin. Here too, he made only 15 off 13 against Brar and Yuzvendra Chahal, but he was able to get on top of the PBKS quicks. He had a season strike rate of 179 against pace coming into this game. He upped it to 211 on Sunday.
A tense finish was on the cards, but Arshdeep came back for the 19th over, and nailed his lengths, whether he went yorker, or knuckle-ball into the pitch, and gave away only nine runs. That left RR with 22 runs to get off the last six balls. They managed to do that once in this game. Twice was asking for too much.
Brief scores:
Punjab Kings 219 for 5 in 20 overs (Nehal Wadhera 70, Prabhsimran Singh 21, Shreyas Iyer 30, Shashank Singh 59*, Azmatullah Omarzai 21*; Tushar Deshpande 2-37, Kwena Maphaka 1-32, Riyan Parag 1-26, Akash Madhwal 1-48) beat Rajasthan Royals 209 for 7 in 20 overs (Dhruv Jurel 53, Yashaswi Jaiswal 50, Vaibhav Suryawanshi 40, Sanju Samson 20, Riyan Parag 13, Shimron Hetmyer 11; Marco Jansen 2-41, Harpreet Brar 3-22, Azmatullah Omarzai 2-44) by 10 runs
[Cricinfo]
Italy’s Massimo Stano broke the short-lived world 35km race walk record at the European Race Walking Team Championships – a World Athletics Race Walking Tour Gold meeting – in Podebrady on Sunday (18) by a massive 57 seconds.
The 2:20:43 recorded by the 2021 Olympic champion comfortably eclipsed the 2:21:40 set by Canadian Evan Dunfee in March, which in itself was seven seconds quicker than the 2:21:47 recorded by Japan’s Masatora Kawano last October.
Stano took over the lead at 23km, and went through the gears to record laps under 4:00m in the closing stages.
[World Athletics]
Relay team dropped from Asian Athletics Championship
IPL2025 : Nehal Wadhera and Harpreet Brar take Punjab Kings closer to playoffs
Massimo Stano smashes world 35km race walk record in Podebrady
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