Sports
Malinga on Pathirana: ‘I somehow want to make this guy even better than me’
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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Hasaranga ruled out of New Zealand ODIs with hamstring injury; Hemantha called up
Wanidu Hasaranga has been ruled out of the ODI series against New Zealand, having sustained an injury to his left hamstring while bowling, in the second T20I, on Sunday. Hasaranga was seen hobbling through his later overs, and was also limping between the wickets while running.
He has been replaced in the ODI squad by Dushan Hemantha another legspin-bowling allrounder. Hemantha has played five ODIs and has recently been among the wickets for the Sri Lanka A team.
Hasaranga’s absence will be significant for Sri Lanka, particularly as he had been Sri Lanka’s most successful bowler in the T20Is, taking 2 for 20 in the first match, then 4 for 17 in the second, while also producing an important 22 off 23 in the first T20I.
Sri Lanka already have another legspinner in the squad, however, in Jeffrey Vandersay, with Maheesh Theekshana and Dunith Wellalage the other frontline spinners.
Hasaranga becomes the second player to be ruled out of the series owing to injuries sustained in that second T20I, with New Zealand fast bowler Lockie Ferguson also unavailable due to a calf injury.
The series begins on Wednesday, with the first match to be played in Dambulla, and the remaining two games in Pallekele.
[Cricinfo]
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Ferguson ruled out of ODIs against Sri Lanka with calf injury; Adam Milne called up
Lockie Ferguson will be flying back to New Zealand after picking up a calf injury in their series levelling T20I victory over Sri Lanka in Dambulla. The 33-year-old fast bowler has been ruled out of the ODI leg of the tour which begins with the first of three matches on November 13.Ferguson was only just returning from injury – a different one, right hamstring – and was heavily involved in changing New Zealand’s fortunes, his hat-trick helping them defend a total of 108 as they came back from 0-1 down to share the spoils.
An NZC release said he felt some discomfort while bowling his second over of the chase on Sunday. Ferguson left the field thereafter and was unable to take any further part in that T20I, although he did return to pick up the Player-of-the-Match award. He has been ruled out of the rest of the Sri Lanka tour based on initial assessments and is scheduled to undergo scans upon arriving in New Zealand to ascertain the full extent of the damage. Adam Milne has been called into the squad as Ferguson’s replacement and will arrive in Dambulla on Tuesday.
“We’re gutted for Lockie,” New Zealand head coach Gary Stead said, “He showed in the space of just two overs what an asset he is with the ball and he’s also brought a lot of leadership to this group, so he’ll be a big miss heading into an important ODI series for us. To be ruled out so early in a tour is always tough to take, but we’re hopeful his recovery will be short and he’ll be back out on the field in no time.
“Adam is a like-for-like replacement who brings genuine pace and plenty of international experience, so we’re looking forward to welcoming him into the group.”
Ferguson has played one Test, 65 ODIs and 43 T20Is for New Zealand since making his debut in December 2016. He has been one of the team’s first-choice picks in white-ball cricket, a status he underlined by recording his country’s sixth T20I hat-trick. New Zealand will now be relying on a relatively inexperienced seam-bowling attack, although Milne’s inclusion – 49 ODIs and 53 T20Is played – does offset that a little. Milne will join Jacob Duffy and Nathan Smith to make up the team’s frontline seam-bowling options with support from allrounders Zakary Foulkes and Josh Clarkson.
New Zealand are on the back end of a long tour of the subcontinent which began with a washed-out Test against Afghanistan in early September. That was followed by a 0-2 loss to Sri Lanka a few weeks later and a 3-0 win over India in India earlier this month.
[Cricinfo]
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Gurbaz ton, Omarzai fifty and four-for win the series for Afghanistan
Before Monday evening, Rahmanullah Gurbaz averaged 16.73 in 20 innings in run chases in ODIs. But against Bangladesh in Sharjah, he hit 101 – his second century while batting second – with 42 of those runs coming in sixes alone. That took Afghanistan to victory in their pursuit of 245, and gave them their third sucessive series win.
It was also the first instance of a score getting successfully chased in this series, after totals of 235 and 252 were defended in the previous two games.
But it didn’t come all that smoothly for Afghanistan. When Gurbaz was caught off Bangladesh’s stand-in captain Mehidy Hasan Miraz in the 39th over, and Gulbadin Naib departed in the 41st, Bangladesh sniffed a comeback. Afghanistan were another 57 runs away from victory, with 58 balls and five wickets remaining. However, Azmanullah Omarzai, who had fallen without scoring in both matches this series, got an unbeaten 70 off 77 deliveries to calmly lead Afghanistan to a five-wicket win in the company of Mohammad Nabi, who smashed a quick 34*.
Omarzai clubbed five sixes, the last of which went over long-on to seal the win for his side. The victory was set up by Gurbaz’s eighth ODI hundred, and his fourth-wicket partnership of 100 with Omarzai, after Afghanistan were 84 for 3 in the 21st over. Such had been Gurbaz’s dominance that he had already reached his half-century by that point. All four of his sixes until then had been flung over the leg side, although he did have his share of luck.
When on 24, Gurbaz was dropped by substitute fielder Rishad Hossain at point, and on 48, Towhid Hridoy’s throw from mid-off went wide of the stumps at the non-striker’s end despite Gurbaz having given up after a mix-up with Hashmatullah Shahidi.
Gurbaz kept himself busy by ticking the singles and finding the boundary, and when on 56, Jaker Ali missed stumping him out off Mehidy, when one turned down the leg side – although Jaker might have been blinded by Gurbaz skipping down the pitch. Those bits of fortune taken into account, the ball seemed to fly off Gurbaz’s bat, with the most impressive shot being a hard and flat six over deep backward square leg off Mustafizur Rahman.
Gurbaz and Omarzai ensured the chase remained in Afghanistan’s control for much of the innings. The century came up for Gurbaz in the 38th over, by the end of which, Afghanistan required only another 63 runs off the remaining 72 balls. That was when Afghanistan lost Gurbaz and Naib back-to-back, but Omarzai brought up his half-century just after that, following up a haul of 4 for 37 with the ball to earn himself the Player-of-the-Match award.
Afghanistan had started the game erratically, dropping Tanzid Hasan twice and giving away extras with the ball. But bowling his second over – and the ninth of the innings – Omarzai had Soumya Sarkar chopping on for 24 at just better than a run a ball to break a 53-run opening stand.
That seemed to flick a switch. Nabi, bowling the tenth over, had Tanzid slicing to cover point for 19 off a slow and dipping ball; Mehidy, in the 11th, sent Zakir Hasan back after calling for a run, only to result in Zakir’s dismissal on 4; and Rashid Khan, in the 15th, had Hridoy caught at slip for 7. Bangladesh lost 4 for 19 in a period of six overs, when Mehidy, who scored a patient 66, and Mahmudullah, who got a run-a-ball 98, joined hands to add 145 runs for the fifth wicket.
But they took their time to settle, as they managed to add only 49 runs off the first 74 balls of their partnership. Three boundaries came during that period, with two off the outside edge of Mehidy’s bat.
While Mehidy struggled to get even the singles or find the gap, Mahmudullah looked a lot steadier. With Afghanistan keeping a lid on Bangladesh, Mahmudullah hit the first six of the innings when he deposited Nabi over midwicket to end the 35th over. Those hits remained sporadic as Nabi even bowled a maiden over in the 39th.
The last ten overs, however, brought Bangladesh 78 runs. It all started when Mahmudullah ended Nabi’s spell ended with another six. In the next over, the 42nd, Mahmudullah carved AM Ghazanfar for four through extra cover. He started the 44th with another boundary – this time over Ghazanfar’s head – before nailing a sweep off Rashid to propel Bangladesh forward.
Seeing that, Mehidy had a change of heart too. With five overs left, he lapped and reverse scooped Omarzai for consecutive boundaries, although perished in the same over when he skied one to extra cover. With Bangladesh at 217 and only 24 balls left, it was down to Mahmudullah to provide the finishing touches; and the double dose of fortune he enjoyed in the 47th over was just what Bangladesh needed for a competitive total.
Mahmudullah was given out lbw off Rashid to start the over, but used DRS to overturn the decision. Two legal balls later, he drove back hard at Rashid, who dropped a difficult catch, his hands stung by the blow. Mahmudullah ended with another six over midwicket – this one off Farooqi. He was on 97 with one ball remaining. Omarzai swung one into off, which Mahmudullah could only clip behind square to be run-out while attempting a second.
Brief scores:
Afghanistan 246 for 5 in 48.2 overs (Rahmanullah Gurbaz 101, Azmatullah Omarzai 70*, Mohamad Nabi 34*; Nahid Rana 2-40, Mustafizur Rahman 2-50) beat Bangladesh 244 for 8 in 50 overs (Soumya Sarkar 24, Mahmudullah 98, Mehidy Hasan Miraz 66; Azmatullah Omarzai 4-37) by five wickets
[Cricinfo]
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