Sports

Marvan on spin and way forward for cricket

Published

4 years ago

2021/11/10

Rex Clementine in Dubai

There’s no better sight in cricket than Marvan Atapattu in full flow. Technically sound, naturally gifted but mindset bit unsettled; five ducks in six innings and all that at the start but he went onto end with more Test runs than his mentor Arjuna Ranatunga. Marvan can be a nervous starter. Wasim Akram sent him down tumbling to the ground with a vicious bouncer at Asgiriya in 2000. Marvan shook off the setback and went onto compile a stunning double hundred against Wasim and Waqar. He also had a successful stint as a coach and was Head Coach when Sri Lanka won their maiden Test series in England in 2014.

Marvan joined a group of journalists here in Dubai virtually from Colombo to discuss on various aspects of the sport and particularly playing spin bowling, Sri Lanka’s Achilees’ heel in recent times.

“I have seen guys like Arjuna and Aravinda murdering Abdul Qadir and Shane Warne. I remember when Warne came over to Sri Lanka for the first time, Arjuna telling the team meeting not to smash 16 runs off him in one over. Instead milk his bowling. That was his plan,” explained Marvan. In other words, don’t smash Warne all over the park as the opposition captain could take him off the bowling. Instead, pick four runs an over, give a false sense of security that the leggie has things under control and end up scoring big runs.

“I can tell a player this is how you play the sweep, where to get your head, where to get your body position, whether you come forward or go on the back foot. It is the players’ skills after sometime that enable him to succeed. The reverse sweep is not in the coaching manual but a stroke that’s quite unique and can produce runs. Warner plays the reverse sweep differently and Maxwell plays it differently. Nobody taught Dilshan to play the scoop. That’s the confidence he had. That’s ‘uncoachable’. But the important things about playing spin is to get your basics right.”

“You either go to the pitch of the ball or you go on the back foot, wait till the ball turns and then play. You can’t play spin half hearted. It’s a matter of time before you are exposed. Aravinda had an interesting theory. Don’t play the same spinner for six balls. If you take Arjuna, when he was struggling to play spin, very smartly he taps the ball to a vacant area and gets the single. Then if Sanath is in the other end, he will smash the next ball for a six to take the pressure off. Now the spinner has forgotten that he is bowling to a different batsman and he will be smashed all over. That is psychology. You have got to be street smart playing spin.”

Sri Lanka’s options against spin at times have been too risky; sweep. But is it a risk worth taking? “Waruna Waragoda is the best player of spin bowling I have seen. I have tapped into Waruna’s brains on playing spin. I actually asked him to come and help the team on how to play spin when I was coach. But he is a reserved kind of guy and he politely turned it down. He has some amazing tips on playing spin. He had learned the art from Mr. Stanley Jayasinghe. Basically, to play spin, you have to have good feet movement. What most players do right now is to sweep against spin. It’s a high risk shot. You don’t take a risk for one run. That’s what they taught me when I was small. These are basics of the game,” elaborated Marvan.

Sri Lanka performed creditably in the ICC T-20 World Cup and Marvan was pleased with the way the young team went about things. “Given the way we played; skill, attitude, passion and moral. I don’t think I have seen that from a Sri Lankan side for a long time. It started happening during the India series at home and then there was more improvement in the South African series that followed. That momentum continued for the World Cup. To be honest, even I was surprised by the way they performed in the World Cup.”

“I am bit old school; if you take Charith Asalanka and Pathum Nissanka they have very good foundation and technique. That’s the most important thing. Apart from that, they have the additional factor on how to improvise and innovate when it comes to T-20 cricket. They are smart lads especially Charith. The decisions he takes, which ball to hit which side to target, that’s pretty clever. Avishka Fernando was an opener and to drag him to number four maybe put some pressure on him. So Pathum came in as an opener instead of Avishka. He was able to find gaps, play the new ball well and he succeeded there but for Avishka it did not work. In a team game that can happen.”

Thanks to the impressive performances of youngsters, Sri Lanka were able to win two games in the second round and came close to beating South Africa and England. “T-20 is the format that gives you most surprises. It’s the format that creates more upsets. In Test cricket, we say that the team that wins most sessions wins the game. It doesn’t work like that way in T-20 cricket. It can go either way. Against South Africa, Lahiru Kumara, the lengths that he bowled weren’t the right lengths. I don’t think he wanted to bowl those lengths. If you ask him, he will say that. Mistakes can happen. More importantly, he will learn from that experience and when he is faced with a crunch situation, he will have better options. On the other hand, the batsman was very lucky. Had he missed or if one had gone high in the air, the tide would have turned in Sri Lanka’s favour. That’s cricket.”

Since the 2015 World Cup, Sri Lanka have been rebuilding and the process has not gone well for them with the country now forced to play qualifiers for ICC events and if they were to have a Champions Trophy, Sri Lanka would miss out as only the top eight teams qualify.

“I learned something from Arjuna and Aravinda. They always said that Sanath and Kalu can get us 90 runs in the first 15 overs, but once we lose wickets, we need to consolidate and need to keep wickets at hand to cash in the last ten overs. That’s the blueprint that we followed except against Pakistan. You can’t do that against Pakistan because you know Wasim and Waqar will bowl the last ten overs. You have to score as many runs as possible in the middle overs and then when it comes to death overs, you have got to play it safe. Against other teams, no matter how much you score earlier on, you have got to consolidate till the 40th over and then you have to break free. Up to the World Cup in 2015, we had some momentum. We tried to maintain the same tempo after the World Cup. We did not believe in building a team and building an innings and stuff like that. Once our seniors were out, we expected too much from our players and we panicked. So, we faced setbacks and we had to take desperate measures and we appointed too many coaches, too many captains and too many managers. We kept doing this and our downfall was steep. We did not look to rebuild on players who had a good base.”

Have we got things right at the moment? “What we saw during the T-20 World Cup, there were lots of positives. We have utility players, solid batsmen, good fielders and bowlers with a bit of mystery aspect. So, we have got most bases covered. But we have to be patient. Simply because we won five games in the World Cup, we are not going to win the next Test series, especially away from home. We need to categorize players. Who is going to play which format and on what conditions. We tend to pick players who do well in T-20 cricket to play Test cricket and vice-versa. It’s not fair on the player too for he will struggle to adjust. There are players who can do that, no doubt about it. But there are also players who need some time to settle in.”

Marvan’s three-year tenure as Sri Lanka captain from 2003 to 2006 was a landmark era. There were good results but more importantly, he had introduced a team culture where players were made to be mindful of the fact that they were ambassadors of their country. For example, in a Test match, all players had to wear their Test cap for the first session of the game like they used to do when they were schoolboys. Every Sri Lankan captain who followed continued the tradition until Dimuth Karunaratne broke it. Under Dimuth, there is a new culture now. Currently, you see a debutant in Praveen Jayawickrama on the field with his shirt not tucked in. These maybe minute things but is that an indication that discipline is eroding? Well, when your three premier players get banned for breaching bio-secure bubble that’s an indication that something is wrong.

“People might say that a cap doesn’t make a difference to your cricket. But these things, small things go a long way. We used to for example start off a game by spending a few quiet moments thinking of our faiths. These are things that I picked up from my former captains and dressing rooms that I was part of. I always believe that you need to know the history of something, whether it’s cricket, religion your grandparents or whatever. If you don’t then you lose your values. Young players should be taught that this is how we gained Test status. When did we win ICC Trophy? This is how much former players earned for a Test match. There’s no future without a past. We have to respect our past.”

“I am told Mahela Jayawardene wants a documentary done on how we started our Test cricket and what’s our past. If you ask the current players, some may not know that Bandula Warnapura was our first Test captain. I still have the HNB cap that was given for our inaugural Test match. I have the stamp that was issued to mark the occasion. My father got it for me and I cherish those things a lot.”

“Grooming a player is not about developing his skill. We should develop his confidence, should develop him socially. We should not only look to develop his batting, bowling and fielding. We should look to develop his social etiquettes, how to handle media, table etiquettes, what to do when they fly overseas. When you teach players those things that gives them lot of confidence. Then only you get a well-roundedplayer. We don’t follow certain protocols. When we are desperate, we look for quick results. We are not methodical. When I was Head Coach, I gave SLC these plans. I took them from England Lions program. But it was not executed. Sad!”

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Tim David, Rajat Patidar inflict bruising defeat on Chennai Super Kings

Published

17 hours ago

2026/04/6

Priyan

The Chinnaswamy was a sea of red amid the six-fest [Cricinfo]

Defending champions Royal Challengers Bengaluru [RCB] razed Chennai Super Kings’ [CSK] attack and the record books, in front of their beloved fans at the Chinnaswamy Stadium.

After being on 91 for 1 in ten overs, RCB nearly tripled that in the last ten, pushing the limits of T20 power-hitting. RCB’s 250 for 3 was their third highest total in the IPL and the highest ever by any team against CSK in the league. In response, CSK lost their top three inside three overs and eventually slid to their third successive defeat in IPL 2026.

The Chinnaswamy surface was tacky in the early exchanges, according to Devdutt Padikkal who scored 50 off 29 balls, and the outfield was unusually slow, with quite a few strong hits plugging in the outfield. While the surface settled later in the innings, the outfield remained slow. Tim David and Rajat Patidar didn’t feel the need to hit the ball into the outfield, especially when they had the power to keep launching the ball into the night sky.

David and Patidar faced 44 balls between them and sent 14 of those disappearing over the boundary. The entire CSK batting line-up could manage only 11 sixes.

After being asked to bat, RCB needed 20 balls for the first boundary of the day. Both Matt Henry and Khaleel Ahmed hit hard lengths and made scoring hard for Phil Salt and Virat Kohli. It was Anshul Kamboj who provided CSK with the opening breakthrough when he had Kohli caught by Shivam Dube at long-on for 28 off 18 balls. Dube redeemed himself after dropping Kohli on 7 at mid-on off Khaleel Ahmed in the third over.

With the ball not coming onto the bat, Salt laboured to 15 off 16 balls. A brace of swatted fours off Kamboj then freed him up, but Shivam Dube, bowling for the first time in this season, struck with his third ball to stop Salt on 46 off 30 balls with a cutter that was banged into the pitch.

Padikkal, who had dashed out the blocks on the opening day of the season, wasn’t allowed to do so on this track. He started slowly as well – he was on 17 off 16 balls at one point – but then put then put the pedal to the floor and converted it into a 28-ball half-century. It was his second successive fifty, but it certainly wasn’t the story of the day.

David and Patidar came together at 151 for 3 at the start of the 15th over after Overton had knocked Padikkal over by cranking it up to 148kph. The carnage created by David and Patidar turned out to be the story of the day.

With only 35 balls left in the innings, David took strike for 25 of those and crashed an unbeaten 70. Only one other batter has scored as many or more without facing a ball in the first 14 overs of a T20 innings (where ball-by-ball data is available).

David was particularly brutal on Overton, taking him for a sequence 6,4,6,6,6 in the 19th over that yielded 30 runs. All of those hits had the Chinnaswamy in a frenzy. One of those even had Kohli off his seat in the dressing room and applauding David. The last of that sequence was a 106-metre monster six that disappeared out of the ground.

At the other end, Patidar had the best seat to this six-hitting show. He didn’t face a single ball for almost three overs between overs 17 and 20. In all, he faced just five balls since the 16th over. Prior to that, he had played some special shots of his own. Like the pumped six off Noor Ahmad in the 12th over. Like the sliced six over the same region off a near yorker from Khaleel four overs later. Patidar finished with an unbeaten 48 off 19 balls.

After seeing David thump one six after another, Bhuvneshwar Kumar “wasn’t sure whether I should be happy or sad”. He had 200 reasons to be happy when he had Ayush Mhatre flapping a catch to mid-off for 1 by hitting an awkward, in-between length. It was his 200th wicket in the IPL; only Yuzvendra Chahal has more wickets than him in the league.

By the end of the powerplay, CSK were 77 for 3, with Sarfaraz Khan scoring 50 of those in 24 balls. Next ball, however, Krunal Pandya had Sarfaraz stumped. Prashant Veer then showed some spark during his 43 off 29 balls after going two matches without bowling a single ball. His shovelled four between deep midwicket and wide long-off off a Krunal dart showed why franchises were locked in a bidding war for Veer at the auction.

Overton also made some quick runs, but his cameo could not offset the damage caused by the sixes he had conceded to David.

Brief scores:
Royal Challengers Bengaluru 250 for 3 in 20 overs (Phil Salt 46, Virat Kohli 28, Devdutt Paddikal 50, Rajat Patidar 48*, Tim David 70*; Anshul Kamboj 1-52, Jamie Overton 1-42, Shivam Dube 1-30) beat Chennai Super Kings 207 in 19.4 overs (Sarfaraz Khan 50, Shivam Dube 18,Prashant Veer 43, Jamie Overton 37, Anshul Kamboj 19*; Jacob Duffy 2-58, Bhuvneshwar Kumar 3-41, Abhinandan Singh 2-30, Kunal Pandya 2-36, Suyash Sharma 1-21) by 43 runs

[Cricinfo]

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Shami sets up Lucknow Super Giants victory before Pant fifty takes them home

Published

18 hours ago

2026/04/6

Priyan

Eshan Malinga picked up the opening wicket [BCCI]

Mohammed Shami’s miserly 2 for 9 and Rishabh Pant’s uncharacteristic half-century helped Lucknow Super Giants [LSG] open their account in IPL 2026 as they beat Sunrisers Hyderabad [SRH] by five wickets in Hyderabad.

After Pant put SRH in, Shami dealt the early blows by dismissing Abhishek Sharma and Travis Head cheaply. He bowled three overs in the powerplay, and was done with his quota by the end of the ninth over.

Ishan Kishan and Liam Livingstone didn’t last long either, leaving SRH on 26 for 4 in the eighth over. Heinrich Klassen and Nitish Kumar Reddy rescued them by adding 116 in 63 balls – the highest fifth wicket partnership for SRH. The previous record, of 82, was set in the previous game by these two very batters. But Avesh Khan and co came back strongly in the death overs to restrict SRH to 156 for 9.

Come the chase, Aiden Markram’s 45 off 27 balls gave LSG the desired start. But the pitch wasn’t conducive to strokeplay, and LSG kept losing wickets at regular intervals. In the end, it came down to nine needed from the final over with Pant on strike. He had barely looked fluent until then but found two fours off the first two balls off Jaydev Unadkat to level the scores. Two dots later, Pant lofted one over mid-off to seal the result.

Bowling against his former team, Shami struck twice in his first seven balls. On the last ball of his opening over, he had Abhishek caught at short third with an offcutter. Then, with the first ball of his next, Shami outfoxed Head with another slower ball; Markram took a diving catch at mid-off on this occasion.

In the following over, Prince Yadav uprooted Kishan’s off stump with an inswinger to make it 11 for 3. Livingstone fell soon after. He tried to lap Digvesh Rathi but ended up deflecting the ball onto his shoulder. Pant, who was moving towards the leg side, dived to his right to complete a one-handed catch.

For the second game in a row, Klaasen and Reddy had to revive SRH’s innings. They started slowly and took SRH to 35 for 4 after ten overs – it was the fourth-lowest total by a team in the IPL at the halfway mark. SRH had hit only one four and one six until then, but after that, Klaasen and Reddy took the attack to the opposition. They plundered 79 runs in the next five overs.

Klaasen, who was dropped on 19 by Mukul Choudhary off M Siddharth, brought up his fifty off 33 balls. Reddy took only 30 to get to his. After 16 overs, SRH were 123 for 4, and would have been eyeing 170 – probably even more.

LSG’s bowlers brought them back into the contest with some excellent death bowling. Reddy holed out to sweeper cover off Siddharth in the 17th over. In the next, Klaasen went for a reverse lap off Avesh but ended up playing it too fine, and Pant dived across to take the catch. That sucked the momentum out of SRH’s innings; they could score only 33 runs in the last four overs while losing five wickets on the way.

Opening the bowling for SRH, Harsh Dubey started with a two-run over. But Markam and Mitchell Marsh picked up three fours off Reddy in the next. Markram also hit the first six of the innings when he pulled a slower ball from Unadkat over wide long-on. Marsh fell to Eshan Malinga for 14 off 12 balls, but Markram kept going. In the last over of the powerplay, he hit two fours and a six off Unadkat to take LSG to 53 for 1.

Pant was struggling at the other end but Markram ensured LSG remained ahead of the asking rate. He eventually fell to Shivang Kumar while trying to clear long-off.

Pant tried to break the shackles with back-to-back fours off Shivang in the 12th over, but Dubey had Ayush Badoni stumped. Nicholas Pooran came out at No. 5 and lasted just four balls. He swept Shivang fine, and set off for a single, without realising that Kishan had stopped the ball, and was thus run out.

Dubey tried to keep LSG in the contest with Samad’s wicket, and Harshal Patel bowled a four-run 19th over. But Pant stayed firm. Unadkat started the final over with a full delivery; Pant drilled it past him for four. Unadkat then bowled a slower one into the pitch, only for Pant to swat it down the ground for another boundary. Two dots later, Pant lofted one over mid-off to seal the game.

Brief scores:
Lucknow Super Giants 160 for 5 in 19.5 overs ( Aiden Markram 45, Mitchell Marsh 14, Rishabh Pant 68*, Ayush Badoni 12, Abdul Samad 16; Harsh Dubey 2-18, Eshan Malinga 1-30, Shivang Kumar 1-30) beat Sunrisers Hyderabad 156 for 9 in 20 overs (Liam Livingstone 14, Heinrich Klaasen 62, Nitish Kumar Reddy 56; Mohammed Shami 2-09, Digvesh Rathi 1-46, Prince Yadav 2-34, Manimaran Siddharth 1-29, Avesh Khan 2-36 ) by five wickets

[Cricinfo]

Sports

Trinity run riot to end 15 year wait

Published

20 hours ago

2026/04/6

Thilina Walpola

Trinity College claimed the President’s Trophy ending a 15 year drought as they beat arch-rivals Royal College 58-26 in the final

Trinity College ran riot at Sugathadasa Stadium, tearing past Royal College 58-26 with a ten-try blitz to clinch the Dialog Schools Rugby Knockouts 2026 President’s Trophy and end a 15-year title drought.

In a final dripping with history and rivalry, Trinity struck early and never loosened their grip, turning the contest into a one-sided procession after a brief Royal resistance.

Royal’s discipline wavered from the outset and Trinity pounced. After forcing early penalties, they worked the ball through the hands with purpose before centre Kevin Weerakoon finished in the corner, setting the tone for what followed.

Royal hit back swiftly through their tried-and-tested driving maul, prop Lemitha Amerasinghe crashing over with Mohamed Simak converting to edge them ahead. But it was a fleeting lead.

Trinity’s response was clinical. A well-orchestrated lineout move released Sadeesha Weerawansa and slick handling sent Dimath Abeypitiya over in the corner, skipper Shan Althaf adding the extras. Moments later, Trinity struck again, stretching Royal’s defence before Abeypitiya dotted down for his second.

Royal stayed in touch through another muscular maul, skipper Disas Pathirana finishing at the tail, but Trinity’s backline carried a sharper edge. Abdul Malik’s deft cross-kick found Ammaar Manzil, who plucked the ball out of the air to score, before Malik himself rounded off a flowing move just before the break.

At half-time, Trinity led 27-12 and Royal were already chasing shadows.

If there was any hope of a Royal revival, Trinity extinguished it immediately after the restart. Althaf pounced on a loose ball from a clever kick to extend the lead, before finishing another well-weighted cross-kick moments later to put the result beyond doubt.

With Malik pulling the strings, Trinity’s attack cut through at will. Hamza Abdeen chased down a grubber to score and Manzil capped a sweeping move after sharp interplay with Evin Jayasena and Thisara Paris as the scoreboard ticked relentlessly.

Royal managed a late rally, Hiruka Jayadinu and Akira Yatawara crossing for consolation tries with Simak converting both, but it barely dented Trinity’s dominance.

Fittingly, it was Althaf who had the final word. Completing his hat-trick after another cross-kick was gathered and recycled, the Trinity skipper sealed a commanding victory and with it, a long-awaited return to the top.

by Carlos Van de Berg