Sports
No Rashid Khan for Sri Lanka Test at SSC
by Rex Clementine
This is a busy year for the national cricket team and having already played Zimbabwe, Sri Lanka are preparing to host Afghanistan in an all-format series that will get underway later this week.
The Afghans will arrive in the island shortly and will feature in a Test match in our soil for the first time. They were granted Test status in 2017 and featured in their maiden Test a year later when India hosted them.
Although the Afghans have become a force to be reckoned with in the white ball formats having cut their teeth in several league tournaments across the world, in Test match cricket they still struggle to make an impact.
Since the inaugural Test, in six years, they have featured in only seven Test matches. Of those seven Tests, they have won three games with those wins coming against Ireland, Zimbabwe and Bangladesh.
The win over Bangladesh in 2019 in Chittagong was a talking point with leg-spinner Rashid Khan claiming a match bag of 11 wickets.
Rashid, however, will not be available for the one-off Test at SSC starting on Friday, as he is recovering from back surgery.
Sri Lanka will be skippered by Dhananjaya de Silva for the first time. Sri Lanka’s Test squad is an experienced unit and they should overcome the Afghan challenge.
However, the white ball series provides different challenges. While the Afghans are considered the dark horses in this year’s T-20 World Cup, they finished last year’s 50 over World Cup in a commendable sixth position, narrowly missing out on a semi-final berth.
They beat three former champions in the last year’s World Cup – England, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. Afghanistan also gave a near scare to eventual champions Australia.
They will be no pushovers during the white ball series.
While Afghanistan have a formidable spin bowling attack, top order batsman Ibrahim Zadran has made rapid progress in recent times having notched up five hundreds and five half-centuries in the 28 ODIs he has featured in so far.
The 50 over series will take place at Pallekele while the teams will move to Dambulla for the three match T-20 series.
Since hosting England in October 2018, men’s international games haven’t been played at Dambulla. There were suggestions to play a portion of last year’s Asia Cup in Dambulla, due to the area’s low rainfall. However, those plans were shelved eventually.
England stagger to 146‑9 at the end of their 20 overs as they failed to build any sustained partnerships.
This might just be well short of a truly competitive total but they will hope the pitch does them some favours when they come out to bowl.
Brief score:
England 146/9 in 2o overs [Phil Salt 62, Harry Brook 14, Sam Curran 11,Will Jacks 21, Jamie Overton 10*; Dilshan Madushanka 2-25, Dunith Wellalage 3-26, Maheesh Theekshana 2-21, Dushmantha Chameera 1-34] vs England
Sri Lanka have opted to chase against England at Pallekele, hoping to replicate their dominance victory over Australia here to kickstart their Super Eight campaign.
It was six days ago that Pathum Nissanka’s unbeaten 100 saw the hosts chase down Australia’s total of 181 with eight wickets and two overs to spare. And with home skipper Dasun Shanaka is looking to utilise that confidence in this Group 2 encounter.
“We’ve been chasing well in the past few occasions and happy to chase again,” said Shanaka at the toss. “The boys are very confident playing here.”
England skipper Harry Brook – on his 27th birthday – again called for bravery after his side stumbled into the second stage of this tournament. The two-time champions have gone in with an unchanged team for the fourth match in a row, with Jamie Overton retaining his place as the allrounder. Brook’s only slight worry is a cut to Jacob Bethell’s bowling hand (sustained during the match against West Indies), which is likely to prevent him from bowling due to the strapping on his finger.
Sri Lanka meanwhile make two changes to their XI, with Dushmantha Chameera returning in place of Pramod Madushan, having been rested for the defeat to Zimbabwe. Kamil Mishra comes back in for the man who replaced him, Kusal Perrera, as the hosts shuffle once more in an attempt to find a functional opening partnership.
These two squads know each other very well, having only concluded a three-match T20I series against one another at the start of the month, which took place entirely in Pallekele. England secured a 3-0 scoreline, capping things off with a professional 12run win in a low scoring encounter.
As for the outfield, both sides are primed for a different evening of ground-fielding on patchy grass. Heavy rains have punctuated the five das leading into this clash. Overnight precipitation has sodden the edges of the field, though the middle parts of the ground had been well-covered.
Sri Lanka: Pathum Nissanka, Kamil Mishara, Kusal Mendis (wk), Pavan Rathnayake, Kamindu Mendis, Dasun Shanaka (capt), Dunith Wellelage, Dushan Hemantha, Maheesh Theekshana, Dilshan Madushanka, Dushmantha Chameera
England: Phil Salt, Jos Buttler (wk), Jacob Bethell, Tom Banton, Harry Brook (capt), Sam Curran, Will Jacks, Liam Dawson, Jamie Overton, Jofra Archer, Adil Rashid
[Cricinfo]
Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo, Norway’s king of cross-country skiing, broke the record for the most gold medals won at a single Winter Olympics with his sixth of the Games.
Klaebo led a Norwegian sweep of the podium in the 50km mass start classic, with team-mates Martin Loewstroem Nyenget and Emil Iversen taking silver and bronze respectively.
The 29-year-old finished the brutal distance in two hours six minutes 44.8 seconds, 8.9secs ahead of Nyenget who takes his third medal of the Games.
“It’s been crazy, it’s a dream come true,” Klaebo told BBC Sport.
“I really think this Olympics has been perfect. Being able to crown the Olympics with the 50km was unbelievable.”
Klaebo breaks the previous record of five golds from a single Games, held by American speed skater Eric Heiden since the Lake Placid Olympics of 1980.
It also extends his own record for most Winter Olympic golds to 11, while he becomes the first athlete to win all six cross-country events at one Games.
Only US swimming great Michael Phelps, who won 23 gold medals, has more Olympic titles to his name.
Born in Oslo, Klaebo moved to Trondheim – a haven of cross-country skiing trails – as a young child, a move that has seen him become the greatest to ever do the sport.
No other man, active or retired, comes close to his record of 116 World Cup wins, while he is also a 15-time world champion, winning all six titles at last year’s edition on home snow in Trondheim.
“After the world championships last year, we knew that it was possible, but to be able to do it, it’s hard to find the right words,” he told reporters.
“[There were] so many emotions when I’m crossing the finish line.”
His sixth Olympic gold at Milan-Cortina adds to the titles he had won earlier in the Games in the skiathlon, sprint classic, 10km interval start free, 4×7.5km relay and the team sprint.
[BBC]
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