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Rex Clementine in Bangalore
Delhi is not the most favourite city for many tourists. There’s polluted air and ‘Delhi belly’ if you are an Australian or Englishman and a cricket pitch at Feroz Shah Kotla where the home team dominates. India have been so dominant in the capital city that in 30 years they had played 11 Test matches and won all but one. This was the background when Sri Lanka walked in for a Test match there in 2017. There was little hope for them in surviving in Delhi, especially given what had happened in the previous Test match in Nagpur which Sri Lanka lost by an innings and 239 runs, their worst in the history.
The selection panel headed by Graham Labrooy decided to hand Test debut to Roshen Silva. Guess who he was replacing in the side, Lahiru Thirimanne.
India posted 536 for seven declared with Virat Kohli scoring a double hundred. Sri Lanka were done and dusted having been reduced to 35 for four heading into the final day. Then the debutant came up with a stunner. In a three hour vigil, Roshen posted an unbeaten 74 and his defenses were impregnable. He was too good. On a final day wicket, Ravindra Jadeja and Ravichandran Ashwin had plenty going for them but Roshen was solid. Sri Lanka overcame the Delhi ordeal. A new star was born.
If the current selectors had done their homework on which batters had excelled in Sri Lanka’s last tour to India, Roshen should have been an automatic choice. Plays spin well, good temperament, smart cricket brain and total commitment for the game. But he has one big disadvantage. He doesn’t have any godfathers in cricket.
Instead, players’ suspensions were shortened and rushed back to Test cricket without letting them earn their places. The selectors are treating Kusal Mendis and Niroshan Dickwella like Ricky Ponting and Adam Gilchrist. Mendis has a Test average of 34 after 48 Tests while Dickwella averages 32 in 47 Tests with no hundreds!
Roshen has had a decent Test career. A month after the Delhi Test, in his second Test, he made a hundred. In his third Test match he posted twin fifties, all away from home. That year, in 2018, he made two more half-centuries against touring England side. But after that he had been forgotten. Anyone who averages 35 in Test cricket in his first year, should have played lot more. Especially when your team is not covering themselves in glory. But Roshen has been doomed to domestic cricket where he keeps producing big runs and centuries.
Sri Lanka’s First Class season is on at the moment and Roshen’s unbeaten 174 for Colombo is the highest individual score. You can be pretty certain that the selectors are not aware of the stats. If they’re aware of numbers, tell us how Lahiru Thirimanne is part of the side despite a Test average of 26 after 44 games!
More players like Roshen suffer silently. This madness needs to end. The selectors need to do their homework or step down and let some other capable men do the job.
The Cricket Advisory Committee fought tooth and nail to get the current selection committee on board. The name of Marvan Atapattu was floated to take up as Chairman of Selectors last year, but they were content to give it to one of their buddies. And the results have been horrendous. What Sri Lanka put up in India was a pathetic show. They could have done much better with bit of planning.
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Suryavanshi scores joint-second fastest men’s T20 century by an Indian
Teen sensation Vaibhav Suryawanshi continued to smash records as he blazed 144 off 42 deliveries in India A’s opening game in the Asia Cup Rising Stars 2025 against UAE. His century, coming off just 32 balls, was the joint-second fastest by an Indian in men’s T20s. His score was also the fourth highest for an Indian in the format.
Urvil Patel for Gujarat and Abhishek Sharma for Punjab scored centuries off 28 balls in the 2024 Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, while Rishabh Pant had also scored a century off 32 balls for Delhi in 2018.
Overall, Suryavanshi’s century is the joint fifth fastest in men’s T20s.
Suryavanshi, at 14 years and 232 days, also became the youngest man to score a hundred for a national representative team at senior level. It was a record previously held by Bangladesh’s Mushfiqur Rahim, who was 16 years and 171 days old when he scored 111* for Bangladesh A against Zimbabwe A in a first-class match in 2005.
Suryavanshi was dropped first ball but made full use of his second life, hammering 11 fours and 15 sixes in his knock before getting out in the 13th over. He finished with a strike rate of 342.85, the fourth highest for a score of 100 or more in men’s T20s.
This was Suryavanshi’s second T20 century, following his 35 ball effort for Rajasthan Royals in IPL 2025. He is the youngest man to score a hundred in T20s. He had become the second-fastest centurion in IPL history, only behind Chris Gayle, who had taken 30 deliveries for his ton against Pune Warriors in 2011.
“It was just my natural game and it’s the T20 format so I wanted to back my own game,” Suryavanshi said after his knock. “I was dropped first ball but I just thought I didn’t want to change my intent because we needed a big score on this ground. The wicket was good and the boundary was small. So I was trying to back my shots.”
He credited his father for helping him stay focused during games. “Because of how he was strict with me since childhood. Earlier, I used to think why is he being so strict. But now I understand that the benefit of those things can be seen on the ground, that he didn’t let me get distracted and kept me focused on cricket and made sure that I keep working hard,” Suryavanshi said. “So I will say that whatever I have, it is thanks to my father.”
He also played down talks of feeling pressure, despite drawing attention at a young age.
“There is no pressure. Because the fans have come to support,” he said.
“And after going to the ground, the field outside the ground doesn’t come to mind. Then my focus is on playing the ball.”
India A raced to 297 for 4, the joint fifth highest team total in men’s T20s, with captain Jitesh Sharma applying the finishing touches with an unbeaten 83 off 32 balls.
[Cricinfo]
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Bumrah’s magic seals opening-day honours for India
It was pitches in 2015-16, it was the tosses in 2019-20, but India took the pitch and the toss out of the equation in dismissing South Africa for 159 on the first day of the 2025-26 series. The visitors won the toss on a decent batting surface at Eden Gardens, raced away to 57 for 0 in 10 overs, but then became victims of Jasprit Bumrah’s 16th five-wicket haul and excellent support work from Kuldeep Yadav and Mohammed Siraj. India, with a new No. 3 in Washington Sundar, were 37 for 1 in 20 overs possible before stumps.
Guilty of playing too little bowling in the past, india went in with six of them as Washington moved to No. 3, making room for Axar Patel in the XI. For a while, as Siraj struggled for rhythm and Axar was taken down, it seemed India would need all the bowling they could muster.
However, Bumrah had been excellent at the other end. Out of those 57, he had conceded only nine runs in five overs. He pushed himself for two more overs in that first spell, and produced two near unplayable deliveries. He went round the wicket to swing one in to Ryan Rickelton and then nip it away a touch to take the off stump. In his next over, he got Aiden Markram with one that kicked off a length. Bumrah ended his spell with figures of 7-4-9-2 out of a score of 62 for 2.
It might not have been an unplayable pitch, but it had enough to keep bowlers interested. Kuldeep found that with some quick turn in his first spell. Accordingly, he and Shubman Gill went for a backward short leg as opposed to one in front of square. In no time he had Temba Bavuma edging one there for a sharp catch for Dhruv Jurel, who handed over the big gloves to the returning Rishabh Pant but retained his spot in the XI on the back of a century against West Indies and two against South Africa A.
Tony de Zorzi and Wiaan Mulder somehow saw South Africa through to lunch, but immediately after they had to face the double trouble of Bumrah and Kuldeep. In just six overs, both had been sent back for an addition of just 15. Mulder, who got off the mark with a reverse-sweep off Kuldeep, fell lbw on the same shot for 24. De Zorzi got a similar delivery to the one that Rickelton did, but this one nipped in and beat him on the inside edge.
The ball had just started to reverse for Bumrah, and Siraj took over to continue the nightmare for South Africa. Kyle Verrreynne’s big back lift was always an invitation for Siraj, who eventually hit him pad first right in front. In the same over, he hit the top of off of Marco Jansen.
Axar Patel, 3-0-20-0 in his first spell, now returned to find some turn. With his long arms and low release creating an extreme angle, Axar becomes dangerous once he gets one to turn. He now had Corbin Bosch playing for the non-existent turn and had him lbw with what proved to be the last ball before tea.
Tristan Stubbs, the specialist batter, didn’t farm strike and left the two spinners Simon Harmer and Keshav Maharaj at the mercy of Bumrah, who had them both in one over to go level with BS Chandrasekhar on five-fors and into India’s top five. It consigned South Africa to their second-lowest score against India in the first innings of a match.
Batting wasn’t quite straightforward for India either, which is where South Africa dearly missed Kagiso Rabada, who was out with a rib injury. In fading east Indian light, Jansen was on the money but couldn’t quite find the length with which he could threaten the stumps. He still got the wicket of Yashasvi Jaiswal on the cut.
KL Rahul and Washington had to be watchful with little to gain really. In the brief period of spin possible, Maharaj came close to bowling Rahul, and Harmer showed he was a much-improved bowler from the one that toured India in 2015-16. That Bumrah five-for began to look even more important with a few puffs of dust towards the end of the day.
Brief scores:
India 37 for 1 in 20 overs (KL Rahul 13*, Yashasvi Jaiswal 12*; Marco Jansen 1-11) trail South Africa 159 in 55 overs (Aiden Markram 31, Jasprit Bumrah 5-27, Kuldeep Yadav 2-36, Mohammed Siraj 2-47)by 122 runs
[Cricinfo]
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Murad, Mahmudul and Shanto lead Bangladesh to innings victory
Bangladesh sealed an innings-and-47-run win over Ireland inside four days in Sylhet, a victory built on Hasan Murad’s four-wicket haul and commanding centuries from Mahmudul Hasan Joy and Najmul Hossain Shanto. It was a team effort with almost everyone contributing to the win.
Ireland’s only solace, perhaps, was keeping the home side waiting until 45 minutes after the lunch break on the fourth day, particularly after having lost half their side on the third evening. Andy McBrine struck a patient half-century, adding 66 runs for the seventh wicket with Andy Balbirnie, who came in at No. 8 due to a finger injury.
Nahid Rana gave Bangladesh the breakthrough they wanted with the second ball after lunch. He banged one in slightly short, which McBrine went to pull, only to find Murad at midwicket. The left-hander fell for 52, having struck five fours in his 106-ball stay.
Barry McCarthy and Jordan Neill kept the visitors alive briefly with a 54-run ninth-wicket stand. Neill made 36 with seven fours, while McCarthy, the last man out, struck a six and two fours in his 25.
Earlier, the first session revolved around reviews that ultimately went Ireland’s way. It began with Matthew Humphreys in the day’s first over, overturning a decision through DRS. Taijul Islam removed him soon after, caught off a top edge at backward square-leg.
McBrine survived twice in the same over against Mehidy Hasan Miraz, both by slim margins. Balbirnie enjoyed similar luck, though Murad eventually trapped him lbw for 38, the dismissal upheld on umpire’s call as the ball was projected to partially hit leg stump.
McBrine reached his fifty just before lunch, capping off a fine session for the visitors.
Ireland began their second innings facing a deficit of 301 runs. They lost five wickets on the third afternoon, although Paul Stirling fought hard for his 43, which included seven boundaries. But when the experienced right-hander was run out following a moment of hesitation, Ireland slipped further in the final hour. Harry Tector and Lorcan Tucker were trapped lbw by Taijul and Murad respectively, while Shadman Islam’s excellent catch at cover ended Curtis Campher’s stay. It left Ireland with a mountain to climb on the fourth day.
Brief scores:
Bangladesh 587 for 8 dec in overs 141 (Mahmudul Hasan Joy 171, Shadman Islam 80, Mominul Haque 82, Najmul Hosain Shanto 100, Litton Das 60; Berry McCarthy 2-72, Mathew Humpreys 5-170) beat Ireland 286 in 92.2 overs (Paul Stirling 60, Cade Carmichael 59, Curtis Campher 44, Lorcan Tucker 41; Hasan Mahmud 2-42, Taijul Islam 2-78, Hasan Murad 2-47, Mehidy Hasan Miraz 3-50) and 254 in 70.2 overs (Paul Stirling 43, Andy McBrine 52, Andy Balbirnie 38, Jordan Neil 36; Nahid Rana 2-40, Taijul Islam 3-84, Hasan Murad 4-60) by an innings and 47 runs
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