Sports
Sri Lanka fight back with late wickets after Dickwella fifty
Rex Clementine in Galle
We tend to emphasize a lot on Shane Warne’s heroics in Galle following a terrific performance in that 2004 series. Making a return to international cricket after being banned from the game for doing drugs, the late leg-spinner took a match bag of ten wickets to help Australia record a come from behind victory in one of world’s most iconic grounds. Warne also edged past Muttiah Muralitharan in the race to 500 becoming the first spinner to the magical mark in the same game. Off-spinner Nathan Lyon could be writing his own fairytale in Galle.
Lyon was a curator at the Adelaide Oval when his talent was spotted by Darren Berry, one time a leading contender to take up Sri Lanka’s Head Coach position. Seven months after making his First Class debut, Lyon was brought to Sri Lanka where he made his Test debut here in Galle in 2011. He entered the record books when he picked up a wicket off his first ball in Test cricket. No ordinary batsman; someone by the name of Kumar Sangakkara, world’s number one ranked batsman at that point. He went onto claim a five wicket haul in the first innings and the rest is history.
Lyon, now 34 has over 400 Test wickets and he is Australia’s third highest wicket taker all time. The saying that Sri Lanka either makes or breaks people is true in the case of Warne and Lyon. He was quite a handful yesterday too helping Australia to bowl out Sri Lanka for 212 and Australia finished the day on 98 for three, trailing by 114 runs.
A couple of poor shots from Pathum Nissanka and Kusal Mendis had reduced Sri Lanka to 42 for two and then Dimuth Karunaratne and Angelo Mathews rebuilt the innings as the hosts reached 68 for two at lunch. Lyon then made a breakthrough as Warner took a stunning one-handed catch to dismiss the captain.
Leg-spinner Mitchell Swepson dismissed Dhananjaya de Silva and Dinesh Chandimal in successive deliveries to reduce them to 97 for five.
Niroshan Dickwella joined Angelo Mathews and added 42 runs for the sixth wicket as Sri Lanka staged a recovery. There was a further 54 run stand between the wicketkeeper and Ramesh Mendis as Sri Lanka closed in on the 200 run mark.
With his sweeps and reverse sweeps, Dickwella reached his half-century and the shot of the day was when he scooped Pat Cummins for four over the head of the wicketkeeper.
With a below par score, Sri Lanka needed early wickets. However, Australia’s openers added 47 runs off 55 deliveries and kept the pressure showing aggression. Ramesh Mendis created opportunities but sent down loose balls frequently too allowing the tourists to cash in. Warner had raced to 25 off 24 deliveries before being trapped leg before wicket by Mendis.
Marnus Labuschagne attempted to reverse sweep Mendis but hit it straight to Asitha Fernando at backward of point.
Sri Lanka evened things out on day one with the wicket of Steve Smith, who was sold down the river by Usman Khawaja, the non-striker. Smith was furious as he walked off the ground.
Khawaja was unbeaten on 47 and Australia need a big knock from him. He’s been in solid form this year having scored close to 800 runs in seven Tests at an average of 133. The first Muslim to play for Australia has scored four hundreds this year.
Mitchell Starc’s sizzling spell with the pink ball headlined the opening day of the day-night Test in Adelaide as Australia responded to their 295 run drubbing in Perth by dismissing India for 180. Jasprit Bumrah then got rid of Usman Khawaja in the twilight but the under-pressure Marnus Labuschagne and rookie opener Nathan McSweeney navigated a tricky passage of play to guide Australia to stumps without any further damage. Their unbroken 62-run partnership helped Australia cut their deficit to under 100 and ensured that the first day in Adelaide belonged to them.
The first ball from Starc was a portent for what was to follow. He struck in the first over of each of his three spells, asserting his supremacy in pink-ball Tests. He came away with career-best Test figures of 6 for 48, which extended his pink ball tally in Australia to 2. It is twice as many as Pat Cummins (36) has taken and 29 more than what Nathan Lyon, Starc’s closest contender in pink-ball Test cricket in the country, has managed.
It all started with that first ball to Yashasvi Jaiswal, who had told Starc that he was “coming on too slow” in Perth. On Friday in Adelaide, Starc let rip a full, fast inswinger that swerved late and thudded into his front pad. It was so plumb that Jaiswal didn’t even bother to review. Starc roared at the departing Jaiswal and had over 36,000 spectators – the biggest crowd for an India-Australia Test in Adelaide – roaring with him.
Shubman Gill, who returned to India’s Test XI after missing the Perth Test with a hand injury and KL Rahul then briefly settled India’s innings with a 69-run stand for the second wicket. Gill showed little signs of rust and laid into drives whenever Australia’s quicks veered away from their lengths and the stumps.
At the other end, Rahul was more circumspect, playing out Cummins for three maidens. He then lost his patience and fended at Scott Boland’s first ball, which reared up to threaten the shoulder of his bat. Rahul walked off, thinking he had nicked it behind but a front-foot no-ball from Boland earned him a reprieve. There was nothing on the Snicko either. Five balls later, Boland hit Rahul’s outside edge but Khawaja grassed the chance at first slip.
Rahul’s luck, however, ran out when Starc returned for his second spell and struck with his fourth ball. He extracted extra bounce and had Rahul edging it to gully for 37 off 64 balls. In his next over, Starc took out Virat Kohli for seven off eight balls with a similar prancing delivery.
Brief scores: [stumps]
Australia 86 for 1 (Nathan McSweeney 38*, Marnus Labuschagne 20*; Jasprit Bumrah 1-13) trail India 180 in 44.1 overs (Nitish Kumar Reddy 42, KL Rahul 37; Mitchell Starc 6-48, Pat Cummins 2-41) by 94 runs
[Cricinfo]
Kyle Verrevnne clobbered bouncer after bouncer after bouncer, crashing six fours and three sixes, on his way to a dynamic third Test century, as South Africa reaped 89 runs for the loss of their last three wickets. En route to that ton, Verreynne forged a 66-run stand with Kagiso Rabada, a period in which his confidence ballooned, just as Sri Lanka were left utterly frustrated, their short-ball plans going awry.
In the end, South Africa motored to a total of 358. Rabada contributed 23 of those runs, and Dane Paterson 9. Verreynne, meanwhile, bludgeoned 57 runs off the 50 balls he faced on the second morning, and remained not out on 105 off 133 balls by innings end.
Sri Lanka’s frontline seamers each took a wicket on day two, with Vishwa Fernando having Keshav Maharaj caught at slip, before Asitha Fernando ended Rabada’s innings, and Lahiru Kumara had Paterson holing out. Kumara claimed the innings’ best figures, taking 4 for 79.
After they had dismissed South Africa, Sri Lanka’s openers had six overs to face before lunch. They were tested by Rabada and Marco Jansen’s zip off the pitch, and the bounce both bowlers generated, with both Dimuth Karunaratne and Pathum Nissanka drawn into playing (and missing) balls in the channel. But they survived this period, with Karunaratne finding one boundary behind square on the off side.
It was a triple-boundary over against Asitha that really got Verreynne’s engine roaring. This being the 99th over of the innings, Sri Lanka had long since decided that the second new ball had stopped swinging, and turned almost solely to bouncers and short deliveries to blast the final two wickets out. They had a deep square leg and a deep midwicket out for Verreynne, but he set himself up for the bouncer by changing his stance to a slightly front-on one, and kept thumping the ball past the deep fielders.
Rabada, who had been shielded from the strike in most overs, but had nevertheless faced more than 30 deliveries now, chipped in with boundaries of his own, some of them fortuitous ones off the edge.
Rabada would soon be bowled by Asitha, going at the stumps for a change. With the No. 11 in, and still on 81, Verreynne yanked the throttle with even more intensity, first smashing Prabath Jayasuriya over cow corner for six, before mowing Asitha Fernando into the banks to get within one strike of a 100, before reaching triple figures with another mighty pull, which sent the ball sailing over fine leg’s head.
The milestone sparked wild celebrations, a bow from Verreynne to the dressing room, and a bear-hug from Paterson. Verreynne himself likely did not anticipate that a century would be on the cards when he began the morning on 48, with seven wickets already down.
Paterson would smack two fours and get out next over. But South Africa had inflicted substantial damage in the 17.1 overs they faced on day two.
Brief scores:[at lunch]
Sri Lanka 19 for no loss (Dimuth Karunaratne 5*, Pathum Nissanka 2*) trail South Africa 358 (Kyle Verreynne 105*, Ryan Rickelton 101, Temba Bavuma 78; Lahiru Kumara 4-79, Vishwa Fernando 2-65, Asitha Fernando 3-102 ) by 339 runs
[Cricinfo]
Rex Clementine
in Port Elizabeth
Fast bowler Lahiru Kumara bowled with fire and picked up two wickets in the morning session in the second Test against South Africa and in the process became only the fifth Sri Lankan quick to claim 100 Test wickets. South Africa after losing three for 44, recovered thanks to a 133 run partnership between Ryan Rickelton and Temba Bavuma and were 179 for four at tea.
Kumara, who started the game on 99 wickets cleaned up Aiden Markram with a delivery that swung back in. He then had Tristan Stubbs caught behind by Kusal Mendis to put South Africa in trouble.
Asitha Fernando, meanwhile, was on the money dismissing Tony de Zorzi with his first delivery in the game. Operating from the Duck Port End, Asitha sent down a yorker which the batter wasn’t able to keep away and was given out leg before wicket.
The third wicket partnership between Bavuma and Rickelton, making a comeback to the side, was threatening when Asitha came back for a fresh spell and dismissed the South African captain five minutes before tea.
Bavuwa was tested by a barrage of short, pitched bowling and he survived twice attempting to take on the bowler, but eventually gloved one to the wicketkeeper to depart for 78.
Rickelton carried on regardless and was unbeaten on 72.
South Africa opted to bat first after winning the toss and Sri Lanka’s bowlers toiled hard with the pitch offering little help for the bowlers.
Sri Lanka were contemplating to go with an all seam attack as the curators had left quite a bit of grass on the pitch. However, in the morning of the Test, they opted to play the same eleven that featured in Durban retaining left-arm spinner Prabath Jayasuriya.
Jayasuriya bowled with control but couldn’t pick up a wicket.
Sri Lanka had a disastrous start to the series when they were bowled out for 42 in Durban. It is their lowest total ever in Test match cricket. Although they fared much better in the second innings, South Africa went onto complete comprehensive win with a day to spare.
The loss pushed Sri Lanka to number four in the points table of the World Test Championship and they badly need a win in Port Elizabeth to keep their chances alive in the WTC.They have got two more Tests in Galle against Australia in the cycle, but another defeat in South Africa will make their chances to go through to Lord’s next June difficult.
Refrain from reporting false information that could harm national harmony – President
McSweeney, Labuschagne blunt India after Starc sizzles on Australia’s day
Verreynne’s brisk 105* gives South Africa 358; Sri Lanka openers steady in pursuit
-
Editorial6 days agoGreed for diplomatic appointments
-
News5 days agoAKD gladdens Ranil’s heart
-
Business5 days agoCentral Bank aware of upside and downside risks to its inflation projections
-
Business6 days agoDialog sets new standards in AI-driven creativity
-
News5 days agoSJB questions NPP over MPs’ perks and privileges
-
News7 days agoFive prominent politicians yet to provide statements in substandard medicine case
-
Features6 days agoCompensating a ‘parlour’ owner in Cambodia
-
Features4 days agoInside the ancient Indian ritual where humans become gods