Sports
Sri Lanka needs to be bold in New Zealand
by Rex Clementine
In the just concluded two match unofficial Tests between Sri Lanka ‘A’ and England Lions, the selectors of both sides seemed to be content in allowing players who had represented the country in recent months to find their feet and get back into form. England of course have a busy Test summer while god only knows what’s in store for poor blokes like Dimuth Karunaratne and Angelo Mathews. after New Zealand. One off Tests seems to be the way forward for Sri Lanka for nonprofit making tours like Ireland whom they will host in Colombo.
Quite a few guys who’ll go on the tour to New Zealand have done well in the unofficial Test series against England Lions like Vishwa Fernando, Chamika Karunaratne, Praveen Jayawickrama and Lasith Embuldeniya. This will excite the selectors and they have reason to back their decisions and play some of these players in New Zealand. But that combination is not going to help in a place like New Zealand. The selectors need to be bold and have to look beyond numbers.
Some may wonder why we have only highlighted the bowlers and not batters. Well, that’s because Sri Lanka’s batting is well set and opener Nishan Madushka will struggle to make it to the side despite his prolific form. However he should be in the squad. Christchurch and Wellington are part of the paradise and let the rookie get a feel of one of the most beautiful places on earth. As British adventurer Bear Grylls once said, ‘There is only one word for New Zealand – epic!.’ The selectors will be excited to give Chamika Karunaratne a go but they have got to realize that he needs to first cement his place in the white ball teams before developing into a longer format player. Chamika doesn’t have the pace to make breakthroughs against a Test side and at maximum can give you ten overs per innings and coming to bat at number eight, he’s not going to do a Ravichandran Ashwin.
Both left-arm spinners Jayawickrama and Embuldeniya impressed against England Lions and both shouldn’t play. Hagely Oval in Christchurch and Basin Reserve in Wellington aren’t going to help spin and Sri Lanka should stick to the lone spinner in their all-rounder Dhananjaya de Silva.
What that does is give them the luxury of playing four seamers, which they have rarely done overseas. Asitha Fernando picks himself as the leader of the attack and possessing good control he will have a field day in New Zealand keeping the slip cordon busy. Asitha gets his wickets with the older ball as well reverse swinging the ball to good effect.
Vishwa Fernando provides variety sharing the new ball while Lahiru Kumara’s extra pace will be quite handy.
Dilshan Madusanka should be the fourth pick. He’s got pace and his left-arm angle makes life difficult for batsmen. Sri Lanka are still not out of the equation for the World Test Championship final in June at The Oval and they need to be bold in New Zealand.
[Cricbuzz]
Why did David Miller refuse a single off the penultimate delivery with Delhi Capitals needing 2 off 2? It’ll be spoken of for a while, but not inside the Gujarat Titans change room. Because Prasidh Krishna bowled a nerveless slower bouncer off the final delivery that Miller missed, and Jos Buttler then nailed a direct hit with an underarm throw from behind the stumps to run out Kuldeep Yadav, clinching a dramatic first win for GT in IPL 2026.
Despite being adjudged run out on the field, Miller wasn’t in the mood to concede defeat, and reviewed the final ball for a possible wide. But when replays confirmed what he had perhaps known, he was crestfallen. Equally distraught in the dugout was K L Rahul, whose 52-ball 92 set the game up for DC but for one run.
It was GT’s first win of the tournament and the first loss for DC after starting the campaign with two wins in a row.
Thirty-six needed off 12. A bruised finger that didn’t make it easy for him to grip the bat had forced Miller to retire hurt with DC needing 81 off 42. But when Tristan Stubbs was run-out in the 17th over, Miller returned hoping to play second fiddle to Rahul. Instead, he was now expected to deliver a box-office hit with Rahul nicking behind off a full Mohammed Siraj delivery two balls later.
Miller nearly delivered what was expected, as he went 6, 4, 6 off Siraj, repeatedly peppering the short leg-side boundary. At the other end, Vipraj Nigam also ramped four off a short delivery to bring the equation down to a manageable 13 off the final over.
Prasidh was tasked to bowl the final over. His three overs prior to that had been walloped for 41; Rahul, his state mate, had climbed into him earlier in the night. But all that would’ve been forgiven if Prasidh delivered a gun final over. That GT could only have four fielders out due to a slow over rate added to his challenge. And he nearly succumbed.
Nigam made room and swung cleanly to hit the first ball to the long-off fence, but a rush of blood had him swipe the second delivery to Shubman Gill at mid-off. With DC now needing nine off four, Kuldeep gently deflected his first ball to deep third to leave the chase in Miller’s hands.
With the equation down to 8 off 3, Prasidh bowled a slot-ball that Miller walloped over long-off. But with two needed, Miller inexplicably refused a single to take it all upon himself to finish the deal. He couldn’t connect on the final ball, and Prasidh belted a roar. GT had pulled one from under DC’s rug in dramatic circumstances.
After scores of 1 and 0 in his first two games, Rahul announced himself with a 29-ball half-century that was as pleasing as they come for large parts. It was also one that didn’t have the baggage of him playing run-accumulator, like he has tended to in the past while opening the batting. This Rahul was fun, free and fearless and he helped DC overcome a few roadblocks along the way, like when they lost two wickets in two deliveries to Rashid Khan at the halfway mark.
Rahul was particularly menacing against the fast bowlers, and it began with a wristy flick that he sent way back over deep square off Kagiso Rabada. The early jitters out of the way – if he even had some inkling of them – he batted like a man possessed, fearlessly climbing into length balls from Prasidh over cover, and slapping disdainfully over point.
He is good, but where is the Rashid of old, they asked. Turns out he hadn’t gone anywhere. After he conceded just nine in his first two with DC rampant, he returned to dismiss Nitish Rana in his dramatic third over, the 10th of the innings. Having been given out lbw earlier, only for Rana to overturn the decision through DRS, he was out a few balls later when he miscued a googly to Sai Sudharsan at long-off. This was Rana’s third sub-20 score of the season.
This brought the in-form Sameer Rizvi to the middle, and he lasted all of one delivery as Rashid snuck through his inside-edge with a ripping googly to briefly elicit jitters in the DC camp. This is when Miller entered, before briefly exiting with seven overs left. But in the same over, when Rashid had Axar Patel slice one to Glenn Phillips running back from cover, GT started to have an opening.
On any other night, Rashid’s spell would have cracked open the game. The fact that DC were still in it despite these wickets was down to Rahul. It needed the skilful Siraj to dismiss him with DC needing 45 off three overs. By then, the pressure was telling.
That GT were eventually able to get over the line was down to their run cushion, made possible thanks to half-centuries from Jos Buttler, Gill and Washington Sundar. Buttler looked unshackled, hitting four sixes off his first 15 deliveries en route a bruising half-century, while Gill played himself in and then allayed fears of neck spasms during his takedown of Kuldeep with the slog sweep. Then Washington, promoted to No. 4, struck his maiden IPL fifty to shore up the innings.
Even so, GT managed just 49 off the last five. On another day, this may have proved to be costly. It didn’t on Wednesday, and for that, they have Rashid to thank.
Brief scores:
Gujarat Titans 210 for 4 in 20 overs (Sai Sudarshan 12, Shubman Gill 70, Jos Buttler 52, Washington Sundar 55, Glenn Phillips 14*; Mukesh Kumar 2-55, Lungi Ngidi 1-24, Kuldeep Yadav 1-42 ) beat Delhi Capitals 209 for 8 in 20 overs (Pathum Nissanka 41, KL Rahul 92, David Miller 41*, Vipraj Nigam 12; Mohammed Siraj 1-42, Rashid Khan 3-17, Prasidh Krishna 2-52) by one run
[Cricinfo]
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