Pakistan have won the toss and elected to field first. The game is played on the same wicket the first ODI was played on, with a high-scoring affair expected.

With the series already wrapped up, the home side have rung the changes in Rawalpindi, with four men who played the second game sitting out. Haseebullah Khan makes his ODI debut at the top as Saim Ayub sits out, while Mohammad Nawaz, Naseem Shah and Abrar Ahmed all drop to the bench. Faheem Ashraf, Muhammad Wasim and Faisal Akram all come in as well.

Sri Lanka, too, have made four changes, with captain Charith Asalanka sitting out because of illness. Middle-order batter Pravan Ratnayake, fast bowler Eshan Malinga and spinner Jeffrey Vandersay play their first games this series.

Pakistan: Fakhar Zaman,  Haseebullah Khan (wk),  Babar Azam,  Mohammad Rizwan,  Salman Agha,  Hussain Talat,  Faheem Ashraf,  Mohammad Wasim Jr,  Shaheen Afridi (capt),  Haris Rauf,  Faisal Akram

Sri Lanka:  Pathum Nissanka,  Kamil Mishara,  Kusal Mendis (wk, capt),  Sadeera Samarawickrama,  Pavan Rathnayake,  Janith Liyanage,  Kamindu Mendis,  Maheesh Theekshana,  Pramod Madushan,  Eshan Malinga,  Jeffrey Vandersay

[Cricinfo]

South Africa started the day staring at defeat, only 63 ahead with three wickets in hand, but registered a stunning win, their first in India in 15 years and the second-smallest successful defence in Asia. The whooping and cheering among the South Africa players echoed amid a shocked Sunday crowd at Eden Gardens as the visitors bowled India out for 93 in the absence of their injured captain Shubman Gill.

Temba Bavuma was ever present, scoring the only half-century of the match and taking South Africa to a formidable lead of 123 on a pitch with extravagant sideways movement and variance in bounce. He was helped a little by some ordinary spin bowling on the third morning, but he had earned the errors after defending resolutely on the second evening.

The target of 124 was always going to be tricky with Simon Harmer outbowling India’s spinners in the country where he had a forgettable tour in 2015-16. The uneven bounce made Marco Jansen a handful, causing the double jeopardy you need to defend small totals.

Brief scores:
South Africa 159 in 55 overs (Aiden Markram 31; Jasprit Bumrah 5-27, Mohammed Siraj 2-47, Kuldeep Yadav 2-36)   and 153 in 54 overs  (Temba Bavuma 55*, Corbin Bosch 25;  Ravindra Jadeja 4-50, Mohammed  Siraj 2-2, Kuldeep Yadav   2-30) beat India 189 in 62.2 overs (KL Rahul 39: Marco Jansen 3-35, Simon Harmer 4-30) and 93 in 35 overs (Washington Sundar 31, Axar Patel 26;  Simon Harmer 4-21, Marco Jansen 2-15, Keshav Maharaj 2-37) by 30 runs

[Cricinfo]

No other cricketing nation has been battered by terrorism quite like Sri Lanka. The civil war erupted barely two years after we gained Test status and an armed insurrection simmered in the south. Killings were rampant, a President, Ministers, military commanders and activists were all consumed by the violence. Curfew was as routine as a morning roll call and schoolchildren travelling by bus or train were drilled to watch out for suspicious parcels.

We grew up in a country where doubt lurked around every corner. That is why it is galling that the ambassadors now representing our flag seem to have forgotten where they come from. They are behaving as though they hail from the Swiss Alps, not Richmond Hill. A reality check is long overdue.

Credit to Sri Lanka Cricket for putting their foot down and reminding the players in no uncertain terms that no one is bigger than the game. Led by captain Charith Asalanka, several senior cricketers, most of them his old Richmond College mates, wanted to pull the plug on the Pakistan tour and dash home after a bombing in Islamabad. The team was in Rawalpindi by the way. Someone should have reminded them that Martin Crowe carried on with a tour when Navy Commander Clancy Fernando was assassinated right outside the Taj Samudra, the New Zealand team hotel.

Someone should also remind Mr. Asalanka and company that both India and New Zealand continued their tour without a whimper when Black Tigers stormed the Bandaranaike International Airport and the adjoining Air Force base, destroying many aircraft and fighter jets in 2001.

Cricket, through all this, refused to be cowed. So much so that when the Barmy Army had cold feet ahead of England’s 2004 tour, The Guardian’s David Hopps famously wrote that the odds of an English fan missing the tube in London was higher than being attacked in Sri Lanka.

Yet the new rich in our current squad are behaving as if violence is something they’ve only seen on movies. Their childish theatrics deserved a stern word. When players threatened to abandon the tour, SLC promptly prepared replacements and only the fear of losing their places made the squad do a U-turn. They had no business holding the game to ransom. They were offered VVIP security, lockdown travel corridors, even empty-stadium matches if needed. What more could you possibly ask for?

Asalanka is the sharpest cricketing mind we have seen since Mahela Jayawardene and arguably the best finisher since Arjuna Ranatunga. But talent does not place you above the sport. In recent months, his behaviour has been unbecoming and this episode was the final straw. When he returns home, he owes stakeholders an explanation and an inquiry must demand one.

This is Pakistan’s hour of need. A nation that has steadfastly stood by Sri Lanka despite being ravaged by its own internal crises would have suffered another blow had we abandoned them.

When Wasim Akram rallied Pakistan players to join a combined Indo-Pak XI in Colombo ahead of the 1996 World Cup, after Australia and West Indies boycotted the tour following the Central Bank bombing, he showed what solidarity in cricket truly means. He was class. Charith has much to learn from Wasim.

But even before Wasim, there was Abdul Hafeez Kardar.

Kardar had played Test cricket for India before partition and was Pakistan’s first Test captain. He was a statesman in every sense, championed Sri Lanka’s push for Test status from the 1970s onward. He wasn’t all talk. He was a doer. He founded the Ali Bhutto Trophy between Pakistan and Sri Lanka Under-19s, a series that unveiled Javed Miandad and Ranjan Madugalle. He ensured Pakistan’s coaches and curators travelled here to uplift our cricketing infrastructure and did much more.

Former SLC chief Hemaka Amarasuriya once said that players entering the Max Cricket Academy must first learn the history of the game. You feel Asalanka and his Richmond clan could do with a few chapters on Kardar.

Because if there’s one eternal truth in cricket, it is this: no player, no matter how gifted, is ever bigger than the game. You can only recall Shakespeare’s legendary words on Brutus in Julius Caesar, ‘The fault, dear Charith, is not in our stars, but in ourselves.’

by Rex Clementine