Sports
‘The sun will come up tomorrow’ – Chamari Athapaththu
It started with a sensational win over South Africa in the tournament opener and ended with a whimper as they were dismissed for their third-lowest total in T20Is. It’s fair to say Sri Lanka came, saw, conquered and then crashed out. For Chamari Athapaththu, it’s not a calamity.
“The world has not ended. The sun will come up tomorrow. I want to build a good team for the future. Today the feeling is not good but my focus is the next tour,” she said, still smiling, afterwards.
That Athapaththu can even talk about the next tour is a win for Sri Lanka. They went without fixtures between March 2020 and January 2022 and know what the effects of a prolonged absence from the game can do for a team’s momentum. Now, thanks to the first ever women’s FTP, they have visits from Bangladesh (which did not take place prior to the World Cup as initially scheduled) and New Zealand to look forward to, as well as a tour of England later this year. “The youngsters need some experience. They need to play more cricket in future,” Chamari said. “We have to play a lot of cricket against the top four teams.”
Chamari’s youngsters include under-19 captain Vishmi Gunaratne, who is only 16, offspinner Kavisha Dilhari, who has 10 more T20I caps to her name than her age of 22, and her opening partner, 24-year-old Harshitha Samarawickrama. All of them were excited about the prospect of reaching the semi-finals and anxious about beating New Zealand after losing to Australia, even if that result had been somewhat priced in.
“I’m not worried about the Australia games but I’m a little bit worried about today’s game,” she said. “It was a very crucial game for us and I felt some of the girls in my team put too much pressure on their shoulders. I think they didn’t handle that pressure very well.”
Sri Lanka’s nerves showed almost immediately. They missed a run-out chance that would have seen Bernadine Bezuidenhout dismissed for 7 and then dropped her on 19. She went on to score 32 and share in a 46-run opening stand with Suzie Bates that set up New Zealand’s innings. They also dropped Bates, on 37, as her 56 off 49 balls propelled New Zealand to a score above 160. In response, Sri Lanka were completely shell-shocked. They played their big shots too early and picked out fielders and once Athapaththu was dismissed, it became a procession as the last five wickets fell for 25 runs.
Their opposition knows exactly what that feels like. It was less than a week ago that New Zealand were bundled out for 67 – the second-lowest T20I total – two days after Australia had dismissed them for 76 to all but end their hopes of qualifying for the semi-finals. They were particularly distressed after their 65-run defeat to South Africa – a match that had the weight of a quarter-final attached to it – and captain Sophie Devine emphasised the need to figure out and discuss where things were going wrong. Athapaththu may be tempted to do the same but Amelia Kerr, who was part of Devine’s team’s talks, had some advice. “When there is emotion involved, sometimes you don’t know what to say and it’s better to review it the next day.”
When New Zealand did that, they came up with a mantra for their last two games: “be tougher when things get tough,” Kerr explained. “There was nothing wrong with the talent we have in this room, it was just to have that belief and be tough.”
That may work for New Zealand, who have a fairly developed professional structure as opposed to Sri Lanka, whom FICA’s annual global employment report said had “not professional structures”, and both Athapaththu and Kerr acknowledged the gap is growing.
Unsurprisingly, they both cited Australia as the benchmark and while Athapaththu zoned in on the domestic structure, Kerr looked at T20 franchise leagues that have made the difference. “Australia has a good domestic structure. They play a lot of cricket – domestic tournaments and schools tournaments,” Athapaththu said, while Kerr described the resources the Australian players have as “outstanding”.
But they also pointed to the growing prowess of India as a signal to the rest to speed up their development. “In terms of what we are seeing around the world, with the Hundred in England, the WBBL in Australia and now the WPL, it’s going to strengthen those countries a lot,” Kerr said. “We are heading in the right direction: our match fees being equal to the men, and it allows us to earn more money so we can train more. Most of us do cricket full-time which is only going to help our game. We are behind those countries but if all countries can get that opportunity it is going to help grow the women’s game.”
And for Athapaththu, that is especially significant for the other teams on the subcontinent, which could have just one representative – India – in the final four. “India has a good structure but in Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, we have to develop our structure,” she said.
Because she wants to be part of that process, Athapaththu herself has committed to at least another T20 World Cup – the next tournament is in Bangladesh in September/October 2024 – and perhaps even another 50-over tournament.
“I want to build a good team for Sri Lanka for the future, so that’s my goal,” she said. “I want to encourage the youngsters and be a role model. I always try to lead them from the front, so my target is playing another one or two years for Sri Lanka. That’s what I want to do.” (cricinfo)
During the lunch break on the second day, Rohit Sharma cleared the air, saying that he had sat out of the Sydney Test and that he wasn’t retiring from Test cricket yet. Soon after the break, Jasprit Bumrah, who had taken over from Rohit as captain, left the SCG for scans. Australia had lost half their side around that time, with the game – and the series – dangling on a razor’s edge. Despite the absence of Bumrah, India snatched a four-run first-innings lead, turning the Sydney Test into a second-innings shootout.
Rishabh Pant pulled India further ahead with a jaw-dropping 29-ball half-century. It was the second fastest fifty by an Indian in Test cricket, behind his own 28-ball effort against Sri Lanka in 2022. After Scott Boland had carved up India’s top order with pinpoint accuracy, Pant countered them and thrilled a Sydney crowd of 47,257. The late dismissals of Pant and Nitish Kumar Reddy kept the game in the balance, with India leading by 145 at stumps.
The second-innings shootout, though, could get skewed in favour of Australia if Bumrah isn’t fit to bowl anymore in this Test.
India’s support bowlers, though, stepped up admirably on the second day, with Prasidh Krishna and Reddy sharing five wickets among them. India’s non-Bumrah seamers came away with combined figures of 8 for 132 – their best in any innings on this tour.
Reddy picked up two wickets in two balls while Prasidh marked his Test comeback with the scalps of Steven Smith, Alex Carey and debutant Beau Webster, who top-scored for Australia with 57 off 105 balls.
Webster continued his excellent debut, becoming the first Australian since Adam Voges in 2015 to score a half-century on Test debut.
The day had dawned with Bumrah snaring Marnus Labuschagne for 2 and throwing a stare at non-striker Sam Konstas. Bumrah surpassed Bishen Singh Bedi’s tally for the most wickets taken by an India bowler on a tour of Australia.
The 19-year-old responded strongly with the bat when he advanced at Bumrah and shanked him down the ground for four. Then, after Bumrah reinforced the slip cordon by bringing deep third in, Konstas unfurled another audacious reverse-ramp, prompting Bumrah to post a fielder at deep third.
In the next over, however, Mohammed Siraj had Konstas edging to gully for 23 off 57 balls with an outswinger. Three balls later, he had Travis Head caught at second slip for 4. Where Bumrah and Australia’s quicks hit the deck, the source of Siraj’s menace was swing. So, he kept exploring a fuller length to maximise that swing.
Smith and Webster steadied Australia with a 57-run partnership for the fifth wicket before Smith fell to Prasidh at the stroke of lunch. Smith seemed destined to reach 10,000 Test runs but moments before the break Prasidh shifted his stock length to an even more fuller one to dismiss him five short of the landmark.
Then, in the afternoon, he stormed through the defences of Alex Carey with a similar length. Reddy rocked Australia even further with the wickets of Pat Cummins and Mitchell Starc. Australia lost their last four wickets for just 19 runs to be bowled out for 181.
Yashasvi Jaiswal then launched India’s second innings in grand style, scything Starc for four fours in the first over. KL Rahul, too, showed some attacking intent at the other end until Boland (who else?) intervened and curtailed India’s rapid start.
He struck in his second over when he had Rahul chopping an inducker onto his stumps and in his next over, he knocked Jaiswal over with a beauty that angled in towards middle from around the wicket and seamed away late to beat the outside edge and smash the top of off stump. Boland proceeded to dismiss Virat Kohli in familiar fashion, for 6. It was the eighth time that Kohli was out edging behind to the keeper or the slip cordon in nine trips to the crease in this Border-Gavaskar Trophy. He was so angry that he yelled at himself and punched himself in the leg.
Webster earned his maiden Test wicket when he had Shubman Gill caught behind off the inside edge.
After having spent nearly 150 minutes being someone else with the bat on the first day, managing 40 off 98 balls, the real Pant stood up on the second. He charged at his first ball from Boland, who had just snared Kohli, and violently clubbed him over mid-on for six. He then ventured a reverse-ramp off his third ball, and though he failed to connect, he didn’t curb his natural instincts in this innings.
Pant then lined up Webster for three successive fours, including a trademark falling sweep-pull. He notched up his fifty with a helicoptered six off Starc and celebrated the milestone with a six next ball.
Pant’s assault forced Australia into bowling T20 lines and lengths. When Cummins went short and wide of off and hid the ball away from Pant’s swinging arc, he chased it and ended up feeding an edge to the keeper. Boland had Reddy holing out for 4 to cap a 15-wicket day in Sydney.
Brief scores:
India 141 for 6 in 32 overs (Rishabh Pant 61, Yashasvi Jaiswal 22; Scott Boland 4-42) and185 in 72.2 overs lead Australia 181 in 51 overs (Sam Konstas 23, Beau Webster 57, Steven Smith 33, Alex Carey 21; Prasidh Krishna 3-42, Mohaamed Siraj 3-51), Jasprit Bumrah 2-33 , Nitish Kumar Reddy 2-32 ) by 145 runs
[Cricinfo]
India captain and pace ace Jasprit Bumrah had to leave the field early in the post-lunch session on Day 2 of the Sydney Test with a suspected injury concern. Bumrah was filmed leaving the stadium premises, potentially to undergo scans. The nature of the injury is as yet unknown.
Bumrah bowled eight overs on the second day’s play at the SCG for the wicket of Marnus Labuschagne but left the field one over into a new spell at the start of the post-lunch session.
At the time of him leaving the field, Bumrah had sent down 151.2 overs across five Tests with only his Australia counterpart Pat Cummins having bowled more (152 overs). Bumrah’s toils have fetched him a chart-leading 32 wickets at 13.06 in the series but his workloads, necessitated by both team combination and lack of potency elsewhere have left him susceptible to be overbowled, thereby risking injuries.
At the end of the Boxing Day Test in Melbourne, Rohit Sharma had admitted there was a risk of Bumrah being overbowled. “If somebody is in such a great form, you want to try and maximise that form how much ever you can,” Rohit had said. “And that is what we’ve been trying to do with Bumrah.
“But there comes a time where you need to step back a little bit and give him that little bit of extra breather as well. So, we’ve been very careful. I’ve been very careful. I talk to him about how he feels and stuff like that. So, yeah. Those things should be managed carefully. And I’m trying to do that on the field.”
Incidentally, India had been dealt a scare as early as the second Test in Adelaide when Bumrah needed the physio’s attention while sending down his 20th over in that match over some discomfort near the groin area. He was able to shrug off that concern and continue to have an incredible series, one that saw him match Harbhajan Singh’s tally of wickets for the most scalps by an Indian in a single Test series against Australia.
Ryan Rickelton promoted to open the batting in Tony de Zorzi’s injury-enforced absence, and Temba Bavuma enjoying the form of his career, both scored hundreds on a perfect batting day at Newlands. The pair shared a 235-run stand, the highest fourth-wicket partnership by a South African pair against Pakistan and at Newlands.
The pair played perfectly complementary roles, with Rickelton scoring heavily on the off side (102 of his 176 runs came there) and Bavuma plundering the on-side. Together, they reeled off some exquisite drives and while Rickelton’s runs came in the areas straight down the ground, Bavuma was excellent on the flick and pull.
The volume of runs tells as much about the flatness of the pitch as it does about Pakistan’s attack, which lacked genuine pace. That may have been the only way to force an error on a surface that is playing exponentially better than it did last year when a vicious pitch saw the match end in 107 overs. Then, 23 wickets fell on the opening day. Now, the same strip which has similar mottled green patches, has played placidly and is expected to get better for batting over the next day and a half.
The ease of conditions aside, the runs still had to be scored. Rickelton and Bavuma put on a fine display against a Pakistan side that suffered an early blow. They lost Saim Ayub to what has turned out to be a match-ending injury. Ayub twisted his ankle in the field and was taken to hospital for further scans. The PCB confirmed he would take no further part in the Test, and the extent of his injury would be assessed by specialists in London.
While shoulders dropped after Ayub was stretchered off, Pakistan came back well and took three wickets in the last 40 minutes of the morning session. Aiden Markram, Wiaan Mulder, newly installed at No.3, and Tristan Stubbs will all question their shots after they got through Mohammad Abbas’ initial spell, where he posed the greatest threat.
Abbas bowled 19.3 consecutive overs at SuperSport Park last weekend for a career-best 6 for 54 and took the new ball at Newlands. His first delivery hit Markam on the front pad and Pakistan thought they had the first wicket. Umpire Nitin Menon was unmoved so they reviewed but replays showed it was clipping the top of off. Markram survived on umpire’s call.
Rickelton was the more free-flowing of the opening pair and scored seven boundaries to Markram’s three, in an opening stand worth 61. Rickelton offered one chance in that time, when an edge off Khurram Shahzad fell short of second slip and South Africa went on their highest first-wicket partnership since March 2023. Against the run of play, Markram eventually offered a chance when drove Shahzad loosely to the substitute fielder Abdullah Shafique. After three ducks in the ODIs and no game time since, Shafique was under pressure and the ball went straight into and out of his hands. Markram was on 17.
No actual damage was done as, in the next over, Markram slashed at a ball that just moved away and inside-edged through to Mohammad Rizwan. Abbas’ return after a seven-over break found Mulder’s outside edge to give Pakistan a second wicket. And Pakistan burgled another on the stroke of lunch when Stubbs stayed back to a tossed-up ball from part-time spinner Salman Agha and edged to Rizwan.
Pakistan squandered the opportunity to maximise their advantage after the break when they stuck with Aamer Jamal at one end and Agha on the other instead of bringing on one of their strike bowlers and allowed Bavuma to ease in. Bavuma got his first runs when he steered Jamal to deep third and unfurled a series of gorgeous drives to continue his fine form this summer.
Masood brought Mir Hamza on five overs after the break and Shahzad after eight overs. By then, Rickelton was into the 60s. He hit two boundaries off Shahzad’s first second-session over and the sting was taken out of Pakistan’s attack. They allowed South Africa easy run-scoring opportunities with the field spread and a variety of lengths.
Rickelton entered the 90s with back-to-back boundaries off Shahzad and quietly worked his way to 99. He only faced one ball in the next two overs as Bavuma kept strike but when Agha bowled one on his pads, he whipped it away to bring up a second hundred in three Tests. Two overs later Bavuma brought up fifty off 82 balls and South Africa went to tea on 184 for 3.
The evening session was all South Africa as Rickelton and Bavuma filled their boots. Bavuma smashed the innings’ first six when he mowed Agha over mid-wicket, and Pakistan may have been left to wonder about the wisdom of not employing a specialist spinner, even just as a holding bowler at that point. Rickelton scored South Africa’s second six, over mid-wicket, in an over where he took 14 runs off Jamal.
He reached 150 with a cover-driven four off Khurram, with Bavuma 11 away from a hundred. He got there seven overs later, with a single off Jamal and ran almost to the long-on boundary, pumping his arms in celebration before swishing his bat wildly at the media end. Bavuma’s emotions may have gotten the better of him when he edged Agha to Rizwan 17 minutes before the end of play. Since taking over as captain, Bavuma has scored three of his four Test hundreds and averages 57.78.
Rickleton and Bedingham saw out the day which Pakistan ended 10 overs short of the required 90.
Brief scores:
South Africa 316 for 4 (Ryan Rickelton 176*, Temba Bavuma 106; Salman Agha 2-55) vs Pakistan
[Cricinfo]
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