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Unfit, unprofessional, fat Sri Lankans

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by Rex Clementine

The fun filled festive season has many highlights and one of them obviously is the Boxing Day Test match. There were three happening at the same time and while the Indians turned things around remarkably to catch the Aussies off guard at the MCG, Pakistan stretched the game to the final day before going down fighting at the Bay Oval. At Centurion, the Sri Lankans, meanwhile, failed to show up. Not only did they suffer an innings defeat, half their side broke down as well making the Test match a mockery. The national cricket team has become a laughing stock.

It is not a sensible idea to run a team down before the series concludes. There have been instances where the Sri Lankans have turned things around remarkably after losing the opening Test match of a series. But the issue here is that we are left with too many questions and not too sure whose going to answer them.

The amount of pictures Sri Lanka’s cricketers post on social media of them doing gym work makes you believe that these are super fit athletes. But when they go onto the field, they are like the Kerawalapitiya Power Plant; always break down. The list is long. Given the lucrative insurance schemes now in place, you suspect that some may be even faking injuries. That simply is not cricket. Sri Lanka Cricket needs to investigate whether players are misusing the Insurance scheme and if so this needs to be done away with.

You also tend to get the feeling that trainers and physiotherapists feel that their future depends on the recommendations players provide and they may not be totally honest with their injury assessments.

As a result of the pandemic, little cricket was played this year. But all contracted players – some with retainers in excess of US$ 100,000 – were told to look after their fitness by coaching staff. It appears that not everyone was professional with the approach and they were well and truly exposed at the Centurion.

It started with Dhananjaya de Silva pulling a thigh muscle and he has been ruled out of the series. Kasun Rajitha lasted just two overs while Lahiru Kumara is making a habit of breaking down middle of a game. The previous instance it happened was last year in Brisbane. Dinesh Chandimal is also down with a groin strain and it’s not known whether he will be available for Wanderers. Suranga Lakmal and Oshada Fernando are on the mend and it remains to be seen whether they will be fit for the second Test.

There are huge question marks over the modern day training methods. A fast bowler during training does not send down more than 30 deliveries as the team management fears burn out. Perhaps they need to take a look at how some of Sri Lanka’s most successful bowlers trained to be supremely fit.

Chaminda Vaas played international cricket for 15 years and into the bargain played County Cricket in England for ten years but he had just one major injury throughout his career. His training methods were insane and ten kilometer runs were a daily routine for him. Today it’s such a shame that you find fast bowlers with excess weight and no body wants to put them in their place.

Not often teams lose a Test match leave alone by an innings after posting 400 runs in the first innings. When you make 400 runs, you give yourself a good chance to win the game. Had all bowlers been firing on all cylinders, this Test match would have been a closer contest than what it turned out to be. There were positives, like posting their highest total ever in South Africa and all-round skills of Wanindu Hasaranga. But the team was losing a player almost every session and it was painful to watch.

Sri Lanka were asking for trouble when they played a T-20 tournament ahead of a Test series. The gap between the LPL final and the opening Test was ten days. Mickey Arthur has conceded that in hindsight they would have been better off pulling out the fast bowlers from the LPL. Is there a better example of closing the stable door after the horse has bolted!



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Em Arlott makes up for lost time as England women romp to nine-wicket rout

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Em Arlott claimed three wickets to set up victory [Cricinfo]

Three wickets from Em Arlott, playing just her second international match, decimated West Indies as England ran away with victory in the second T20I at Hove and an unassailable 2-0 lead in their three-match series.

Arlott’s impressive spell accounted for key batters Hayley Matthews,  who had scored 100 of her side’s 146 runs in the first game at Canterbury, and Stefanie Taylor, who had returned from injury to bolster the tourists’ line-up. She also removed Zaida James, courtesy of one of two strong catches by Sophia Dunkley, and took a catch of her own to dismiss Shermaine Campbelle,  the West Indies’ highest scorer for the match with just 26.

That was off Charlie Dean, who took back-to-back wickets to finish with 2 for 12 from her four overs, while Lauren Bell took 3 for 28, including one in the opening over to set the tone for the match. Issy Wong was also economical with 1 for 10 in four overs.

Player of the match Arlott had waited a long time to make her debut in Canterbury, having been called up to the England squad during India’s visit in 2021 without playing. She missed out again the following year when she left England’s camp before the home series against South Africa began, because she was suffering the after-effects of Covid. At that point she feared her chances of playing for her country were gone. But she made up for lost time as West Indies were restricted to 81 for 9.

After losing opener Danni Wyatt-Hodge on the first ball of the reply, captain Nat Sciver Brunt and Dunkley reeled in the target with 64 balls to spare.

Matthews needed someone to go with her this time following her gallant century in a losing cause on Wednesday. But fellow opener Qiana Joseph fell cheaply once more, spooning a return catch to Bell on the third ball of the game. A double-wicket over from Arlott left West Indies reeling at 18 for 3 in the fourth over with their inspirational captain, Matthews, back in the dugout with just six runs to her name. Matthews had tried to play across the line of a length ball from Arlott which shaped in and moved off the seam and clattered into the stumps. Four balls later, Dunkley held a stunning catch, leaping to her left and tumbling at short midwicket to dismiss James.

England’s fielding demons from the T20 World Cup match between these two teams looked to be exorcised. Arlott was on a roll when she had the experienced Taylor well caught at short extra cover by Dean for a second-ball duck. That gave Arlott 3 for 7 in 14 balls. She finished her allocation with 3 for 14, including 18 dot balls.

Campbelle was also back from injury and she made some semblance of a start in trying to drag West Indies out of their predicament, reaching 26 off 36 balls. But hers was the first of two wickets to fall in as many balls to Dean with Arlott in the action again, taking a comfortable catch at long-on. Mandy Mangru followed, bowled attempting to paddle sweep and West Indies were 63 for 6. Shabika Gajnabi survived the hat-trick ball but, in the over between, Bell had Aaliyah Alleyne caught behind.

Gajnabi fell when Dunkley took another catch at backward point off Wong and Bell had her third wicket when Afy Fletcher holed out to Sciver-Brunt. England conceded just six more runs from that point but they were unable to bowl out West Indies, who set a paltry target of 82.

If failing to take 10 wickets was a hiccup in the display of ruthlessness that new England head coach Charlotte Edwards had called for on the eve of the series, her side were able to make up for it with a rapid run-chase. Wyatt-Hodge’s dismissal, bowled by James with the first ball of the innings, didn’t augur well. But Sciver-Brunt, England’s new captain, batted with authority, marshalling a powerplay of 49 for 1 and bringing up the team fifty with the first of back-to-back fours off Matthews, driven through the covers then reverse-swept.

She brought up her half-century when she was dropped by Cherry-Ann Fraser moving to her right from deep midwicket and ran two for her 17th fifty in T20Is. She then struck the winning runs with a leg-side four off Afy Fletcher. Meanwhile Dunkley, who had top-scored for England with an unbeaten 81 in the previous game, played the supporting role with an unbeaten 24 off 25 balls as England cruised to 82 for 1 in 9.2 overs.

Brief scores:

England Women 82 for 1 in 9.2 overs  (Nat Sciver-Brunt 55*, Sophia Dunkley 24*; Zaida James 1-12) beat West Indies Women 81 for 9 in 20 overs (Shemaine Campbelle 28, Shabika Gajnabi 22; Em Arlott 3-14, Lauren Bell 3-28, Charlie Dean 2-12, Issy Wong 1-10)by nine wickets

[Cricinfo]

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Brian Bennett blazes century but England scent three-day win after follow-on

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Brian Bennett recorded the fastest Test hundred by a Zimbabwean [Cricinfo]

The inequality between England and Zimbabwe as Test nations has been reflected on the field over the first half of this one-off Test match at Trent Bridge. Thursday’s flow of runs for the former was followed by a cascade of wickets from the latter, as Zimbabwe finished day two following on, 30 for 2, after being dismissed for 265 in their first innings, still 270 shy of England’s mammoth 565 for 6 declared.

And yet, the story on Friday was not of the dominating team, but of the dominated, as a lone hand by opening batter Brian Bennett to the tune of 139 made this one-way traffic watchable. Bennett’s second century in the format now ranks as Zimbabwe’s fastest, clocking in at 97 deliveries, and only their third against England.

The 21-year-old, playing in his seventh Test, now has four fifty-plus score in 12 innings. He did not take a backward step, with 104 of his runs from fours, most of them sweetly struck, including three in a row off Gus Atkinson that took him to three figures. Boundary numbers 18 (a square drive) and 19 (a punch down the ground) moved him to 99, before Atkinson offered enough width for a back-cut that was steered expertly through deep third.

An impassioned celebration was matched in the stands, as pockets of Zimbabwe supporters erupted with glee, in amongst a strong ovation from locals. And he kept all enterained with further crisp strikes, particularly down the ground, before England finally decided to test him with short deliveries.

They were vindicated when Josh Tongue, playing his first Test since the 2023 Ashes encounter at Lord’s, dug the penultimate legal delivery of the 53rd over into the armpit of Bennett, who fended to Ollie Pope at short leg. An acrobatic take was soon for nothing as replays showed Tongue had overstepped.

Bennett’s reprieve, on 139, was the fourth he had been given. But he could not make it count this time as the same duo combined legally to remove the right-hander in similar fashion, albeit with a far simpler take for Pope. Just 13 overs of play later, Bennett was making a second walk back, trapped LBW by Atkinson as the first to go in the follow-on innings for just one from nine deliveries.

As frustrating as England found Bennett’s enterprise, they were never really up against it, barring a period when his 65- and 60-run stands with Craig Ervine and Sean Williams respectively had the visitors sitting relatively pretty on 156 for 2. By the end, the hosts were able to tick off a few nuggets that may come to benefit them when India arrive next month.

Harry Brook’s morning cameo – eventually the last man to fall, for 58 – was a broadly useful hit out against a weary attack who were still a man down with left armer Richard Ngarava unable to take the field after his back spasm on day one. Five overs into Zimbabwe’s first innings, Sam Cook  having become the first England debutant to bowl the first ball in his maiden innings since Martin McCague did so here in 1993 against Australia, registered his maiden Test wicket when Ben Curran edged to Brook at second slip.

That would be Cook’s lot from his opening 17 overs in the format, 1 for 72 and a fair few narrow misses, including Bennett edging through the cordon and past his own stumps on 16 and 32 respectively. But there was better luck for Shoaib Bashir,   who became the youngest English bowler to take 50 Test wickets with the first of his 3 for 62 that has now more than doubled his first-class haul this summer. His first two across three matches for Glamorgan had come at a grim average of 152.00.

There was also encouragement for Ben Stokes,  who bagged two wickets in 11 deliveries in his first appearance of the year after replacing Bashir in the attack following a botched caught-and-bowled attempt that split the off-spinners left ring finger.

Brought on first change at the Radcliffe Road End after 12 overs, Bashir started with a full toss that was guided through extra cover by Ervine, before producing a beauty to take the left-hander’s edge, low to Brook at first slip. A bit of bounce then did for Williams, who played onto his stumps.

It looked like Bashir was done for the day when Sikandar Raza, on three, danced down the wicket and smashed back at the bowler, who put in a valiant effort to his right to claim the return catch. Bloodied, and with two balls remaining in his 13th over, Bashir had to leave the field, with Stokes using the opportunity to bowl for the first time since his hamstring operation at the start of the year.

Having teased an over here or there to taper into form, citing bowling as the hardest thing to get right following an extended period out, Stokes almost made an immediate impact. His first legal delivery – having started with a front-foot no ball – squared up Bennett on 89 but was shelled inexplicably by Root at first slip.

The error meant Stokes had to make do with a remarkable spell of two dismissals in 11 balls rather than three in 14. He was finally on the board with a devilish delivery that turned Raza inside-out – this time an edge flying through to Jamie Smith behind the stumps – before Wessly Madhevere was unpicked by the surprise inswinger after a diet of outswingers, handing the No.6 batter a 10-ball duck.

Bashir eventually returned in the evening session, and made up for lost time with an immediate pearler when reintroduced to the attack for the 57th over, bowling Tafadzwa Tsiga through the gate with a classic off-break. An aborted caught-and-bowled chance off Blessing Murzarabani was a wilfully missed opportunity for a fourth, his injured finger clearly a factor, but the end came quickly when Atkinson found the tall quick backing away for the ninth and final dismissal.

Atkinson soon had his third of the day when Bennett was undone by a lack of bounce, and Ervine’s tame bunt to short leg – another for the Tongue-Pope combo – was followed by a slow trudge off from the Zimbabwe captain.

Even allowing for Bennett’s brilliance, it has been a tough couple of days for otherwise willing opponents. Day three promises to be tougher still.

Brief scores:
Zimbabwe 265 in 63.2 overs (Brian Bennett 139, Craig Ervine 42, Sean Williams 25, Tafadzwa Tsiga 22; Gus Atkinson 2-58, Shoaib Bashir 3-62, Ben Stokes 2-11) and [f/o] 30 for 2 in 10 overs (Sean Williams 22*, Ben Curran 4*; Gus Atkinson 1-01)trail  England 565 for 6 dec in 96.3 overs (Ollie Pope 171, Ben Duckett 140, Zak Crawley 124, Harry Brook 58; Blessing Muzarabani 3-141)  by 270 runs

[Cricinfo]

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IPL 2025: Kishan, Sunrisers Hyderabad quicks dent Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s chances of a top-two finish

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Ishan Kishan kept Sunrisers Hyderabad racing away after the openers fell [Cricinfo]

Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) proved to be the banana peel they were feared to be for Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB), who still remained one point behind the table leaders Gujarat Titans with Punjab Kings (PBKS) now breathing down their necks with one game in hand.

Ishan Kishan, who had fizzled out after his century in the first match with just 125 runs off 117 in ten innings since then, anchored a hyper-aggressive SRH to 231. He was as efficient an anchor could be: scoring an unbeaten 94 off 48, including 54 out of the last 86 runs SRH made as he ran out of hitting partners.

Led by Phil Salt,  RCB stayed abreast with the asking rate for 14 overs, but then endured a collapse of 7 for 16 to lose by 42 runs, a net-run-rate blow that could dent their chances of ending in the top two. They have fallen below PBKS’ net run rate, who are level with them on points.

The pitch looked tricky to everyone, but within one over of batting there, Travis Head and Abhishek Sharma decided this was perhaps the best pitch they had batted on all year. They decided they needed 230-240 and went looking accordingly. Abhishek started the charge with 34 off 17, hitting three sixes and perishing trying to hit a fourth. Head was slightly slower in his 17 off ten, and was outdone by a Bhuvneshwar Kumar knuckle ball.

Two wickets down in the powerplay, SRH saw no reason to slow down. Heinrich Klassen got a couple of gifts from Suyash Sharma and smacked 24 off 13 before mis-hitting a third gift. Aniket Verma made all this look pedestrian as he hit sixes off even good balls in his nine-ball 26.

The only problem was, none of them could carry on, leaving SRH at 145 for 4 in the 12th over.

He looked sedentary in comparison but Kishan was 40 off 22 when Aniket got out. Especially with Nitish Kumar Reddy and Abhinav Manohar falling in quick succession to Romario Shepherd, it was on Kishan to make sure SRH had a finishing kick.

Kishan took charge, faced 12 balls out of 18 in his seventh-wicket stand of 43 with Pat Cummins, and ended up one hit short of another century. The hitting was clean but he had to dial down the risk a little. He did play a ramp in between.

Aware of the behaviour of the pitch, SRH looked to go into the pitch and run their fingers on the ball often. RCB, though, showed why they were so close to the top of the table. Each of the first 14 overs featured at least one boundary.  Virat Kohli started the charge with 43 off 25, Salt took over spectacularly with 62 off 32, and SRH were just hanging in.

Reddy hasn’t had the best season with the bat, was untidy in the field, but then started the turnaround with the wicket of Mayank Agarwal in the 11th over. Cummins came back with the wicket of Salt, but RCB stand-in captain Jitesh Sharma hit a six first ball, and Rajat Patidar looked in decent touch. Even with those two wickets falling, RCB kept the asking rate under two runs a ball.

Reddy came back to bowl the first over without a boundary in the 15th, and then Eshan Malinga delivered the big blows. Banging the ball in in the first half had probably aided a bit of reverse. He kept nailing the yorkers, changing up with the odd slower ball. He ran out Patidar, drew a return catch from Shepherd, and handcuffed the injured Tim David, who seemed to have done his hamstring when fielding.

The dramatic slide continued to the end of the innings.

Brief scores:
Sunrisers Hyderabad 231 for 6 in 20 overs (Ishan Kishan 94*, Abhishek Sharma 34, Travis Head 17, Heinrich Klassen 24, Aniket Verma 26, Abhinav Manohar 12, Pat Cummins 13*; Bhuvenshwar Kumar 1-43, Lungi Ngidi 1-51, Suyash Sharma 1-45, Krunal Pandya 1-38, Romairo Shepherd 2-14, Krunal 1-38) beat Royal Challengers Bengaluru 189 in 19.5 overs (Phil Salt 62, Virat Kohli 43, Mayank Agrawal 11, Rajat Patidar 18, Jitesh Sharma 24; Pat  Cummins 3-28, Jaydev Unadkat 1-41, Eshan Malinga 2-37, Harsh Dubev 1-20, Nitish Kumar Reddy 1-13)  by 42 runs

[Cricinfo]

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