Sports
‘We can turn the tables on England. This series is 50-50’ – Mahela Jayawardene
Jayawardene isn’t keen on taking up a permanent role in the Sri Lankan setup despite his status(Getty)
Sri Lanka are raring to go ahead of facing an under-prepared England for a two-Test series, and the hosts see an opportunity for an upset.
England head into the series without Jofra Archer and Ben Stokes and with less than two days of match practice, while Sri Lanka are keen to bounce-back after a series defeat to South Africa.
Sportsmail’s Nasser Hussain caught up with Sri Lanka legend and Mumbai Indians coach Mahela Jayawardene ahead of the series.
NH:
I know Sri Lanka have asked you in the past, and you felt they hadn’t taken on board some of your proposals, but in the long term would you like to coach the national side?
MJ:
For me the biggest hurdle is to be involved full-time, whether it’s franchise cricket or a national team. I don’t see myself being a coach who’s going to be involved with one team for 12 months a year. That’s not enjoyable for me.
It’s got nothing to do with Sri Lanka Cricket as such, and I’ve always said I’m happy to contribute and help the team — as long as what I see is wrong has been corrected. It hasn’t happened over the years.
I don’t want to walk in and be a figure in a process where I know the system hasn’t allowed cricketers or the team to evolve.
NH:
The talent in Sri Lanka has always been remarkable. What is it like at the moment?
MJ:
The raw ingredients are there. It’s just that a lot of the guys struggle with the pathway after school. The domestic structure has so many teams, so the quality gets diluted pretty quickly, and people make wrong decisions.
Not all the coaches are good enough, so we lose a lot of talent in that process. It’s not a professional setup at that level, and a lot of the guys give up and do other things, like league cricket in Australia or England.
NH:
Is Test cricket still financially viable in Sri Lanka?
MJ:
We still have an appetite for Test cricket. Because of the history of Sri Lanka’s Test team, they all want to play cricket at that level. But if you don’t improve and evolve, five or 10 years down the line we will have guys who only want to play white-ball cricket.
The recent T20 Lankan Premier League was good. We’ve needed something like that for the last 10 years, to make the game at that level financially viable.
NH:
The Test team have just come back from South Africa with a lot of injuries. Where are they at the moment?
MJ:
I was pretty pleased with the way they started in South Africa, putting nearly 400 on the board at Centurion. But the bowlers broke down, and that was a real issue. Guys who played at the LPL still had niggles, and they went into the second Test quite depleted.
For the English tour, we’ve got Angelo Mathews coming back after the injury, and Dinesh Chandimal should be fit as well — two experienced guys in the middle order to support Dimuth Karunaratne at the top. It’s about that discipline in the longer format: how do you cope with pressure for four to five days?
NH:
Any promising players England fans might not have heard of?
MJ:
It’s unfortunate that Dhananjaya de Silva has a long-term injury, but Kusal Mendis is a talent, and has scored seven hundreds in his short Test career. He knows how to go big.
And Sri Lankan have found two all-rounders: Wanindu Hasaranga, the leg-spinner, who bats at seven, and seamer Dasun Shanaka, who bowled really well in South Africa.
NH:
Is Mickey Arthur the right man to coach them at the moment?
MJ:
Yeah, he’s one of those guys who’s quite methodical and regimental, but he’s a good coach — a players’ coach. We need to give Mickey some time with the team, because he’s proven himself with a lot of international teams.
NH:
And he tends to speak his mind. He did an interview the other day when he said ‘I don’t think the pitch at Galle will turn: I know it will turn.’ Are you expecting a bunsen burner at Galle?
MJ:
You know Galle: it’s going to slow down, and start turning. So those first two days are crucial, and after that it’s going to be a grind. It will be quite interesting to see how the second Test match is going to pan out, because you’re playing at the same venue.
They’ll definitely make sure Sri Lanka have that advantage of playing at Galle, but the England boys have played there many times.
NH:
Where do you see England at the moment, and in particular their playing of spin. Is that still a nemesis for them?
MJ:
I think it can be. It depends on the tempo they want to play. The modern England team plays at a different tempo, but you still need someone to grind out an innings — Cooky (Alastair Cook) has done that in the past. Someone has to do that now, whether it’s Rooty (Joe Root) or someone else.
The other guys are much more high-tempo players, so how you balance that is crucial. And which way do you go with the bowlers? You don’t have the pace of Jofra (Archer), so who’s going to take up that role on a slow wicket? Sometimes you need extra firepower to get something going.
NH:
As you say, there’s no Jofra, no Ben Stokes, and Moeen Ali is ill. Is this an opportunity for Sri Lanka, on a turner, to get payback for England’s 3-0 win there in 2018?
MJ:
Yeah, it is. Even though Sri Lanka didn’t do well in South Africa, they’ll see this as a very good opportunity.
The first two days will set the tone. But England have two good experienced bowlers in Broady (Stuart Broad) and Jimmy (Anderson), who understand what needs to be done in these conditions. They will fall back on them. It’ll be interesting to se if they pick both in the same Test.
NH:
How much did the 3-0 defeat hurt Sri Lanka, and how much is it feeding into their mindset now?
MJ:
It did hurt Sri Lanka a lot, although it feels like a lifetime ago now. They had opportunities in that series, but never grabbed them, and England had that experience to control sessions. They were dominant.
But these two Test matches are at Galle, whereas last time it was in three different places, and Sri Lanka have a much better record at Galle. It will suit the current group of players. I don’t think Sri Lanka will be thinking too much about last time around.
NH:
Do you worry about the mental and physical wellbeing of players when they’re spending so much time in bubbles?
MJ:
Yeah, that’s something you have to look at. We used to have three weeks’ R&R with our families between tours, but now they’re straight into another bubble.
That’s when player management is important. When you see guys who aren’t mentally fresh, you might have to let them go home for two or three weeks. Going bubble to bubble is always going to have an impact. If this runs through 2021, that’s going to be a long stretch for a lot of cricketers.
NH:
When I went to Sri Lanka, England were never favourites. Do you see this England as favourites?
MJ:
With Stokes missing, England don’t have that same experience in the top order, so I make it 50-50. I don’t think they’re going as favourites. I think Sri Lanka have something in them. (Daily Mail)
North Korea has held the Pyongyang International Marathon for the first time in six years, welcoming some 200 foreign runners to the streets of the reclusive country’s capital.
The marathon, which was launched in 1981, took place annually in April to celebrate the birth of its founding leader Kim Il Sung.
Before Sunday’s marathon, the race was last held in 2019, wherein 950 foreigners participated. North Korea sealed itself off the following year, when the Covid-19 pandemic hit.
North Korea has been slow to reopen since, allowing only Russian tourists into its capital since last year.
Runners have had to enter the country as part of an organised tour group, as was the case before the pandemic.
Koryo Tours, a Beijing-based travel agency listed as an “exclusive partner” on the event website, offers six-day marathon tours at 2,195 euros ($2,406) including flights to and from Beijing.
“The Pyongyang Marathon is an extremely unique experience as it provides an opportunity to interact with locals,” the agency wrote on its website.
Sunday’s marathon route took participants past landmarks across the city, including the Kim Il Sung stadium, the Arch of Triumph built to commemorate Kim Il Sung’s role in resisting Japanese rule, and the Mirae Future Scientists’ Street said to be a residential district for scientists and engineers.
Pictures online show the stadium – where runners start and finish their race – filled with spectators, many of them cheering and waving gold-coloured paper flags.
Pak Kum Dong, a North Korean runner, told Reuters news agency: “The eyes of our people on me helped me to bear the difficulties whenever I feel tired.”
There is no publicly available information on race results.
North Korea had only statred to scale back Covid-19 restrictions in the middle of 2023.
In Feburary, it allowed some Western tourists into the remote, eastern city Rason, but suspended those tours just weeks after.
[BBC]
Noor Ahmad, the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) left-arm wristspinner, continues to head the Purple Cap table with ten wickets from four games. His spell of 4 for 18 in CSK’s first game against MI, remains his best so far.
DC’s Mitchell Starc who picked up his maiden five-for in T20s, against SRH remains second on the list with nine wickets in three games.
GT’s Mohammed Siraj equalled Starc’s tally on Sunday night with his own IPL best, albeit he has played four games to Starc’s three. Siraj picked up 4 for 17 against SRH to hand them their four successive loss, and was named the Player of the Match.
Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) suffered another batting malfunction, this time on a slow, black-soil surface at home, crashing to their fourth successive defeat in IPL 2025. Having lost Travishek in the powerplay, SRH waited until the 13th over to see the first six of the innings, and managed only one more after that Mohammad Siraj caused irreparable damage right from the start, ending with his career-best IPL figures of 4 for 17.
Pat Cummins’ cameo (22* off nine balls) and then his dismissal of Jos Buttler for a duck in Gujarat Titans’ (GT) chase of 153 gave SRH some hope, but that faded away once Washington Sundar clattered 23 off nine balls in the powerplay. Earlier in the day, GT didn’t need Washington with the ball, but his attacking enterprise at No. 4 settled their chase on a slow pitch. Washington fell agonisingly short of a maiden IPL half-century, but his captain Shubman Gill ushered GT home, with an unbeaten 61 off 43 balls, along with Sherfane Rutherford.
Siraj had sparked the Border-Gavaskar Trophy to life when he gave Travis Head a send-off in Adelaide last December. Four months on, Siraj was bowling to Head for the first time in T20s, and the battle lasted just five balls. After Head scored two fours off Siraj, the fast bowler struck with his trademark wobble-seam delivery, having him chip a catch to midwicket for 8.
Abhishek Sharma hit four fours before Siraj had him miscuing a catch to mid-on in his third over of the powerplay. It was Siraj’s 100th wicket in the IPL and sixth in the powerplay, the most by a bowler in that phase so far this season, with an economy rate of 6.27.
Siraj then returned in the death to york both Aniket Verma, the last recognised batter for SRH, and Simarjeet Singh, their Impact Player.
With both Head and Abhishek gone early,Rashid Khan, who was coming into this game on the back of figures of 4-0-54-0, could afford to ease himself in. He started fairly well by giving away just 10 runs in his first two overs, but when he erred in length, Nitish Kumar Reddy and Heinrich Klassen dispatched him to the fence. Rashid finished with 4-0-31-0, going wicketless for a third successive game, and with tournament figures of 1 for 143 in 14 overs at an economy rate of 10.21
Left-arm fingerspinner Ravisrinivasan Sai Kishore, on the other hand, showed remarkable control over his length and variations. He claimed the big wicket of Klaasen by knocking him over with a quick dart, which skidded off the pitch, for 27 off 19 balls. Sai Kishore also had Reddy holing out for 31 off 34 balls and finished with 4-0-24-2.
That SRH passed 150 was down to Cummins’ late blows. He was the only SRH batter in the top eight to have a strike rate of over 160.
It appeared like GT had handed a franchise debut to Washington to primarily match his offspin up with SRH’s left-hander heavy top order. But with Siraj dominating the powerplay and Sai Kishore taking care of the middle overs, GT ended up not using his offspin.
Washington then walked out to bat at No. 4 after his childhood friend B Sai Sudarshan and Buttler fell cheaply in successive overs. Washington took advantage of the last over of the powerplay, smoking Simarjeet for two sixes and two fours. It provided a throwback to Washington of 2016, when he opened the batting, alongside Abhinav Mukund, in the TNPL and showed the intent to hit over the top. Just like that, Washington dumped SRH’s Impact Player out of the attack.
Washington continued to attack even after that. When the ambidextrous Kamindu Mendis darted one on the stumps with his right hand, Washington manufactured swinging room and laced him over extra-cover for four. Washington seemed set for a fifty until he holed out one shy of the landmark in the 14th over.
Gill, who had already crossed 50 by that point, finished the job along with Rutherford, who hit an unbeaten 35 off 16 balls.
Brief scores:
Gujarat Titans 153 for 3 in 16.4 overs (Shubman Gill 61*, Washington Sundar 49, Sherfaine Rutherford 35*; Mohammed Shami 2-28, Pat Cumminss 1-26) beat Sunrisers Hyderabad 152 for 8 in 20 overs (Abhishek Sharma 18, Ishan Krishan 17, Nitish Kumar Reddy 31, Heinrich Klassen 27, Aniket Verma 18,Pat Cummins 22*; Mohammed Siraj 4-17, Ravisrinivasan Sai Kishore 2-24, Prasidh Krishna 2-25)by seven wickets
[Cricinfo]
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