Sports
Cricket in shambles
by Rex Clementine
The national selection panel may have not addressed a single media briefing during their two-year stint so far but through handpicked social media platforms like YouTube channels they are quick to boast of their achievements. But their blunders are rarely discussed.
Pramodya Wickramasinghe’s cockeyed policies have taken Sri Lankan cricket from pillar to post. Under his watch, Sri Lanka have played three World Cup Qualifying rounds, the first time ever since 1979. During his tenure as Chief Selector, Sri Lanka also have suffered the heaviest defeat ever in ODIs early this year in Trivandrum. In fact, it is the worst defeat by any team in the history of ODI cricket that has been played for over half a century now. If you are still not convinced that he’s got to go, there was further proof as Sri Lanka crashed to their worst defeat ever in Test match cricket at home – by an innings and 222 runs at the SSC on Thursday. Do we need to say more? What a shame. Cricket is in total shambles.
Test wins over teams like Ireland in April made some believe that everything is tickety-boo with our cricket. But Pakistan badly exposed where exactly our cricket is. There have been far better Pakistani sides that have come to our shores and hadn’t achieved what the current team accomplished.
Saud Shakeel and Abdullah Shafique are not household names in cricket. One has played just seven Tests while the other has featured in 14 games. Yet both of them scored double hundreds, a feat that far more accomplished Pakistani batters like Javed Miandad, Inzamam-ul-Haq, Mohammad Yousuf, Younis Khan and Azhar Ali failed to achieve in Sri Lanka. That basically sums up our bowling; toothless, ineffective, and lacks penetration.
A bull in a China shop is less troublesome than Pramodya. He’s got to go, no doubt. But let’s not make him the scapegoat by placing all the blame on the Chairman of Selector’s doorstep. Sri Lanka’s senior cricketers have forgotten the art of playing Test match cricket. They were horrible throughout the series and need a wake-up call.
To win the toss at SSC is a bonus. There’s no better batting wicket in the country than the Maitland Place ground. A first innings total of 400 plus is guaranteed when you win the toss at SSC. But you have got to give the first hour to the bowlers. Sri Lanka’s batters were like amateurs at SSC this week forgetting this cardinal rule.
They slumped to 36 for four in the first hour and with that went the chances of the team winning the Test match.
Sri Lanka’s batting in the first innings was like watching a horror movie. Dimuth Karunaratne pushing one to covers taking on Pakistan’s best fielder – Shan Masood – was a no-brainer. He had sold his partner Nishan Madushka down the river. It was a brain fade moment for the captain. More than anybody Dimuth should know the blueprint to succeed as a batsman at his home ground. But he looked not all there and conceded that he wanted to give up captaincy. The selectors and the captain, did they have an axe to grind? Did they have an argument before the Galle Test over the captain’s fitness? Mind you Dimuth had missed the World Cup Qualifiers final with injury.
Unlike the selectors, who shamelessly hang in there, disaster after disaster, Dimuth has some self-respect and wants to go when everyone seems to wonder why rather than when.
Dhananjaya de Silva is thought to be the captain in waiting but the manner in which he was dismissed in both innings at SSC was shocking. Pakistan on both occasions tempted him to take on the fielder and he fell into the trap throwing away his wicket.
The time has come for us to move on from the Kusal Mendis fantasy. Players when they are dropped bounce back with a vengeance. It has happened with so many of them. Why does that not happen with Mendis is a question? At times, in order to become a better player, you need to go through the mill. Remaining the blue-eyed boy and becoming undroppable is not going to do any good for you.
Immensely talented no doubt but the manner in which Mendis throws away his wicket is excruciatingly painful to watch. Throughout history, we have picked someone who placed a high premium on his wicket as our number three. In other words, the team’s most reliable guy. There was Roy Dias in the early days and he was succeeded by the ever-dependable Asanka Gurusinghe and then came Kumar Sangakkara. Replacing Sanga with Mendis is like making Rohita Bogollagama the successor to Saroja Sirisena as Sri Lanka’s High Commissioner to the UK.
If it’s not funny, what’s funny is when Mendis is burning reviews when the ball is hitting the middle of the middle stump. His cricketing skills are outstanding, but his intelligence is below average. As Sanath Jayasuriya once said in his own inimitable style, ‘God doesn’t give everything to everyone. For Kusal, he has given plenty of talent but upstairs, he has left empty. You can give it for rent.’
Kudos to Pakistan. They had come here having drawn up some plans and they pulled them off in style. Barring some terrific bowling by Naseem Shah and Shaheen Afridi, there was nothing extraordinary about Pakistan’s spinners. To give away seven wickets in an innings to Noman Ali was a crime.
In Test cricket, you play the waiting game and cash in when the loose balls are on offer or when the bowlers are beyond their second spell. Sri Lankan batters’ patience ran thin. They have been an embarrassment in this series. The LPL had come early for them.
The second Test ended inside four days. But literally, it was a three-day game as only ten overs were possible on day two and one hour’s play was lost on day one. Test cricket is one format that Sri Lanka hadn’t done too badly. To lose a home series 2-0 was unimaginable. It’s time for fresh thinking.
The first truly heavyweight clash of this expanded T20 World Cup format comes freighted with both history and subplots. A rematch of the 2010 World T20 final at Kensington Oval, the match pits Jos Buttler’s defending champions – who are aiming to become the first team to retain the trophy – against the Australian winning machine, victors at the 2021 edition and current world title-holders in Test and ODI cricket. And that’s before you throw in the Ashes for afters.
Already there is added pressure on England, after the rain in Bridgetown led to a share of the points in their opener against Scotland (and that having conceded 90 runs from 10 overs without taking a wicket in a tepid bowling display). Lose to their oldest rivals and it will leave their Super 8 prospects open to being waylaid by the perils of net run-rate calculations, or worse.
The Scotland match was the third abandonment in five suffered by England, after a rain-affected home series against Pakistan, which has clearly hampered their readiness for this campaign after almost six months without playing T20 together. It does not take much for a side to click in this format – and England looked in decent shape when they did get on the field against Pakistan – but Buttler will be anxious for things to go their way on Saturday, if only to avoid further questions referencing the team’s disastrous ODI World Cup defence last year.
Australia, under the laidback leadership of Mitchell Marsh would love nothing more than to add to the English sense of jeopardy – having helped bundle them out of the tournament in India on the way to taking the crown. Their head to head record is less impressive in T20 however, with England having won six of the last seven completed encounters, as well as that 2010 final.
Despite a wobble with the bat, Australia avoided mishap against Oman earlier in the week, the experience of David Warner and Marcus Stoinis shining through in difficult batting conditions. Surfaces in the Caribbean – not to mention those games staged in the USA – have already had teams scratching their heads; rather than the “slug-fest” England had prepared for, following a high-scoring tour of the Caribbean in December, it looks as if boxing smart may be the way to go.
Speaking of Warner, this could be the last time he faces up against England in national colours – and another match-winning contribution would likely reduce the chances of them meeting again in the knockouts. On the other side of the card is Jofra Archer, fresh from an emotional maiden outing at Kensington Oval and ready to take on Australia for the first time in any format since 2020. Can Mark Wood fire up England’s campaign, as he did during last summer’s Ashes? Will Pat Cummins be back to harass the old enemy once again? Seconds out, it’s almost time to rumble.
Cummins is set to return after being rested for the Oman game, which saw Mitchell Starc leave the field with cramp. Starc is understood to be fine and could keep his place – which would likely see Nathan Ellis miss out. Marsh is still not fit to bowl, with Australia likely to continue with the allrounder combination of Stoinis and Maxwell to give them cover.
Australia (probable XI): David Warner, Travis Head, Mitchell Marsh (capt), Glenn Maxwell, Marcus Stoinis, Josh Inglis (wk), Tim David, Pat Cummins, Nathan Ellis/Mitchell Starc, Adam Zampa, Josh Hazlewood
The one change England may consider is Reece Topley coming in for Wood, with the expectation that there will be some rotation among the seamers through the course of the tournament.
England (probable XI): Phil Salt, Jos Buttler (capt & wk), Will Jacks, Jonny Bairstow, Harry Brook, Liam Livingstone, Moeen Ali, Chris Jordan, Jofra Archer, Adil Rashid, Reece Topley/Mark Wood
[Cricinfo]
Once is coincidence, twice is a clue, and three times is proof.
To paraphrase Agatha Christie, that is the narrative around South Africa’s meeting with Netherlands at this T20 World Cup.
The Dutch beat South Africa at the 2022 tournament and ended their semi-final hopes in a match where South Africa appeared to be sleep walking, and then beat them again at the 2023 ODI World Cup, where they exposed South Africa’s vulnerability in the chase. If they to do the treble, not only will Netherlands take the lead in Group D, but they will offer conclusive evidence of the threat they pose to Full Members, especially South Africa.
Of course, it will take some doing after South Africa’s opening performance against Sri Lanka, where they reduced their opposition to their lowest T20I total and chased it down in fairly straightforward fashion thanks to the most stable middle-order of their white-ball era. In Aiden Markram, Tristan Stubbs, Heinrich Klaasen and David Miller, South Africa have bankers and big-hitters and, for this match, they also have the advantage of experience. They’ve already played at Eisenhower Park, and have first-hand knowledge that run-scoring doesn’t come easily;Klassen said they are prepared to use their “cricket brains” and play “smarter cricket”.
But the conditions could be good news for Netherlands, who are not naturally a line-up of big hitters and build their innings on a foundation of turning ones into twos. In other words, they tend to take a slightly more conservative approach to batting, which may work well here, but they’ll be wary of the uneven bounce of the surface and will have to come up with plans to counterattack especially against South Africa’s seamers. Their own bowlers were exemplary in Dallas and will look to build on that performance against a line-up that will likely be more proactive than Nepal’s, but who they have managed to keep quiet not once, but twice in the past. Third time’s the charm, they say.
Anrich Nortje’s stunning return to form against Sri Lanka means South Africa may not have to tinker with the bowling combination, and Gerald Coetzee and Tabraiz Shamsi may have to wait their turns to get a game. The batting line-up should be unchanged, with no space for Ryan Rickelton yet.
South Africa: Quinton de Kock (wk), Reeza Hendricks, Aiden Markam, Tristan Stubbs, Heinrich Klaasen (wk), David Miller, Marco Jansen, Keshav Maharaj, Kagiso Rabada, Ottneil Baartman, Anrich Nortje
Conditions in New York may tempt Netherlands to include an extra seamer and they have Kyle Klein in their squad. But it could come at the expense of a shortened batting line-up and they may not want to risk that.
Netherlands: Michael Levitt, Max O’Dowd, Vikramjit Singh, Sybrand Engelbrecht, Scott Edwards (capt, wk), Bas de Leede, Teja Nidamanuru, Logan van Beek, Tim Pringle, Paul van Meekeren, Vivian Kingma
[Cricinfo]
Nuwan Thushara’s last over brought Sri Lanka screaming back into the match,as he first bowled Rishad Hossain, and then nailed Taskin Ahmed in front of the stumps with a pinpoint swinging yorker. This left Bangladesh eight wickets down, with 12 runs still to get.
However, the experienced Mahmudullah was at the crease for Bangladesh, and despite some further nervy moments, pushed Bangladesh across the line off the last ball of the 19th over.
But this was a match chiefly decided by Bangladesh’s own outstanding bowling. Mustafizur Rahman was the best among them, using shorter lengths and his cutters efficiently, to claim figures of 3 for 17. Rishad Hossain’s three-for through the middle overs also kept Sri Lanka quiet.
Mustafizur was instrumental in Sri Lanka’s downward spiral through the middle overs, which culminated in a crash-and-burn end. Ultimately, their inability to find boundaries, or even rotate strike against good Bangladesh bowling resulted in their downfall. A score of 125 for 9 always seemed poor on a decent pitch, even if their bowlers made a match of it in the end.
Brief scores:
Bangladesh 125 for 8 in 19 overs (Towhid Hridoy 40, Litton Das 36; Dhanajaya de Silva 1-11, Nuwan Thushara 4-18, Wanidu Hasaranga 2-32, Matheesha Pathirana 1-27) beat Sri Lanka124 for 9 in 20 overs (Pathum Nissanka 47, Dhananjaya de Silva 21; Tanzim Hasan Sakib 1-24, Taskin Ahmed 2-25, Mustafizur Rahman 3-17, Rishad Hossain 3-22) by two wickets
[Cricinfo]
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