Sports
Boxing Day Test memories
by Rex Clementine
The Boxing Day Test match has become an integral part of the game of cricket as during the festive season people are hooked onto their televisions from morning to evening watching the proceedings at MCG before switching their channel to find out what’s happening at Centurion.
The Boxing Day Tests are well attended too. Most people are on leave in the week between Christmas and New Year and they make it a point to attend the Test match with families. Both MCG in Australia and Centurion in South Africa put on a grand show.
Although the term ‘Boxing Day’ is associated with sports events on the day after Christmas, it originated in Britian during the Victorian era. Servants used to work for their masters on Christmas Day and they were given a day off the following day and when they went home, the servants were given gifts put in a box to be shared with the family. Hence the term Boxing Day.
Although Sri Lanka has got no such traditions, cricket fans of the country know what it means in cricket and remember quite well some of the biggest Boxing Day events their team has been part of.
The no balling of Muttiah Muralitharan by Darrel Hair happened on Boxing Day in front of 55,000 people at MCG in 1995.
Nine years later, Sri Lanka were playing a game in Auckland when news reached of deadly flooding in the country despite there being no rain and it took hours for the players to figure out that what had struck the nation was tsunami and not floods. That tour was aborted, and Sri Lanka returned home as the fate of several players’ parents and loved ones, especially those who were in the south coast, were unknown.
The Boxing Day Test in 2011 in Durban is etched in all Sri Lankan fans’ memories as for the first time the team won a Test match in South Africa.
The first Test was played at Centurion and Sri Lanka had been blown away inside three days to lose by an innings. There was little hope for the team and a 3-0 series whitewash was looming large. Former South African captain Keppler Wessels had suggested in commentaries that South Africa were too strong for the islanders and maybe the selectors should think of playing the ‘A’ team. That made a few seniors angry.
Head Coach Geoff Marsh re-esembled the team back to the Centurion on day four and five and replicated a Test match atmosphere in which training was conducted. There was a nine day gap between the first and second Tests and in a team bonding exercise the coach paired a senior player with a junior.
Dinesh Chandimal was paired with Kumar Sangakkara, Lahiru Thirimanne was under the watch of T.M. Dilshan and Dimuth Karunaratne was put along with Mahela Jayawardene. The seniors were supposed to take juniors out for meals and coffee and the day before the second Test; on Christmas Day, the players were supposed to present gifts to each other. While this was an excellent team bonding exercise, for the younger players this was a great learning experience too.
By the time the second Test came, the players were raring to go. The team had gelled well.
Thilan Samaraweera was making a comeback to the side. He had been controversially axed from the side earlier and went onto showcase what the team had been missing with a back to the wall hundred. He celebrated his century folding his bat to the armpit making the bat look like a gun and shooting towards the dressing room. Shaun Pollock in commentaries said that he may well have been shooting at the selectors.
Chandimal was on debut and made twin half-centuries stitching some valuable partnerships with the tail.
Left-arm seamer Chanaka Welegedara is the sort of bowler who can make life difficult for batters with angles he creates. South Africa found themselves at 119 for eight with Welegedara accounting for the big four – Jacques Kallis, Graeme Smith, Hashim Amla and A.B. de Villiers. He finished with a five wicket haul.
Sri Lanka couldn’t believe themselves that they had a first innings lead of 170. Kumar Sangakkara had been dismissed for a duck in the first innings but he wasn’t going to miss out on a golden opportunity to beat South Africa and cashed in with a second innings hundred.
A target of 450 proved to be beyond South Africa’s reach as Sri Lanka created history with a 208 run win with Rangana Herath claiming a five wicket haul. Among his victims were Jacques Kallis, dismissed for a duck, the only time the great man had collected a pair in Tests. Mind you he featured in 166 Test matches in a career that spanned across 18 years.
The nation was celebrating. T.M. Dilshan had a tough initiation as captain but he was beginning to turn things around for the team. But little did he know that less than a month later he will be sacked as captain. There had been a coup. A bloodless coup!
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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