Sports
When Kumara got the Aussies rattled
Rex Clementine
in Sydney
There are few players who always made runs against Sri Lanka. There was Martin Crowe in 1980s, and then there was Mohammad Azharuddin in 1990s followed by Brian Lara in the next decade. In the last decade it was Virat Kohli and now Glenn Maxwell has taken on that baton. Maxi as the Sri Lankan players call him loves our spin bowlers. Maxwell’s initial movements will get fielders going in one direction and then at the blink of an eye, he would have changed the shot. There’s no time for the fielders to react. He is such a versatile cricketer.
During the Sri Lanka versus Australia game in Perth this week, when Dasun Shanaka brought in Lahiru Kumara, there was an interesting battle going on. Kumara peppered the middle order batsman with short balls and then completely unsettled him with one that smashed his cheek bone. Maxwell was like a cat on a hot tin roof. He was hopping around and not often you see an Asian fast bowler getting the Aussies rattled. Unless of course it’s Wasim Akram. Now that Lahiru too has done it, you’d be hoping that he will do it consistently.
Maxwell didn’t last long. Although Kumara didn’t get him, doubts had been cast in his mind and it was just a matter of time. Sri Lanka failed to stop Marcus Stoinis as their spinners proved to be ineffective for once. That takes you to the question how much the team would have loved having Dushmantha Chameera and Dilshan Madushanka during the World Cup.
Sri Lanka were shaping up nicely after their Asia Cup win. John Pye, the Australian based Sports Editor of Associated Press, had put them to go all the way to win the title. Then their setbacks with injuries. Six injuries in a campaign like the World Cup is too much to handle.
Kumara himself is coming from injury. Since walking off the field having hurt his hamstring in the Mohali Test in March this year, he has played just one domestic game before being picked in the World Cup squad. That shows how much the team management wanted him in the dressing room. There maybe more skilful quicks than Lahiru Kumara, but what makes him special is his speed. You can not teach someone to bowl fast. You either have it or you don’t have it.
It’s true that Kumara was a disappointment in the last World Cup when he ran out of ideas bowling that deciding last over to David ‘Killer’ Miller. The Proteas won that game in Sharjah but that toughened up Kumara.
Kumara is a late developer. He was initially a hockey player at Vidyartha, Kandy. A blow from a hockey stick to his forehead saw him ending up in hospital for a few days. When he returned home, his mother had thrown away the hockey stick. Then he chose cricket. Hockey’s loss is cricket’s gain. While at Vidyartha, reputed school cricket coach Sampath Perera spotted his talent and offered him a scholarship to Trinity. There he made huge strides and made it to the Sri Lanka Under-19 team and toured England under Roy Dias. He was a star performer as Sri Lanka won both the unofficial Test and ODI series.
Kumara made it to the senior side just after turning 18 and debuted at the age of 19. In the New Year Test in Cape Town in 2017, he claimed six wickets in an innings. He was the talk of the town as even the South Africans who are no strangers to pace struggled. Hashim Amla, Quinton de Kock, Temba Bavuma and J.P. Duminy were among his victims. All this mind you while being a teenager.
Although it’s been five years now since Kumara debuted, we have not seen his best as yet. The main reason for this has been injuries. During the last four years, he has broken down middle of a Test match with constant hamstring troubles and the recovery process has been slow. When Kumara is fully fit, he can make life difficult for batters as Maxwell found out the other day. Hopefully, he’ll have a couple of more good performances that will put Sri Lanka in the semis.
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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