Sports
At Modi’s hometown
Rex Clementine in Ahmedabad
There are many women leaders who have shaped politics of their countries. We produced the world’s first female Prime Minister in Sirimavo Bandaranayake. Then, Israel had Golda Meir, India had Indira Gandhi, Britain had Margret Thatcher and Australia had Julia Gillard.
There is a famous story regarding Gillard. During the Sri Lankan cricket team’s tour of Australia in 2012, she hosted the team for tea at her residence in Canberra. Team Manager Charith Senanayake was introducing the players to the Prime Minister, and they came up to a certain all-rounder. The Prime Minister shook his hands and asked, ‘how are you keeping.’ Our man apparently told, ‘I am not a wicketkeeper, I am a fast bowler.’
Talking of women leaders, Calcutta’s Chief Minister is a lady – Mamata Banerjee. She is serving her third term and hugely popular here in Bengal and at the age of 68 she is tipped as a national leader.
From Calcutta where Australia and South Africa played a thrilling semi-final, we head to Ahmedabad, the city that will host the final. It’s relatively a long three hour ten minute flight. Strange. From Bombay to Colombo it takes you only two and half hours.
Ahmedabad is the de facto headquarters of Indian cricket at the moment. The IPL final, marquee Test matches and now the World Cup final, all big cricket games are slotted to Ahmedabad.
It has been the case always. Bombay used to be the capital of Indian cricket. Then when Mr. Jagmohan Dalmiya ruled the sport, it shifted to Calcutta with Eden Gardens getting all the important games. Next could be Madras.
Rupa Gurunath calls the shots at Tamil Nadu Cricket Association. She is the daughter of N. Srinivasan, India Cements owner and former ICC boss.
Coming back to Ahmedabad, Sri Lanka played a Test match here in 2009, where Mahela Jayawardene produced a stunning effort. His 275 is still the highest score by an overseas batsman in India, quite remarkable indeed as India have been playing Test cricket for 89 years now.
It was also here in Ahmedabad that Mr. Michael Tissera’s Ceylon team beat the Indian team captained by Tiger Pataudi. It was an unofficial Test match. Since then, Sri Lanka have never overcome India in a Test match.
That was of course before the ground underwent reconstruction. The modern ground is an architecture marvel and it’s the largest stadium in the world able to host 138,000 fans.
The ground is named after the Prime Minister of India – Narendra Modi. He is expected to be present at the finals.
Ahmedabad is the capital city of the state of Gujarat. The other main cities of the state are Rajkot and Baroda. Although most Indian states have just one First Class team, Gujarat has three First Class teams – Saurashtra, Baroda and Gujarat. The reason for that is the state is so vast and there are so many cricketing talents.
The Prime Minister is not the only reason why Ahmedabad gets all the prominent games. Jay Shah, the Secretary of the Indian Board is also from this part of the world.
Jay Shah is the son of India’s interior Minister Amit Shah. At the age of 35, Jay has come a long way in cricket. Although he may not have many fans back in Sri Lanka, he is supposed to be a very efficient person and it is no doubt he is ICC President in waiting.
Under his watch, the Indian board has got a new facelift and a lot of things in Indian cricket are changing. No doubt the likes of Virat Kohli, Rahul Dravid and Rohit Sharma deserve a lot of credit for making Indian cricket so formidable.
So does Jay Shah. His greatest contribution to the sport has been to look after the administration part and not to meddle with the cricket affairs leaving it to the experts. That’s where folks back home have faulted. They have meddled with everything from selection to fitness standards.
The selectors had a very good plan to make any player who failed a fitness test ineligible for selections. Our administrators went and vetoed it and introduced pay cuts for those who failed fitness tests treating them with kids’ gloves. Results have been devastating. Praising Jay Shah maybe not a very popular thing back home, but that’s the reality. Let’s learn from him. Here’s hoping that we have our own Jay Shah.
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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