Sports
KJP’s bargaining powers further diminish
by Rex Clementine
As Sri Lanka were crashing to another heavy defeat in Cardiff, former England coach David Lloyd reminded us some harsh truths. He said that Sri Lanka probably needed an Arjuna Ranatunga to get under the skin of England. Arjuna had many ways to skin a cat. He would walk those singles, arrive late for the toss, target opposition’s best bowler 24 hours before the contest by calling him overrated. Then he would purposely forget his opposite number’s name, calling Alec Stewart by the name of Michael Atherton, just to remind the England captain that he was there by default than merit.
Bumble saw it all during his tenure as England’s coach. Sri Lanka recorded their maiden Test win in British soil when he was the coach in 1988.
Sri Lanka under Kusal Janith Perera aren’t showing any such bold tactics. They are playing limited overs cricket like what England used to do in 1990s. On Thursday in Cardiff, Sri Lanka failed to score a boundary during the six overs of Power Play!
Cardiff is a beautify city. It’s a two and half hour train ride from London. There are busses from the station to the ground, but if you are ever going there walk from the station to the Sophia Gardens. It’s a ten minute walk passing the monstrous rugby stadium and the 11th century Cardiff Castle. Along the road you find many pubs and restaurants until you reach River Taff. Partying in Cardiff, the capital of Wales continues well beyond 2 am. Pity the Sri Lankan players, their bio-secure bubble life means that they can have no outside interaction as they are restricted to the hotel, team bus and ground.
There was a famous bread and breakfast place on Cathedral Road, right behind the ground that Sri Lankan reporters frequent. The first time we were there, the waiter asked us what we would like to eat. All of us were unanimous that we wanted ‘English breakfast’ and told the waiter so. His name was Gruffydd, he banged the table and told us that in Wales what you get is the ‘Welsh breakfast and not English breakfast.’ Welsh or English it is the same; bacon egg and sausages. But Welsh think they are being constantly undermined by the English. They are damn good at many things and Welsh – English rivalry in sports, particularly in rugby, is legendary.
Coming back to cricket, if you take the 2015 ICC Cricket World Cup, England was a team that failed to qualify for the quarter-finals. They had no clue how to play limited overs cricket. In that competition, in the clash against Sri Lanka, they set a target of 310, which Sri Lanka reached with nine wickets and several deliveries to spare. Yet, four years on, they are World Champions in the 50 over format and ranked number one in the T-20 segment.
While they have done something right in the shorter formats of the game, we Sri Lankans have gone on the reverse gear. The composition of England side in 2015 and now hasn’t changed much. Morgan was captain and Moeen, Root, Buttler and Woakes were all part of the side. England are at the moment playing an aggressive brand of cricket while Sri Lanka are struggling to hit find the ropes even during Power Play when fielding restrictions are on. That was the biggest insult to our cricket in a long time.
Captain Kusal Janith Perera cracked under pressure. He loves when width is on offer and when England rarely offered a chance for him to free his arms, he ran out of ideas. Had he only shown the aggression that he showed during the contracts negotiations, Sri Lanka could have bowed out with their heads held high. But this was such a one-sided affair in Cardiff and the series was handed to the hosts without a contest.
There’s a dead rubber on Saturday at Rose Bowl followed by three ODIs. Fans are burning the midnight oil with the hope that their team will turn things around but the ‘fearless cricket’ that KJP promised us is nowhere to be seen.
The players have made a hue and cry before going on the tour refusing to sign central contracts. Performances such as these are not giving them a voice to negotiate or bargain against the performance based contracts that have been offered.
KJP has been entrusted with a young team with the hope that he will be able to build up for the future after four years of struggle. He will have lot of backing if he helps the team win again and put them on the right track. His voices will be then heard but not when the team has been ridiculed for not being able to find the boundary during the Power Play.
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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