Sports
Ratnayake: Sri Lanka’s win against England ‘really huge’ for cricket in the country
Sri Lanka Women’s coach Rumesh Ratnayake has described his team’s T20I series triumph over England as “really huge” for cricket in the country.Sri Lanka blew their hosts away by seven and eight wickets respectively to come back from 1-0 down and hand England their first T20I series defeat by a side other than Australia since 2010.
It followed Sri Lanka’s home 2-1 ODI victory against New Zealand in June and coincided with Pakistan’s 3-0 sweep of South Africa in their T20I series.
Given that Sri Lanka are ranked six places lower than England and Pakistan two spots behind South Africa in the format, the results have fueled hopes that the gap between the top-ranked nations and the rest can be closed. Ratnayake’s prediction that his side’s victory will make people sit up and take notice in Sri Lanka can only help the cause.
“If I say it’s huge, it’s not good enough because it’ll be really huge,” he told ESPNcricinfo after Wednesday night’s victory in the series decider in Derby, led by captain Chamari Athapaththu’s 3 for 21 and 44 off 28.
“It’s really huge because when we left Sri Lankan shores, they didn’t think that we would do so well. Everybody thought maybe you might win one out of six. But I just told the girls that we are here not just to play and participate, we are here to win. I think it is going to be huge there. The awareness of girls playing and wanting to be people like Chamari and the likes would be huge.”
Athapaththu had been instrumental in the win at Chelmsford also, her brutal half-century helping mow down another meagre target after England were bowled out inside 20 overs for the first of two successive games. Her scintillating form this year – she has two unbeaten centuries and four half-centuries across white-ball formats in 2023 – has only emphasised Athapaththu’s position as the lynchpin of her side, but Ratnayake was pleased that others had contributed to their latest victory too.
Kavisha Dilhari, the 22-year-old off-spinner matched Athapaththu’s five wickets for the series and was key to their latest victory with her variations in speed and tight lines, claiming 2 for 16. Seamer Udeshika Prabodhani also bagged 2-16 in Derby and, along with left-arm spinner Inoka Ranaweera and offspinner Inoshi Priyadharshani, rounded out the series’ top-five bowlers.
“It’s huge,” Ratnayake said of Athapaththu’s influence on the team. “But our challenge is to win without her. I saw the others sort of stepping into it as well. We’ve got some good players, but to have another Chamari would be a freakish outcome in the future.
“That’s the way we play back home. Sometimes I keep Chamari with me and we play matches without her, and we see where we stand against good opposition, and that’s a challenge for the future. It’s working out well.
“You’ll be surprised, even the smallest can hit sixes now. So we are there, but it’s a collective thing, it’s a cohesive thing where everybody gets together and works as a team.
“We know where we can be and we can see the picture and that’s how we are here and that’s what we came for. We spoke of playing cricket for moments like this, for tours like this.”
Ratnayake also attributed practice matches against men’s sides to helping his players’ development, but he highlighted a change in mindset as critical.
“I recognised what we need to do and created an environment which was a learning environment where they were free to express themselves in a fearless manner because I saw them playing cricket in a very fearful way,” he said. “When they started to play like that, we saw some good things coming out. It was a challenging environment where they learned a lot of things.”
A fearless approach is precisely what Jon Lewis, England Women’s head coach, asked of his players when he took charge last year. He even applied the philosophy to selection for Sri Lanka’s visit, opting to rest some senior players to test younger, less experienced ones at international level.
Even after the loss to Sri Lanka, Lewis stood by the approach, saying it was about “trying to give people opportunities who’ve been sat on the edge of our squad or just outside our squad, to try and learn about what they’re capable of under pressure”.
While England will welcome back star allrounder Nat Sciver-Brunt and opener Tammy Beaumont for the three-match ODI leg starting in Durham on Saturday, that series could hinge somewhat on whose courage wavers first.
(Cricinfo)
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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