Sri Lanka bowl England out in 34 overs to leave attacking abandon in spotlight

Vithushan Ehantharajah08-Sep-2024On a 16-wicket third day, it was the 10 that fell in England’s second innings which put Sri Lanka on track for victory in this third Test.A target of 219 has already had 94 lopped off the top, primarily thanks to Pathum Nissanka’s second breezy half-century of the match, with nine wickets still intact. He, along with Kusal Mendis, did to England what they tried – and failed – to do earlier in the day. While England were skittled for 34 overs, Sri Lanka seized the initiative outright in the first 15 overs of their chase, maximising what looseness there was on offer with the ball, and the lush green of The Kia Oval.”This is how you put England under pressure,” Aaqib Javed, Sri Lanka bowling coach, beamed of the late flurry of runs, before lauding the performance of his attack in snuffing an overly aggressive batting line-up out for 156. It was a valiant effort by all four seamers, but especially from Lahiru Kumara and Vishwa Fernando as they bagged six of England’s top seven between them.It was Vishwa’s six-over spell of incisive swing bowling that shoved England in the mire, even if they were already teetering with Ben Duckett and Dan Lawrence falling in cavalier fashion. Having left the field to tend to hamstring stiffness, Vishwa, the 32-year-old left-arm seamer, let loose and trapped both Joe Root and Harry Brook in front across seven deliveries.”He came to the dressing room and went back and gave everything,” Javed said. “He bowled some superb inswingers like Chaminda Vaas. Sometimes people go for safer options. But he went flat out. He gave everything.”Ollie Pope chopped on in Lahiru Kumara’s first over•Glyn Kirk/AFP/Getty ImagesThe same could not be said for England’s batters. Their approach to the second innings was odd, as if their lead was a healthy triple figures rather than the 62 that their bowlers managed to salvage early on day three.The last five of Sri Lanka’s first-innings wickets were taken for just 52 – an impressive feat, given that half-centurions Dhananjaya de Silva and Kamindu Mendis started out in the middle. They added only five and 10 to their respective scores.But England’s bowlers had just 34 overs off their feet for the third innings before they were back out there again. It meant Gus Atkinson, who missed the morning session because of a tight quad that required assessment from the medical team, had to re-emerge earlier than expected, sending down four overs lacking his usual bite.”We’re not always going to get it right, and today was one of those days we didn’t get it right,” Paul Collingwood, England’s assistant coach, said. “The guys in the dressing room will hold their hands up and sometimes the opposition find ways of putting us under pressure like we’re trying to do to them. And give them [Sri Lanka] full credit: I thought that they had a fantastic day today.”Related

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There were features of this day – comfortably the worst for profligacy since Brendon McCullum took over as coach – that resembled passages contained within defeats to Australia at Lord’s, and against New Zealand in Wellington in 2023. Both times, England were guilty of over-ambition and lacked nous when the game was theirs to manage.With the series won, and Sri Lanka only showing glimpses of their best throughout the first two Tests, this had a whiff of complacency. England have steamrolled their way to victory five times already this summer. And Sunday’s malaise, coupled with fumbling a first-innings position of 261 for 3, does hint that this group are coasting, albeit with little on the line – something Collingwood strongly denied.”It’s pretty easy to make that excuse and say ‘complacency’ and all that,” he said. “But there’s plenty of fun and desire and we want to make sure that we could have a clean sweep, and the lads are very proud about paying for England. So there’s certainly not felt like there’s been any complacency coming into this match.”As has been the way over the last three days, bad light brought a premature end to proceedings. But it was very much England who were the beneficiaries this time.Bad light brought another early close in south London•Glyn Kirk/AFP/Getty ImagesThe last over was bowled by Shoaib Bashir after the umpires informed Ollie Pope that the quicks could no longer operate. After one over from the Vauxhall End – of which the first ball was swept powerfully by Kusal Mendis for four – Pope wisely decided against a part-time spinner at the other end. Off the players went, with England glad for the chance to take the sting out of the game and regroup with the hope the early morning movement which assisted them on Sunday returns on Monday.”We’re going to need a special day tomorrow,” Collingwood said. “There’s enough movement to be able to do it and there’ll be one hell of a Test match to win from this position with the players that we have on the side. It’s an exciting opportunity for them to turn it around this Test match around and go out there and win.”It is not the first time someone from this England camp has greeted a seemingly unsalvageable situation with a smile. But with Atkinson not at 100 per cent, a raw debutant in Josh Hull, not many runs left for Bashir to play with and a captain in Pope who has perhaps been too aggressive with his fields in this match, the usual serving of optimism tastes overcooked.Sri Lanka, meanwhile, managed to stitch together their best day of the tour. And though it has come too late to affect the series result, victory will not be any less sweet for it. For England, defeat would give them cause for reflection at the end of a summer where they have rarely been tested.

While context might be missing in this T20I series – especially for Pakistan, who have a Champions Trophy to worry about – we could be in for some intrigue

Danyal Rasool30-Nov-2024The T20 World Cup is about as far away as it can get. Zimbabwe still have to qualify for it, while ODIs remain Pakistan’s main focus ahead of the Champions Trophy next year, for which they are the official hosts. As such, the ODI series, which they wrapped up 2-1, will carry far greater significance for Pakistan than anything that happens in this T20I series in Bulawayo.Zimbabwe are looking to follow up their T20I dominance in the subregional qualifier with a higher-profile result this time, buoyed by their upset of Pakistan in the first ODI. They did start their five-match T20I series against India with a win earlier this year, and against a similarly experimental Pakistan side, they will fancy their chances of a win or two.Sikandar Raza leads the side in the absence of the experience of Sean Williams and Craig Ervine, while Wessly Madhevere, Wellington Masakadza and Ryan Burl return to the squad after their absence from the 50-over format. While the men’s side took on Pakistan in the ODI series, Madhevere scored a third-innings hundred for Eagles against Rhinos in the Logan Cup. None of the squad has had any T20 exposure since that subregional qualifier, but few will forget what happened in the sides’ most recent – and perhaps most famous – T20I encounter.Pakistan are unsure about their T20I side at present, as indicated by a late announcement on Friday that they were adding three players – Saim Ayub, Aamer Jamal and Abrar Ahmed – from the ODI squad into the T20I series following impressive showings over the past week.Zimbabwe’s batters have had a tough time in T20Is of late•Associated PressAfter Pakistan rested Babar Azam, Naseem Shah and Shaheen Afridi from the tour, white-ball captain Mohammad Rizwan is also out for the T20Is, with Salman Agha taking his place as captain. Ayub, who Pakistan initially called into the international set-up owing to his T20 prowess, has gradually become more useful to Pakistan in the longer formats, though his recall – he will start the first game – potentially puts him on the pathway to being Pakistan’s all-format opener.Balance, though, remains an intractable problem for Pakistan. The three-match T20I series against Australia saw them swept aside 3-0, being bowled out in both of the last two matches, after losing nine wickets in a seven-over contest in Brisbane. With Pakistan opting against playing an allrounder in the first game, that issue does persist, with a long tail in a side that features Irfan Khan at No. 7. He has managed just 79 runs across six innings on Pakistan’s tours of Australia and Zimbabwe so far, and Zimbabwe may sense Pakistan’s lower-middle order can be ran through.For Zimbabwe to give themselves the best chance, though, they have significant improvements to make with the bat. They finished with below-par totals in all three ODIs, and the bowlers had to bail them out in the first. No batter has looked in the kind of touch that threatened to control an innings, and wickets in clumps was a regular feature of the ODI series. The bowling they face will be a step-up from anything they have dealt with in the Logan Cup or the regional qualifier last month, and by now, Pakistan understand this is the most obvious vulnerability to exploit.Like the ODI series, though, both sides will ultimately move on from these three games fairly quickly once they are over. But as the Bulawayo crowd demonstrated over the previous three games, Queens Sports Club could be a very enjoyable place to be over the next week or so.

The Sri Lanka opener looks back on some of the most memorable moments in his career and ahead to his team’s future in Test cricket

Andrew Fidel Fernando04-Feb-2025Dimuth Karunaratne looks back on his career as he prepares to play his 100th and final Test.You made your debut in Galle as well. What are your memories of that match?
I was shocked when I heard I was coming into the national squad. But what everyone said was that staying in the team is much harder than getting into the team. I went to the middle with so many expectations, and I got out for a duck first innings. I thought I’d lost all the hard work I ever did in just a moment. I was only there as an injury replacement, so I thought I’d never play for Sri Lanka again.I was moping around the dressing room, when Angelo Mathews came and spoke to me, and told me he’d got a duck in his first innings as well. Other seniors – Mahela Jayawardena, Marvan Atapattu and others – came and encouraged me. So, I played with a lot of determination in the second innings and managed to get 60 not out. But more than the actual cricket in that match, what I actually remember so clearly is all the advice I got in that dressing room. I was really broken after that innings. I wouldn’t have come this far without those players helping me pick myself up.Related

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There were some seriously great batters in the Sri Lanka team in your first few years. What was that like?
The club I played for was what was really important. When I started, SSC had Thilan Samaraweera, Mahela, Thilina Kandamby, Tharanga Paranavitana, Kaushal Silva, Jeevan Mendis – a lot of the Sri Lanka team was playing at that club. So, because I’d been around them and developed with them, there wasn’t a huge change for me when I got into the Test squad. They were also around to help me with raising my standards.I think the best thing about that time was the environment. There were some great cricketers I hadn’t shared a dressing room as well – Kumar Sangakkara, Rangana Herath, Prasanna Jayawardene. What I learned from being in that environment – about how to prepare mentally, especially – has been more valuable to me than skills. I think that positive dressing room environments are vital, which is why I focused on that when I was captain. For a player like me to get to 100 Tests, I needed to share a dressing room with those players.ESPNcricinfo LtdWhat were the biggest mistakes you made early on?
Probably the biggest one was I would get quick starts and throw it away. I was really attacking back then and would get to 20 or 30 pretty quickly, in just a few overs. But I didn’t convert a lot of those. I hadn’t hit a hundred in my first 15 Tests, I think. I was making 30s, 40s, and 60s kinds of scores.Sanath Jayasuriya was the selector at the time, and he pulled me up. I played a series in England where I was giving decent starts but not converting it, and he dropped me. He said as long as I’m not converting my starts to hundreds, he wouldn’t consider me for selection. I thought at the time that when Sanga, Mahela, and others were around, my 30s or 40s are good enough. I didn’t realise how much I needed to convert those scores until I got dropped. I think my average also sits where it does because I didn’t make those good scores in my first 15 Tests.When did you start feeling like you belonged at this level?
Probably around 2017. While Sanga and Mahela were around, they didn’t let us feel a lot of pressure and responsibility. I changed my game a lot after they retired, and I started to score some consistent runs. That’s when I sort of realised how much more the team could be getting from me. I learned how to handle pressure better at the top level, and think I had a consistent run until 2023. I think right through those years I played with a lot of confidence.You’ve played in an era that’s especially tough on openers. What are your reflections on that?
Yeah, I do think I’ve played in a difficult era. The number of flat pitches I’ve batted on are very few – maybe five or six surfaces in the hundred? A lot of the conditions I’ve played on are bowling friendly, and on top of that you have to face the toughest bowling with the new ball when you open. But I think I eventually learned to adapt to that challenge – a lot of that was knowing which were the tough periods that you needed to see out, which changes from place to place. You learn a lot playing Test cricket.Dimuth Karunaratne continued to be a solid presence at the top for Sri Lanka•SLCHow hard is it for an opener to get to 100 Tests?
Openers do the dirtiest job in cricket. You’re facing fresh bowlers, on fresh pitches, and are playing the new ball sometimes after you’ve been fielding for a day or two. It’s a huge challenge. One thing I learned later was how to go on to bigger scores after you’ve survived the toughest part. Scoring that first 50 as an opener is hugely difficult compared to scoring 50 at No. 4 or 5. So it’s a huge miss if you fail to convert those tough starts – why let other batters score those runs, when you could be scoring them yourself?You’ve scored a lot of runs against spin, including against top attacks. But you barely play the sweep. How did that come about?
I learned that in 2017 in a series against India. R Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja were bowling, and it was incredibly difficult to face them. Once they start bowling together there’s not a loose ball to be found anywhere. They tend to start bowling very early in the innings as well, so there’s just no chance to score. I learned a lot of patience in that series. I’d bat out their first spells, second spells, third spells, and eventually the loose balls started to come. In that series, I had a small, simple gameplan – I’m only playing these three shots, nothing else. It worked nicely. Ashwin couldn’t get me out lbw, or caught behind. And eventually, I could go into my scoring shots. I scored a lot of runs that series (285 in six innings).I kept applying that method to other bowlers, and it just kept working. I’d be patient early in their spells, and later find them much easier to negotiate. I didn’t ever really need to play a sweep shot and take a calculated risk when I batted like that. But I did play the reverse – which I could play much better than the sweep. That helped build run-scoring options on the off side because a lot of teams would have a packed leg side for me.

“I do think I’ve played in a difficult era. The number of flat pitches I’ve batted on are very few.”Dimuth Karunaratne on the challenges of being a Test opener

You once told me you had Dean Elgar’s ESPNcricinfo profile bookmarked, because he was a more established player at the time, and you wanted to catch up with his numbers. What other players have you targeted?
There are so many openers I’ve looked at, even former players. Graeme Smith, Alastair Cook who scored so many runs in England, which for me is the hardest place to bat. I wanted to know how he did it. But this was a habit that I picked up in the SSC dressing room. We used to look at each other’s stats and hundreds, and try to catch each other up. Tharanga Paranavitana was chasing Thilan Samaraweera, and then Kaushal Silva would be catching up. I just kept doing it. After Elgar retired, I looked a lot at the way Usman Khawaja was batting. There haven’t been that many openers consistently playing for longer periods, but I wanted to know how I compared to the best.But I’ve talked to these guys too, after a series, over a beer, with Elgar, Rohit Sharma, and others, and shared all that knowledge as well. How do they play when they go overseas? What’s my gameplan when I play in Sri Lanka? Sharing those stories, and statistics are a big part of cricket for me. When you’re old, you can still go on your profile and see what you achieved. It’s something that always drove me to improve my game and play longer.You’ve said in the past that Kusal Perera’s 153* is your favourite innings ever. But what about your own innings – any favourites?
There are two – my maiden hundred against New Zealand. It was the first match I was playing after getting back into the team, and there was so much pressure. I’d got out for a duck, and to hit a hundred in the second innings required a lot of thinking. That was a really tough hundred for me, against a great New Zealand attack.Then there’s my hundred at the SSC, against Jadeja and Ashwin. That was a pitch that took extreme turn. If I want to go and watch some of my past innings, those are the innings I go back to.Dimuth Karunaratne stood up to R Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja on a Colombo turner in 2017•Associated PressWhat about your hundred in Bengaluru? You got a standing ovation from the crowd and it was a pink-ball Test…
I’d put that third (laughs). There was a really tough period where we had to bat a few overs against the new ball under lights, and the end of one day, I remember telling Kusal Mendis that if I survived that period, I’d somehow get a hundred the next day. (Jasprit) Bumrah and (Mohammed) Shami with the pink ball were incredibly hard to see through that night. But then things got into a flow, and I could score runs. Probably my best innings as captain.All three of those came in losses…
(Laughs) Yes, that’s pretty sad. All of those were second-innings hundreds, and maybe that was the problem. If I’d hit them in the first innings, maybe we could have won those Tests.As soon as you got the Test captaincy, you won a series in South Africa in 2019. Was that the high point?
It’s the biggest highlight. Captaincy was never something I’d chased. I’d earlier been offered the vice-captaincy, and I’d turned it down. I was afraid of those big responsibilities because I thought it would affect my game. But then when they dropped Chandi (Dinesh Chandimal) from the team, the selectors called me and said they needed an experienced player to lead the team. I thought about it, and in the games I’d captained at lower levels, my batting had been good. So, I took the job.We had a pretty young team, and I just made sure that the environment was good. I didn’t try to change many things. I backed players and tried to make them comfort. In return I got a lot from my players. We didn’t think we could win a single Test there, but then we won the first one. And in the end, we whitewashed them 2-0. It’s one of my favourite chapters of my career.Under Dimuth Karunaratne, Sri Lanka toppled South Africa 2-0 in South Africa•AFPIs there a record you feel you missed out on, in your career?
Scoring 10,000 runs is something that I had had in mind for a long time. Between 2017, 2018, and 2019, when I was scoring a lot of runs, I thought I had a chance of getting there. But then we lost about a year and a half to Covid-19, and then Sri Lanka started to play fewer Tests after the World Test Championship (WTC) started. I felt then that it would be hard to get to 10,000 runs. You’d have to play 120-130 Tests. That’s something I am quite sad about – I was quite focused on that. After Sanga and Mahela, and I thought Angie would get there too – I’d have been the fourth Sri Lankan. To do it as an opener would have been really special.I also thought at times that I should finish with 20-25 hundreds. But with the conditions that we’ve had, you have to take a lot of risks to score runs, especially in Sri Lanka. I’ve also got 10 or 11 eighties and nineties, and regret not converting those as well.I also never got to play that World Test Championship final. We were close to getting there in the last two cycles. I’ve never been to a final even with the one-day team, so never got to experience that feeling. But what to do?

“I didn’t try to change many things. I backed players and tried to make them comfortable”Dimuth Karunaratne on his captaincy

There aren’t a lot of Tests coming up for Sri Lanka. What do think about Sri Lanka’s Test future?
I saw an article that said that from 2027, World Test Championship series will be three Tests minimum. If that happened, and we played four series a year, we’d get 12 Tests. Our past players have given us an incredible Test legacy, but if you look around at the landscape now, it’s always players from the same teams that are achieving those numbers – Australia, India, and Engand. They’re the ones who are breaking the records. I’d love to see Sri Lanka’s players get enough Tests to hit those big numbers too. Hopefully it gets better after 2027.Do you think you might be the last Sri Lanka cricketer to 100 Tests?
I’ve even said this, especially to guys like Dhananjaya de Silva and Kusal Mendis who aren’t that far: “If things keep going like this, no one will be able to play 100.” Hopefully Sri Lanka Cricket can organise more bilateral series to try and push it.A lot of cricketers now are focusing on white ball cricket and leagues. I’m trying to push them towards Tests.To play 100 Tests, you have to play probably 60 to 70 at a stretch without getting injured very often or without getting dropped. But if your team only plays 60 or 70 Tests in a decade, getting to a 100 Tests would take a huge amount of time. If you have 12 Tests a year, you can get to a 100.As mostly a Test specialist in this era, you would have seen a lot of players make it big in the leagues without having to put in the kind of work that Test cricket requires. How have you felt about that?
I think that’s down to players’ luck and timing. The kinds of facilities and pay we get now, the likes of Arjuna Ranatunga, or Sidath Wettimuny, didn’t get. So, you’ve got to thank the past cricketers, for giving us that platform.I know white-ball cricket and league cricket have gone very far, but in my own heart I’m happy I’ve got to a 100 Tests over chasing millions in the leagues. When people reminisce about cricket, they think about Tests. We’re still talking about Don Bradman’s record, how many double-centuries he’s scored, in how many innings. Whatever happens to me from here, there might be a list that goes up on a Test broadcast, and my son or my grandchildren will see that. I’ve got that record for life, and beyond. That’s worth a lot to me.

It’s been a horror show with the bat for CSK in IPL 2025, and the hat-trick of losses at Chepauk underscores their inability to match the competition

Deivarayan Muthu12-Apr-20252:05

Is this the worst CSK have ever looked in the IPL?

At 10.27pm on Friday, CSK’s fortress Chepauk crumbled in front of empty stands. For the first time in an IPL season, they had suffered three successive defeats at home. Parts of the stadium had begun to empty out by 9.20pm, when CSK were limited to 103 for 9, their lowest total in Chennai. Even CSK’s most beloved fans couldn’t watch the horror show anymore.After CSK had struggled to 158 for 5 in pursuit of 184 against Delhi Capitals (DC) last Saturday, their coach Stephen Fleming had said it was “tough to watch” the chase. On Friday, CSK’s batting plumbed such depths that it might have been unwatchable.They meandered to 31 for 2 in the powerplay. They faced 20 dots during the phase and even allowed Moeen Ali to get away with a wicket-maiden. According to ESPNcricinfo logs, CSK’s batters offered an aggressive response to just five of the 36 balls they faced during the powerplay. They didn’t have the middle-order firepower to play catch up.Related

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This has been a recurring problem for CSK in IPL 2025. The average powerplay score this season is 57. For CSK, that average is 45, which, of course, is way off the pace.Neither Devon Conway nor Rachin Ravindra are power-hitters. They rely more on timing. Rahul Tripathi has looked a pale shadow of the powerplay dasher he had once been, never comfortable against pace or spin this IPL.”Our openers not the ones who will start slogging or look to hit across the line,” MS Dhoni said after CSK were decimated by Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR). “But what is also important is not to get desperate seeing the scoreboard. You need, maybe, one or two boundaries and run rate keeps on going. If you start looking for 60 in six overs with our line-up, it will be very difficult for us.”It’s important to get partnerships going, maybe look to capitalise in the middle and the later overs. That’s what our strength will be. But if we lose too many wickets, the middle order needs do their role differently and the slog has been delayed for quite a while.”When CSK won the IPL title in 2023, they had a similar top order with two accumulators, but the middle order dripped with power and versatility. Ambati Rayudu was a particularly strong presence in that middle order and brought with him the ability to go – and go hard – from the outset. Since Rayudu retired after winning the title in 2023, CSK haven’t filled that void.1:18

Should Dhoni have walked in before Impact Player Hooda?

They tried Daryl Mitchell in that role in 2024, but he didn’t produce the kind of output CSK and their fans might have been looking for. Then, in the 2024 mega auction, they perhaps missed a trick by not going harder for a proven middle-order batter in the league, especially with Dhoni and Ravindra Jadeja’s finishing abilities on the wane. They took punts on Vijay Shankar and Deepak Hooda, who were not regulars for their franchises in IPL 2024, hoping they would have late-career revivals at CSK like Ajinkya Rahane had in the recent past.But that certainly hasn’t happened yet with Vijay or Hooda. The story might have been different for CSK this season had at least one among Vijay, Hooda and Tripathi come good. The story might have also been different had one of Conway and Ravindra been more consistent at the top. An injury to Ruturaj Gaikwad, who has been sidelined from the rest of this IPL, has compounded CSK’s batting troubles.The first year after a mega auction can be challenging for most teams, including five-time champions like CSK. Mike Hussey, CSK’s batting coach, acknowledged that some of their new recruits were still working their way into their roles.1:31

Bangar: CSK very dismal with the bat this season

“Yeah, it [teams needing time to settle after a mega auction] is a good point,” Hussey said. “Yeah, we’ve got some new players that have come to the franchise, so it does take a little bit of time for them to really fit in and feel like they belong. We’re trying to fast-track that as much as we can. And then it’s just getting to know them and getting to know their games and how they play their best cricket as well. So, we’re working very hard behind the scenes with those guys.”And the players, you know, you cannot fault their work ethic. You know, they’re doing the hard work, but unfortunately, it just hasn’t quite translated into performances just yet. But one of the real strengths of CSK over the years is we’ll identify the players that we’ve wanted and then we really back them. Even if things aren’t quite going to plan at the moment, we’ll back them and keep working hard with them and keep showing some faith and trust in them. And then hopefully that will be repaid in the long run.”As of now, CSK are nearing a point of no return this season, and even their fans are running out of patience – and from Chepauk – with their seemingly outdated style of batting.

West Indies star talks to the Powerplay Podcast about her WPL debut, and much else

ESPNcricinfo staff19-Feb-2025West Indies allrounder Chinelle Henry talks to Valkerie Baynes and Firdose Moonda about her call-up for UP Warriorz as an injury replacement for Alyssa Healy, going to qualifying for this year’s 50-over World Cup in India, taking down England and her team’s long-awaited return to Tests. We also hear from Jemma Botha, the South Africa Under-19s opening batter, during her side’s World Cup campaign, where they finished runners-up to India.