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Sri Lanka’s players might have often heard that the sport they play is a great leveller, but they might not have thought the highs and lows could come in such quick succession

The Preview by Andrew Fidel Fernando05-Aug-2013

Match facts

Tuesday, August 06, 2013

Start time 1900 local (1330 GMT)Thisara Perera’s form hasn’t quite continued in the T20 series•Associated Press

Big Picture

Sri Lanka’s players might have often heard that the sport they play is a great leveller, but they might not have thought the highs and lows could come in such quick succession. Four nights after Sri Lanka had embarrassed South Africa 4-1, they are pondering their own humiliation. The world’s top-ranked Twenty20 side is one game away from being whitewashed at home. If they fail on Tuesday, they will lose that ranking and slip to third, behind Pakistan and South Africa, who will rise from fifth.
The scripts for both games so far were remarkably similar, and make Sri Lanka’s problem clear. South Africa batted first, stumbled early, then surged late. Sri Lanka also lost early wickets, but were kept in the hunt by Kumar Sangakkara. In the end he could not compensate for his team-mates’ impotence and South Africa won handily. Sri Lanka’s young batsmen have been under pressure throughout the tour, and have largely misfired. If they cannot muster a performance worthy of the faith afforded in them by the selectors, the team will have cause to embark on some soul searching.Their opponents, meanwhile, have finally come to terms with the pace of the pitches in Sri Lanka and seem to also have managed to get a grip on Ajantha Mendis’ variations. South Africa have been rejuvenated in the field under Faf du Plessis, who has had a knack for using his bowlers cleverly, and Imran Tahir’s insertion has also given the attack a dimension that it lacked in the ODIs.Though the word “revenge” has grown unfashionable in sport, South Africa will be out to make their tour’s outlook a little more even, with a third commanding performance. The toss will be important again, but for the first time since arriving in Sri Lanka, they might even be favourites to win the match.

Form guide

(most recent first, last five completed matches)
Sri Lanka: LLWWW
South Africa: WWLWL

Players to watch

Thisara Perera was effective with both bat and ball in the ODI series, but has only bowled one over in the Twenty20 series, and has not been at his explosive best with the bat. There is talk that he is the most underutilised player in the Sri Lanka team, batting as low as he does, but if he is to move further up, he will have to play match-winning cameos with more consistency than he manages now.
David Miller has been among South Africa’s more comfortable batsmen in Sri Lanka’s conditions throughout the tour, and has not been too shy to attack the same spinners who wreaked havoc on the men around him. His 36 off 21 in the last match lifted South Africa to their first challenging total of the tour, and he may be key to their hopes again, if the misfiring top order falls cheaply.

Pitch and conditions

The Hambantota Stadium’s evening gusts had a major effect on Sunday, with batsmen picking certain areas of the ground to hit to, and swing bowlers benefiting from some extra assistance. The wind has been a feature of the ground since its debut, as has the pitch that has proven difficult for batsmen.

The weather is expected to be fine for the match.

Team news

It is difficult to predict whether Sri Lanka will stick with their plan to play only three senior batsmen. The prospect of being whitewashed might spur them to play their best XI, but Kusal Perera also showed signs of reclaiming some form in his 21 in the last match, when he was given wrongly given out. There is also a chance Lahiru Thirimanne is the man to make way.
Sri Lanka (probable): 1. Tillakaratne Dilshan, 2. Mahela Jayawardene/Kusal Perera, 3. Dinesh Chandimal (c), 4. Kumar Sangakkara (wk), 5. Angelo Mathews, 6. Lahiru Thirimanne, 7. Thisara Perera, 8. Nuwan Kulasekara, 9. Sachithra Senanayake, 10. Lasith Malinga, 11. Ajantha MendisSouth Africa will not want to meddle with their attack, and though Henry Davids and Quinton de Kock have not scored runs at the top of the order, they are likely to remain in the side as well.South Africa (probable): 1. Quinton de Kock (wk), 2. Henry Davids, 3. Faf du Plessis (c), 4. JP Duminy, 5. AB de Villiers, 6. David Miller, 7. David Wiese, 8. Wayne Parnell, 9. Morne Morkel, 10. Lonwabo Tsotsobe, 11. Imran Tahir

Stats and trivia

• Kumar Sangakkara is the leading run-scorer (98 runs) in this series, just as in the last one. Sri Lanka also have the leading wicket-taker, in Sachithra Senanayake (five wickets)
• In six Twenty20s in Hambantota, the side batting first has lost only once – when South Africa played Zimbabwe in the last WorldTwenty20
  

  Quotes

  “The plan against their spinners was to be confident and try and unsettle them. Even though they might get wickets, we still tried to unsettle them. I think it’s working. We played Mendis really well in the last two games.”
  


  “That they didn’t do well against the spinners in the ODI and Ajantha is a very good bowler in T20 cricket. That’s why he bowled his full quota.”

Australia fast bowler Pat Cummins is set to miss much of the 2013-14 domestic season after a recurrence of his lower back stress injury

Brydon Coverdale19-Aug-2013Fast bowler Pat Cummins is set to miss a third consecutive home summer with a recurrence of his lower back stress injury. Cummins, 20, made his long-awaited return to first-class cricket on the Australia A tour of Zimbabwe and South Africa over the past month but after taking five wickets in two first-class games, and none in a 50-over match, he was sent home early with back trouble that has proven serious.”Pat returned home early from the Australia A tour of South Africa with some side/back soreness and scans have shown a partial recurrence of his lower back bone stress injury suffered in October last year when he returned home from Champions League,” CA chief medical officer, Justin Paoloni, said. “He will be closely monitored to determine his return to the playing field, but expect that he will miss most of the 2013-14 domestic cricket season.”Cummins has been plagued by injuries, particularly back and foot problems, since he was Man of the Match on his Test debut in Johannesburg, where he claimed seven wickets in Australia’s memorable victory in November 2011. The injuries have been so persistent that Cummins had been unable to add to his first-class tally of four matches until the recent A series in Africa, and he has not played a Sheffield Shield match since March 2011.The management of Cummins has become a major issue for Cricket Australia’s management and medical staff, who seem uncertain as to whether more bowling or less is the answer to strengthening his developing body. He returned home from his maiden Test tour in 2011 with a foot injury and a back stress fracture ruling him out of the 2012-13 home summer, and his only cricket of note in the past couple of years has been in the shorter formats.Last June, Cummins was part of Australia’s one-day international campaign in England but was sent home with a side strain, and he returned in September for T20s against Pakistan in the UAE and the World Twenty20 that followed. However, Cummins went straight on to the Champions League T20 in South Africa in October last year and returned home with the back problem that ended his home summer before it began.Cummins travelled with the Australia A squad to England in May this year as a non-playing member of the group as Australia’s management aimed to reintegrate him back into the mix. At the time, Cummins said that he had worked with a running coach in an effort to fix the mechanics of his action and straighten out the alignment of his body, hoping to place less stress on his back.”It’s going against everything I’ve done for the last 20 years and trying to do something totally different,” Cummins told ESPNcricinfo at the time. “It’s certainly been a little bit foreign, but at the same time I want to nail it down because I know it’s going to turn me into a better bowler.”

Sri Lanka’s fast bowling coach Chaminda Vaas has criticised the emerging group of seamers in the country’s pace academy for being “soft” and wanting in drive for self-improvement

Sa'adi Thawfeeq06-Oct-2013Sri Lanka’s fast bowling coach Chaminda Vaas has criticised the emerging group of seamers in the country’s pace academy for being “soft” and wanting in drive for self-improvement.Having begun his coaching term in February, Vaas, said the bowlers coming through had a long way to go before they can compete at an international standard.”They don’t know how to plan their future,” Vaas said of Sri Lanka’s young bowlers. “Those days when we bowled at the nets we learned something from each net session. We asked the batsman if there was anything wrong with our bowling or if we had made any mistakes, in order to improve our skills.”But nowadays fast bowlers don’t ask such questions. Either they are afraid to ask, or they are soft or their thinking pattern is different. So we have to keep telling them all the time what to do. It will take a long time for them to learn, but the only way to do it is by pushing them because they are not pushing themselves on their own.”Vaas had also worked with the New Zealand fast bowling unit on their tour of Sri Lanka last year, and suggested foreign bowlers had a greater aptitude for fast bowling strategy than Sri Lanka’s young bowlers.”The problem is they don’t want learn,” he said. “Only a few of them are keen others don’t even want to watch a match to at least analyse their performance what their mistakes are. They’ve got to think like professionals. Bowlers from other countries know exactly what to do. You don’t have to push them. That’s what we have to learn from them and instill in our fast bowlers.”Sri Lanka’s notoriously unsporting surfaces have been the bane of fast bowlers for years, but Vaas took a dim view of blaming pitches for seam bowlers’ poor returns in domestic matches, and instead prescribed consistency in line and length, and self-confidence as a route to success.”What I have advised these youngsters is being fast bowlers they should be prepared to bowl on any kind of surface. Whether it’s a wicket suiting spin or batting, they have to bend their backs and bowl. At all the sessions I’ve been talking to them and training their mind as well as their fitness. The guys are a bit soft – some don’t have the fast bowler’s killer instinct.”However, Vaas identified Vishwa Fernando, Kanishka Alvitigala, Kasun Rajitha and Rukmal Fernando as a “few guys who have been identified as future fast bowlers” among the group currently training at the academy.”We have about 10 good fast bowlers from a squad of 20,” he said. It will take at least another three years for them to get into the side.”

Phil Simmons could be forgiven for phoning his old friends at Ireland and asking if his former job was still available. Less than a month into his new role as West Indies head coach, the sheer enormity of his task has become apparent

George Dobell in Barbados29-Apr-2015Phil Simmons could be forgiven for phoning his old friends at Ireland and asking if his former job was still available. Less than a month into his new role as West Indies head coach, the sheer enormity of his task has become apparent.It is not that his team lacks talent. It is not that they lack the will to win or the stomach for the fight. It is that regional cricket in the Caribbean has declined to such an extent – and is played on such rotten pitches – that the gap between it and international cricket has become a chasm.Simmons’ job, then, is not just to coach a team, not just to improve a squad of players, but to cut through the politics and self-interest and apathy to improve cricket across the Caribbean. It is a colossal task and will surely feel, at times, like herding cats.But he is not the sort to be easily discouraged. Far from it. While he admits to having been “startled” by the “reckless” batting on the final day in Grenada, he is “very encouraged” that West Indies have recorded four centuries in the two Tests and that three of them have been scored by players aged 23 or younger.

Phil Simmons on…

• Injuries: “Jerome Taylor bowled two spells in the nets on Tuesday, so we’ll see how his shoulder reacts. Jason Holder has recovered well and will bowl on Thursday.”

• Shivnarine Chanderpaul: “He’s having a bad series, but all the greats have had bad series. We didn’t drop them. I remember Clive Lloyd at 41; I remember Gordon Greenidge at 41. Shiv is still 40. And he is working as hard as anyone. We have four experienced guys in the side and they all need to make their presence felt.”

• Pitches: “In an ideal world, I’d like a nice, quick, bouncy wicket where who can bat, will bat and who can bowl will take wickets. But I can’t think of anywhere in the world where there’s one of them now. I know there’s a cynical view that we’re doing this for a tactic or to make sure that Tests last five days, but I don’t think it’s true.”

• James Anderson: “I was impressed by the extra effort he put in on the last day. It was what his side needed. That’s why he’s played 100 Tests and taken most wickets for England. When he sees a small gap, he pushes through it. He showed his leadership skills.”

His challenge is to help the team extend their good play from one session to three a day. And to do that, he feels the standard of regional cricket must improve.”The thing is, our young players are learning international cricket on the international stage,” Simmons said. “And that’s not ideal.”When you play county cricket, the level is close enough to Test cricket. And when I think back to my days – and I hate to do that – I learned a lot in regional cricket. But I don’t think there’s a lot to be learned at that level now. So it’s when you come up here that you start learning.”You can get away with reckless batting in our four-day game. It seems to be the normal thing to do. But you don’t get many bad balls and you have to bat for longer when you play international cricket. And if Bishoo bowled 50 overs in our four-day cricket, he would take 20 wickets.”I saw a 50-over game a while ago. The standard of the wicket was terrible. Terrible. That is the first part of my job. Not the international team. The biggest part of my job is getting the proper coaching set-up, the proper fitness set-ups, the proper wickets in our regional cricket right around the Caribbean.”We have to address these things. I don’t know how yet, but we’ll find a way. That’s the only way we’ll produce better cricketers.”Simmons has decided to take a ‘glass half full’ attitude to West Indies’ performances in the series to date. So while he could have been infuriated by aspects of the batting in Grenada or the bowling in Antigua, he has instead seen the largely untapped potential in his side.”I’m very encouraged by what I’ve seen,” Simmons said. “We had two hours of negligence on the last day in Grenada and we lost the game. It was a reckless period. It just needed a couple of guys to bat for another half-hour or so and we would have saved the game.”I’d like to see us play two or three sessions consistently. We’ve played well in one, been bad in the next, then come back in the one after that. But we’ve not played consistently well for three sessions.”We just need our young players to understand that how they play must be determined by what the teams needs and what the scoreboard reads.”But they don’t do that because of the level of our first-class cricket, so they have to learn here that, if the score is 40 for 4, you might have to bat for two sessions and come back the next day to get your big score. The mindset has to change. They have to realise you have to bat for longer.”Jermaine Blackwood exemplifies the issue. While he made an impressive century in the first innings in Antigua, he has been dismissed in both second innings in remarkably reckless fashion: once coming down the pitch and attempting to slog over the leg side and once caught at mid-off as he tried to drive Chris Jordan over the top. For a side looking to save a Test, they were odd shots.”He didn’t assess the situation properly,” Simmons said. “He assessed it properly in the first innings of the match. He still played his shots, he still hit over the top off the fast bowlers, but he did it in the right situation. In Grenada he didn’t. But he’s in his what? Fifth Test? It will take him some time to learn.”You hear people talk about how bad this is, or how bad that is. But when you’re in the camp, it’s not all as bad as people say. But there has been nothing as startling as the way we batted on the last morning in Grenada. There is learning to be done.”

Ben Stokes’ Man of the Match contribution at Lord’s means he will likely be the centre of attention once again when the second Test begins

ESPNcricinfo staff27-May-2015With the two-Test series between England and New Zealand taking place over back-to-back weekends, the momentum from Lord’s could prove decisive. One player in particular was the catalyst for England’s dramatic come-from-behind victory and his name was again the focus as the teams moved to Headingley and began preparations for Friday.Ben Stokes scored 92 and 101, in the process recording the fastest Test hundred at Lord’s, before taking three wickets on Monday afternoon to help seal a 124-run win. His Man-of-the-Match contribution was the most eye-catching among several impressive individual performances on either side and he will likely be the centre of attention once again when the second Test begins.England had been reduced to 30 for 4 on the first morning at Lord’s, before a 161-run stand between Stokes and Joe Root helped them to a competitive first-innings total. Root, only a few months older than Stokes but already Alastair Cook’s vice-captain, said Stokes’ full-blooded commitment set the tone for the fightback that put England 1-0 up in the series and ignited their start to the international summer.”When he is bowling, he will run in until he can barely move any more – if he is given that choice,” Root said. “When he is batting, he is a free spirit, he goes and plays his shots and puts sides under pressure. In the field, he is dynamic, he can field anywhere.”He is one of those blokes you want in the side because he rubs off on you and gives everything.”Over the course of his two innings, Stokes cracked 30 fours and four sixes, clearly showing the benefits of moving up the batting order to No. 6. A year ago, Stokes made a pair at Lord’s against India, to make it three Test ducks in a row, and he then missed out on a place at the World Cup after a disappointing tour of Sri Lanka. His confidence seems to have returned, particularly with the bat; now the challenge is to deliver consistent match-turning performances.Ben Stokes’ performance at Lord’s helped give Alastair Cook and England a victory to savour•Getty Images

“It is great. If he is going, you know the board is always going to be ticking over – you don’t have to worry about that,” Root said of Stokes’ aggressive approach. “You know the bowlers will be under pressure, because he is always looking to score. That is the art of batting – to try and make sure you are on top.'”Even in times of struggle, when we are 30 for 4, he came out and put them on the back foot. It will not work every time and could have looked slightly reckless if it didn’t come off.”But it is the way he plays and what he brings to the side, and why he was picked to bat at No. 6, to put them under pressure. He did that perfectly. The key for him and the rest of us now is to make sure it is not a one-off and go on and do it again this week.”He makes mistakes now and again – but that is why he is the player he is. He is aggressive; he is always in your face… that’s his personality. For him, it is about making sure he can control it in a way which makes him more consistent.”Root also shone at Lord’s, with scores of 98 and 84 as well as a crucial wicket on the final day, while Mark Wood, one of two debutants, bowled above 90mph and picked up four wickets, and Jos Buttler and Moeen Ali made important contributions. Root said it was further proof that England have a depth of talent for new coach, Trevor Bayliss, to work with.”We have a lot of young and exciting players trying to establish themselves in the side,” he said. “The more they do that, the more those little errors will creep out of our game.”That confidence doesn’t just give them a boost, it gives everyone a boost, it rubs off. Fingers crossed, Lord’s was not just a one-off – and it is the start of us moving forward as a side.”Martin Guptill, who made 70 in his first Test innings since Headingley 2013, conceded that New Zealand would need to come up with a plan to try and deal with Stokes. They may have to make changes to their personnel, too, with Corey Anderson and BJ Watling unable to train on Wednesday due to injuries. Watling’s absence could mean a Test debut at 34 for Luke Ronchi, while Anderson missing out would deprive the crowds of a big-hitting battle with Stokes.”He’s turned himself into one of England’s better allrounders, that they’ve had for a while,” Guptill said. “He’s a very aggressive player, likes to come out and play his shots and hits it cleanly. We’ll come up with some plans to be able to counter that this week.”We’re pretty confident we can come out and square the series, and come away pretty happy. On the last day at Lord’s, we just didn’t quite get the batting right. We’re going to come out this week firing, and hope to rectify that. It was very disappointing. Obviously, we came over here wanting to win the series. But you’ve got to be able to bounce back pretty quickly.”

Ben Stokes at his most intimidating muscled England beyond 300 for the third successive match but New Zealand sparked a late collapse to remain very much in contention at midway as the Ageas Bowl produced another excellent batting surface in the Royal Lon

The Report by David Hopps14-Jun-2015
Live scorecard and ball-by-ball details1:24

England pay the price for late collapse

There is more than one way to lodge a score of 300-plus in a one-day international. You can dash there with a state of delirium, as England did, staying true to a spirit of devil may care. Or you can chase it down with ease, as New Zealand did in response, displaying not excitement but merely the composure that grows from two centuries of draining authority.By the time that Kane Williamson and Ross Taylor’s third-wicket partnership was broken, they had added 206 in 32 overs and New Zealand’s last seven wickets needed only 61 from 67 balls, the platform for what ultimately became a slightly edgy victory by three wickets with six balls to spare – a win which gave them a 2-1 lead in this five-match series.Taylor – after his century at the Kia Oval – achieved back-to-back ODI hundreds for the third time in his career. The pair also set a new benchmark in ODI’s for New Zealand’s third wicket, surpassing Geoff Howarth and Martin Crowe in Auckland in 1984.Williamson could probably bungee jump without any measurable rise in his heartbeat or blood pressure. Few international batsmen proceed with such equanimity; he picked off Adil Rashid’s leg spin – a player he knows well from his time at Yorkshire – with aplomb. Taylor’s classy strokeplay provided a perfect accompaniment.England, who for long periods in the field looked resigned to their fate as the Ageas Bowl produced the latest in a succession of excellent batting surfaces, will be left to rue a calamitous end to their innings in which their last five wickets tumbled for 14 in 22 balls.Conservatism does not enter England’s thinking at the moment as they try to reinvent themselves in a more attacking guise, but it was only with nine wickets down that they belatedly nodded to the virtue of batting out their overs and 28 deliveries went unused when the last man, Steven Finn, was cleaned up by Tim Southee. Those wasted deliveries proved hugely influential. They might have accepted the reality of their position a wicket earlier.There were four dropped catches too, catches that might well have turned the game. Taylor escaped twice in successive overs from Mark Wood, firstly on 67 when Jos Buttler might have gone two handed to his right in an attempt to take a catch well within range, and again on 72 when Ben Stokes could not hold a fierce pull, relatively close in at square leg.Wood, fresh again after feeling the effect of back-to-back Tests, often surpassed 90mph and was the likeliest England bowler on view. His return of 1 for 48 is the most economical so far in a series where batsmen have prospered extravagantly.Williamson was also dropped on 109, this time Wood the culprit at mid-off as he drove at David Willey. In Willey’s next over, the 200 partnership was raised, Williamson planted a six down the ground and finally England broke through when Wood this time leapt well at mid-off to hold the catch. Taylor got New Zealand within 13 runs of victory before he fell for 110, dragging Willey onto his stumps. It proved close enough.Earlier, Stokes had been in his most intimidating batting form for England, muscling England past 300 for the third successive match – unparallelled in their one-day history. There will be no more muscular shot all summer than Stokes’ strong-arm heave of Mitchell McClenaghan towards the midwicket burger vans. At a commanding 288 for 5 with 50 balls remaining, England had visions of 370.When Sam Billings’ innovative 34 came to grief, and Adil Rashid fell first ball, Stokes was in no mood to recognise a few complications, still seeking to be the King of the Swingers, the jungle VIP. He was bowled for 68 as he stepped away to batter Ben Wheeler to oblivion and Willey, in his second ODI, and fresh from a productive release to his county, Northamptonshire, in the NatWest T20 Blast, also fell with what by then felt like naïve attacking intent. “Ooh-bi-do, I wanna be like you.” Not this time.Instead, New Zealand’s pace attack had fought back strongly, with Wheeler returning a creditable 3 for 63 on debut, adding Stokes and Billings to his first-up wicket of Alex Hales.It was a bowlers’ morning – at least it used to be. Overcast skies were not quite enough to persuade Eoin Morgan to field first, not with 1369 runs logged in the first two matches, batsmen on both sides feeling a million dollars and bowlers reduced as emphatically as they ever have been to the ranks of the poor bloody infantry.There was swing for New Zealand in the first hour, and some bounce too, and they made decent use of it by removing both England openers, Alex Hales and Jason Roy, cheaply. England’s new-ball attack responded in kind, in less encouraging conditions, later in the day.Wheeler was presented with his debut cap before play by his fellow left-armer Trent Boult, ruled out of the series with a stress-related back condition. Boult’s part in the ceremony was appropriate because Wheeler is very much Boult Lite, finding some serene inswing.Morgan cut a somewhat impotent figure in the World Cup, a captain unable to stamp his imprint on the side. His 71 as the sun burned the clouds away was an innings from a captain who now has a sense of purpose. Add Joe Root’s crisp half-century and England’s third-wicket alliance was a productive one – 105 in 19 overs – before Santner cramped Root as he made room to leg and bowled him off his pads.Santner, heavily punished in the first two matches, but more resourceful here, also might have dismissed Morgan, first when he outwitted him down the leg side but the stumping was missed and again when he failed to cling to a low return chance to his left. Instead, it was Williamson who revived memories of his golden-arm display on the final day of the Headingley Test, defeating Morgan’s slog sweep and setting up the opportunity for the drainingly calm batting performance to follow.

India’s team director Ravi Shastri is set to skip the tour of Zimbabwe next month owing to professional commitments that he had had agreed upon before the BCCI offered him a two-year contract extension

Amol Karhadkar28-Jun-2015India’s team director Ravi Shastri is set to skip the tour of Zimbabwe next month owing to professional commitments that he had had agreed upon before the BCCI offered him a two-year contract extension. India will be managed in Zimbabwe by the three assistant coaches B Arun, Sanjay Bangar and R Sridhar, who have been with the team for almost a year now.Shastri is understood to have agreed for an analyst role during the high-profile Ashes series with Sky, the official broadcaster. According to a BCCI insider, since Shastri had signed the Sky deal before he was offered the role of team director for the tour of Bangladesh, he had made it clear he would not be available for the series in Zimbabwe. The BCCI, though, is confident that Shastri will be available for India’s three-Test series in Sri Lanka starting in August.This would be the second time since taking over as team director during India’s tour to England last year that Shastri will not be with the Indian team. He had also skipped the first half of the tri-series in Australia before the World Cup because of personal reasons.

Marchant de Lange’s 4 for 23 and an unbeaten 65 from Lendl Simmons led Guyana Amazon Warriors to a seven-wicket win over Trinidad & Tobago Red Steel in the last league match of the Caribbean Premier League 2015

ESPNcricinfo staff22-Jul-2015
Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsMarchant de Lange took three wickets in his first two spells to give Guyana Amazon Warriors an early advantage•Caribbean Premier League

Marchant de Lange’s 4 for 23 and an unbeaten 65 from Lendl Simmons led Guyana Amazon Warriors to a seven-wicket win over Trinidad & Tobago Red Steel in the last league match of the Caribbean Premier League 2015. Both teams finished on 11 points, but a better net run rate helped Amazon Warriors finish in second place, ensuring their spot in the second semi-final where they will play the winner of the knockout match between Red Steel and Jamaica Tallawahs. Barbados Tridents, who topped the league table, are in the final.A win over Amazon Warriors would have taken Red Steel into the final, but de Lange inflicted damage on those plans when he broke through the top order with three wickets in his first two spells, after Red Steel opted to bat. He had Jacques Kallis caught behind for 3 in the second over, Javon Searles was caught on the leg side for 6 and Darren Bravo was also out caught behind for 3.In the midst of the wickets, Cameron Delport kept the scoreboard moving along and by the time he was dismissed in the 10th over, he had contributed 44 to the side’s total of 65. Red Steel did not recover from the poor start and were stifled by the Amazon Warriors spinners – the second half of their innings saw them add only 50 runs to the scoreboard. De Lange returned for the final over, and dismissed Kevon Cooper to take his fourth wicket, limiting Red Steel to 117 for 8.Simmons powered Amazon Warriors to a strong start, hitting a four and a six off Samuel Badree in successive overs, before taking 15 runs off Derone Davis in the fourth over. The side scored 47 in the Powerplay, with Simmons making 41. The opener had a reprieve in the eighth over, when the third umpire ruled that a return chance to the bowler Johan Botha was not out. Their start ensured that Amazon Warriors kept pace with the required equation and did not slow down despite the wickets of opener Assad Fudadin and captain Denesh Ramdin in successive overs.A 52-run partnership for the third wicket between Brad Hodge and Simmons put the side on the brink of a win. Hodge hastened the result, with successive sixes off Cooper, before his dismissal for 33, and Amazon Warriors reached the target with three overs to spare.

Sri Lanka have plenty of questions to answer as they start the post-Sangakkara era with a series decider against a hungry India side

The Preview by Karthik Krishnaswamy27-Aug-2015

Match facts

August 28-September 1, 2015
Start time 1000 local (0430 GMT)4:50

Agarkar: India’s best chance to win a series in Sri Lanka

Big Picture

Hearing this last section of Kumar Sangakkara’s retirement speech, Angelo Mathews may well have wondered to himself: “Really?” Because without Sangakkara, and without Mahela Jayawardene, who played his final Test last year, Sri Lanka are bracing themselves for a long and arduous rebuilding phase, with the “amazing future” a dot on the horizon. In their home season so far, Sri Lanka have lost two out of three Tests to Pakistan and are clearly not the momentum team as they go into a series decider against India.Looking around his dressing room, Mathews will not see too many battle-hardened faces. Apart from himself and Rangana Herath – the only two players in the side with more than 50 Test caps – the most experienced player in the likely Sri Lanka eleven at the Sinhalese Sports Club is Dhammika Prasad, who will be playing his 23rd Test.It is imperative, therefore, that the senior-ish players in their side, such as Prasad, Lahiru Thirimanne, Kaushal Silva and Dinesh Chandimal, add an extra level of consistency to their game and take on leadership roles to ease the pressure off Mathews and Herath.They will have to begin doing this right away. Sri Lanka are likely to be without one of their main wicket-taking weapons at the SSC, with Tharindu Kaushal a doubtful starter after an Umesh Yadav bouncer bruised the thumb of his bowling hand during the second Test. Dilruwan Perera will offer more control but less incision.Without Sangakkara, it is unclear how the batting order will resolve itself. Plenty of questions remain to be answered. Will Upul Tharanga slot in at No. 3, or will it be Thirimanne? Will Kusal Perera come in for Jehan Mubarak, and if so, will he keep wickets? Will the two new left-handers in the line-up be able to cope with R Ashwin’s round-the-wicket threat?India will have to make a couple of forced personnel changes too, but they know to a fair degree what they can expect from most of their players. They are a lot further along the road in terms of experience and know-how, and know what the core of their team for the next four-five years will look like. Their batting, save for a couple of hiccups, is clicking into gear nicely, and their bowling attack, in recent times, has never looked as consistently threatening as it did at the P Sara Oval.Even so, they have had to come back from behind to level this Test series, and will know, in all honesty, that they should have been 2-0 up already. Having let Sri Lanka off the hook in Galle, they will be itching to close out the series with a win, and show that they have become better players for the bruising experiences they have suffered on the road, with greater staying power and match awareness.

Form guide

(last five matches, most recent first)


Sri Lanka: LWLWL
India: WLDDD
M Vijay’s hamstring injury gives Cheteshwar Pujara the opportunity to play his first Test in 2015•Getty Images

In the spotlight

With no Sangakkara in the side, the time has come for Lahiru Thirimanne to step up and become the consistent Test batsman he has always threatened to be. He showed glimpses of his potential in both Tests so far, but Sri Lanka want more from him. As vice-captain, they need him to improve his record – an average of 26.13 and only one century in 21 Tests – substantially.Cheteshwar Pujara didn’t look particularly out of form during India’s tours of England and Australia, but while there were only three single-digit scores in 16 innings, he only made two half-centuries and no hundreds. That long run of unconverted starts brought his Test average down from close to 59 to just over 47, and cost him his place in the side. With M Vijay’s hamstring injury giving him a chance to play his first Test in 2015, Pujara will hope he has shrugged off the losses of concentration that have frustrated him of late, and is able to enter the trance-like zone that brought him bucketloads of runs in the early part of his career.

Team news

Sri Lanka are likely to make a couple of changes to their batting line-up, with Tharanga coming in for the retired Sangakkara and Kusal replacing the struggling Mubarak. If Kusal plays, he could take the wicketkeeping gloves off Dinesh Chandimal. Kaushal is a doubtful starter, with Dilruwan Perera his likely replacement. Nuwan Pradeep has recovered from the hamstring problem that kept him out of the second Test, and will probably take Dushmantha Chameera’s place in the pace attack.Sri Lanka (probable) 1 Dimuth Karunaratne, 2 Kaushal Silva, 3 Upul Tharanga, 4 Lahiru Thirimanne, 5 Angelo Mathews (capt), 6 Dinesh Chandimal, 7 Kusal Perera (wk), 8 Dhammika Prasad, 9 Rangana Herath, 10 Tharindu Kaushal/Dilruwan Perera, 11 Nuwan PradeepWith Vijay ruled out, India will field their third different opening combination of the series, with Pujara partnering KL Rahul. With Wriddhiman Saha also enduring hamstring issues, Naman Ojha should make his Test debut.India (probable) 1 Cheteshwar Pujara, 2 KL Rahul, 3 Ajinkya Rahane, 4 Virat Kohli (capt), 5 Rohit Sharma, 6 Naman Ojha (wk), 7 Stuart Binny, 8 R Ashwin, 9 Amit Mishra, 10 Ishant Sharma, 11 Umesh Yadav

Pitch and conditions

Four of the last five Tests at the SSC have ended in draws, but its pitch belied its reputation as one of the flattest tracks in the world last year, when Sri Lanka beat Pakistan on a sporting surface that produced totals of 320, 332, 282 and 165. The pitch for this match might assist the seamers for the first couple of sessions before flattening out; there was grass on the surface on the eve of the match, but it seemed dry underneath. The weather could intervene from time to time, with Colombo experiencing scattered afternoon thunderstorms over the last few days.

Stats and trivia

• R Ashwin is nine wickets from reaching 150 in Tests. If he manages it in this match, his 28th, he will join Clarrie Grimmett as the third quickest to the mark, with only Sydney Barnes and Waqar Younis ahead of them
• If Naman Ojha plays for India, and if Kusal Perera plays and keeps wicket for Sri Lanka, it will be the 14th instance of two wicketkeepers making their debut in the same Test match. The last time it happened was in 2000, when Khaled Mashud and Saba Karim made their debuts in Bangladesh’s inaugural Test in Dhaka

The new points system proposed for the Ranji Trophy will not be implemented this season, as the BCCI’s working committee is yet to discuss it

Amol Karhadkar29-Sep-2015The new points system proposed for the Ranji Trophy by the Anil Kumble-led technical committee in May will not be implemented for the 2015-16 season, as the BCCI’s working committee is yet to discuss the system. The working committee was due to look into the proposal on August 28, but then that meeting was adjourned within minutes due to N Srinivasan’s presence.The technical committee had proposed major changes to the points system, the most prominent amendment being to do away with points for the first-innings lead. That decision had raised a few eyebrows, with some of the BCCI member units expressing apprehension over the possibility of both teams earning no points after a four-day game. As a result, the proposal was to be looked into by the working committee.But the working committee meeting on August 28 was adjourned due to confusion surrounding Srinivasan’s attendance – despite being requested to stay away from the meeting due to his complicated legal status, he attended in his capacity as Tamil Nadu Cricket Association head.As a result, the BCCI now has no option but to stick to last season’s points system.Quick comment – BCCI makes its priorities clearCricketers make a proposal. Four months and ten days later, just two days before the start of a new season, it emerges nobody has even debated that proposal.At times of crisis, when you can’t possibly look after everything, your priorities become clear. The BCCI administrators, who spare no money or effort in calling “emergent” meetings and hiring high-profile lawyers to stay in power to “safeguard the interests of the game,” have made their priorities clear.In the interest of the game a technical committee, comprising men of integrity and cricketing acumen and led by Anil Kumble, suggested this change to the points system to reward positive cricket in India’s premier domestic tournament. The BCCI power struggle, though, has successfully managed to push this into the background. A meeting where the ratification of the new system would have been debated was adjourned because N Srinivasan decided to land up, but no one found it fitting to find a way to discuss the new points system before the start of the Ranji season.You won’t find such a lackadaisical approach towards finding Jagmohan Dalmiya’s successor as BCCI president. A special general meeting has already been called within the deadline. Sticklers to the BCCI constitution will point to the clause that deals with deadlines for calling such meetings, but isn’t the start of a new season a deadline for a matter as crucial as a points system? By Sidharth Monga