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By Will 1 month ago, 12 Comments »
I approached yesterday’s one-dayer between West Indies and Sri Lanka with something of a spring in my step. This was a surprise for many reasons, but it’s explained by the glowing reports that gushed from the media - Cricinfo included - surrounding Ajantha Mendis, Sri Lanka’s great new spinning hope. He is a legspinner, an offie, bowls googlies, toppers, flippers and doosras and no one quite knows what to make of him. He wasn’t quite so mercurial last night, but what fascinated me was his grip. He seems to grasp the ball between the tips of his thumb and middle finger, which looks decidedly precarious - but Sri Lanka encourage the unconventional (Murali, Lasith, etc). Other nations, England in particular, breed orthodoxy and anything less is usually considered nasty and foreign.
Anyway, this bloke looks the real deal. In 19 first-class games he has 111 wickets at 14 apiece. In ODIs, he’s taken 40 wickets at 11 in just 20 games. Watch out, world.
12 Comments »Sri Lankans rattled
By Will 1 month ago, 4 Comments »
I’ve had my eye off the proverbial the last 24 hours, so am surprised and excited to see West Indies’ bowlers have rattled Sri Lanka’s top-order. As I write, they’re 109 for 6 and lead by a slender 94. Poor old Windies haven’t won at home since 2005 and since 2000 the locals have only celebrated seven victories.
Update: Samaraweera makes 125 and West Indies need 253 to win. Nuff bloody said.
4 Comments »Back to where we belong
By Will last year, at the end of December, 5 Comments »
Well that was brief and relatively painless, like a plaster being ripped off. But have a look at the scar!
England are back to where we belong. We’ve bullshitted our way to obscurity since winning the Ashes, and no amount of excuses about player unavailabilty can paper over the cracks which, in Sri Lanka, widened to cavernous proportions. This is a new era, certainly, but it reeks of the 1990s. Welcome back, England.
What did you make of the tour?
5 Comments »Galle in a race against time
By Will last year, mid-December, 3 Comments »
Tuesday should be a point of symbolic closure for the people of Galle, Sri Lanka’s ancient fortress of a city, when England and Sri Lanka play their third Test at the ground which was devastated by the Tsunami in 2004. However, things are not looking remotely promising. Suffice to say, the ground appears to be not only weeks behind schedule but unfit to host a Test, which is a great shame - mainly because it will overshadow what Sri Lanka hoped would be a turning point.
Look at the dressing rooms for starters:
Andrew Miller is there.
England fight but falter
By Will last year, at the start of December, 7 Comments »
What a cracking day it was. My mate messaged me shortly after it, having only caught snippets, and was surprised at my post-match adrenaline. Today was Test cricket at its gnarliest, epitomised by Ian Bell and Matt Prior’s stand. They played magnificently and it took a genius, Muttiah Muralitharan, to dismiss them both. With them went England’s hopes of salvaging a draw (if not a win). Had the tail managed to wag, England were about 20 minutes away from the safe confines of a draw owing to the fading light…but it wasn’t to be.
It was fun on comms, too. In the last three hours we had a consistent 40,000 people reading the live scorecard. That’s a heck of a number, and several hundred emailed in to say hello. We had people from Warsaw, librarians in Warwick and a school-teacher with his feet up setting his pupils a long (and quiet…) test.
What made Murali’s day all the more remarkable was that he was wicketless for most of the day. Only on receipt of a juicy, shiny new ball did he strike, and how, with the crushing double blow of Prior and Bell.
Worrying for England, they only have three days in which to recover - and Matthew Hoggard won’t be part of their Colombo gameplans. Come on down, scattergun Steve Harmison.
What did you make of England’s performance? Or, for that matter, Sri Lanka’s?
7 Comments »Double hat-tricks
By Will last year, at the start of December, 1 Comment »
Hat-tricks are rare enough, but double hat-tricks? They be very rare indeed. Tharaka Kottehewa took one today for Nondescripts Cricket Club against Ragam in Tier A of Sri Lanka’s domestic competition, the Premier Limited Over Tournament. His final figures were 8 for 20.
Matthew Hoggard’s video diary from Sri Lanka
By Will last year, at the start of December, 3 Comments »
Matthew Hoggard is video-blogging his tour of Sri Lanka. Have a look below, or click here.
You need Flash Player 8 or higher to view video content with the ROO Flash Player.
Click here to download and install it.
Matthew Hoggard, England all-rounder, animal lover and technical wizard gives
us a warts-and-all look behind the scenes as the tour of Sri Lanka gets
underway.
In the first episode, he struggles to cope with jetlag, enjoys the view of a
building site outside his bedroom, turns the tables on a Sky Sports reporter
and gets up close and personal with a Male Body Toucher.
Have Australia done England a favour?
By Will last year, mid-November, No Comments; be the first!
Have Australia done England a favour, asks Dileep. It’s something I was pondering today when the news came through that Farveez Maharoof will miss the England series. They are receiving a hammering from Australia and yet the first Test against England begins on December 1.
When Sri Lanka lost 2-0 away to India two years ago - Murali was in the squad - the damage wasn’t done by pace bowlers, but by Anil Kumble [in Delhi] and Harbhajan Singh [in Ahmedabad]. If England’s batsmen apply themselves as well as they did in the middle three one-day games, they have every chance. As Australia have shown, neutralising Murali is half the battle won. Deny him wickets, and the Lankan lions looks toothless. If they continue in this vein, Michael Vaughan’s younger pride might just inflict a mauling.
Neutralising Muralitharan is of course the principle aim for England. Half the battle is then won. I was chatting with a colleague briefly today about England and we both admitted to being excited about this series. Peter Moores was in charge over the summer, but the shadow of Duncan Fletcher still loomed over him and England. With his book now out, al the revelations exposed, I think he is now firmly relegated to the past and England can move on. It’s an exciting time and my editor, who was down in “Bell’s Kitchen” the other day, told me he sensed a new and fresher England side. New coaches, fresh faces, new enthusiasm - time to crack on and nail the Lankans while they’re down.
Winning in Sri Lanka did wonders for Fletcher. With the youth of this side, it’s a delicious prospect to think what Moores and co might achieve.
Who will win the Eng-SL series?
- Sri Lanka (59%, 53 Votes)
- England (31%, 28 Votes)
- 1-1 tie (10%, 9 Votes)
Total Voters: 90
Loading …Australia trounce Sri Lanka
By Scott last year, mid-November, 15 Comments »
So much for my hopes of a good contest- Australia thrashed Sri Lanka by an innings and 40 runs. (scorecard) What went wrong?
Well, while there’s been a lot written about the Australian performance, I think the finger needs to be pointed at the Sri Lankans. They made every mistake in the book, and invented a few more.
Errors in team selection. Check.
Wrong call at the toss. Check.
Dropped catches. Check.
Players underperforming when they were needed. Check.
I must confess to some surprise though when Marvin Atapattu came out with an extraordinary attack on the Sri Lankan selectors, characterising them as ‘muppets’ in an interview after the third day’s play. That sort of mistake was one that was out of the book. It’s going to be interesting to see if he’s permitted to continue with the tour. One batsman has to make way for the return of Sangakkara, after all.
But questions have to be asked of the Sri Lankan bowling line up too. It was generally thought by Australian pundits in the prelude to this series that this was the best Sri Lankan attack that we’d ever seen in this country, but they conceded 551 for 4 at a rate of knots. Had Ponting not been in a hurry to get at the Sri Lankan batsmen, 700 might not have been out of the question. What might have happened if only Malinga had got a game? As it was, none of the Sri Lankan bowlers made much of an impression- of the four wickets to fall, only Ponting was actually beaten by the bowler- Jaques, Hayden and Hussey got out through poor shot selection.
And Muralithiran? Well 2 for 170 was a pretty fair reflection of how he bowled. He did bowl a good spell after tea on the first day but apart from that stint, he was pretty unthreatening, and he copped some hammer from Ponting and Clarke. It is worth pointing out that for all his success, he doesn’t have much of a record against Australia, and also worth noting that finger spinners rarely do well here. You have to go back to the days of Phil Edmonds and John Emburey to find finger spinners that have had success in Australia. Bearing that in mind, perhaps expectations should be lowered a bit.
The Sri Lankan batting was somewhat disappointing too. Only somewhat though, because they were under constant pressure, first from the scoreboard, and second by the Australian attack. It was easy for the Australian batsman as they were fed a steady diet of pies, but Sri Lanka’s batsmen had to take risks to score runs, and except during the Vandort/Jayawardene partnership in the second innings, no batsman looked secure. Of the Australian bowlers, Lee gave his best performance in a long time, Macgill was probing, Stuart Clark continued his McGrath impersonation, and Johnson showed enough to suggest he has what it takes at Test level.
Can Sri Lanka regroup in time to make things a bit more even for the Second Test? They have the players to do so, but it must be hard. The Hobart wicket isn’t the sort of wicket that bowlers who are low on confidence are likely to take wickets on. Australia’s bowlers on the other hand, will fancy their chances. But I still think that the margin in this Test isn’t a true reflection in the gap between the teams. Here’s hoping for a closer match starting on Friday.
15 Comments »Australia vs Sri Lanka
By Scott last year, at the start of November, 10 Comments »
Australia play Sri Lanka in an actual Test match on Thursday, and it is rumoured that the ICC have started an internal investigation to find out how such an anachronism got on the international fixtures list.
Australia haven’t played a Test since they farewelled their trio of stars in January; in that period they’ve played an abomination of ODI games and Twenty20 fixtures. These days, when the Australian players wish to get about town unrecognised, they wear their white Test outfits.
As to the actual game itself, the portents are not promising. Rain is forecast to play havoc for the first three days, no bad thing in itself, given the drought in Australia, but neither side comes into this game with much form. The Australian bowlers who played in four day cricket last weekend failed to impress, with the exception of Stuart Clark, and the Sri Lankans have likewise found the going hard, failing to beat a side comprising the best of Australia’s state Second XI’s, and then being defeated by Queensland. No doubt after so much ODI cricket, the disciplines of line and length, batting judgement and patience, have become a little rusty.
For all that, I’m looking forward to a good contest. Sri Lanka are, in my view, one of the stronger sides in world cricket, with a potent batting line up and a balanced bowling attack. It is a disgrace that Cricket Australia, for commercial reasons of course, has only invited the Sri Lankans to play two Tests. I do expect Australia to still win- even without McGrath and Warne they are a very powerful team, but it won’t be quite so easy as it used to be.
Australia give a first cap to Mitchell Johnson, and Phil Jacques and Stuart MacGill are recalled. Sri Lanka’s team is not quite settled, but they are hampered by the loss of Kumar Sangakarra with a hamstring injury.
Meanwhile, in a further outbreak of Test cricket, South Africa host New Zealand. The main talking point there is that South Africa are not playing their veteran Shaun Pollock, preferring the younger brigade. Daniel Vettori makes his debut as New Zealand captain.
Australia vs Sri Lanka preview.
South Africa vs New Zealand preview.
10 Comments »England name squad for Sri Lanka tour
By Jonathan Liew last year, mid-October, 1 Comment »
England have named their squad for the tour of Sri Lanka, and it’s pretty much as predicted:
Vaughan, Cook, Bell, Pietersen, Collingwood, Shah, Bopara, Mustard, Prior, Broad, Hoggard, Anderson, Sidebottom, Swann, Panesar.
Some initial thoughts:
1) It’s pretty harsh on Chris Tremlett, who hasn’t really put a foot wrong yet for England. Unless – gasp! – they’re punishing him unfairly for his indifferent one-day form.
2) If the selectors were going to drop Strauss they should have replaced him with another opener, rather than naming three number sixes and promoting Vaughan, who doesn’t even want to open.
3) If both of Harmison’s practice games get rained off, where does that leave him?
4) Either Broad or Swann has to bat at number eight. Which means that, cruelly, one of Anderson or Sidebottom has to sit out. Or both, if Harmison waltzes back into the team. In other words, all three pacemen from the India series could be left out in favour of someone who wasn’t even good enough to make the side at the time. Hmmm.
5) The fact that Mustard has been named in the full squad, rather than placed on standby in Chennai, is hardly a resounding vote of confidence in Prior. Is Mustard, in fact, the reserve opening batsman?
What are everyone else’s thoughts?
1 Comment »The thing that didn’t happen
By Scott last year, mid-October, 3 Comments »
Watching glimpses of the India vs Australia and Sri Lanka vs England ODI series, I’ve been struck by just how conventional these ODI games have been. We were told last month that the arrival of the Twenty20 game would revolutionise tactics and game-plans in the 50 over game.
But it hasn’t happened. The Sri Lanka vs England games were especially low-scoring, attritional affairs, and that played right into England’s hands. No doubt the slow and difficult batting conditions contributed to that. But even in relatively free-scoring Indian venues, the same old rhymes and rythyms of the 50 over game have continued.
It is early days, of course, but what this might point to is that there is little real impact that the two games can have on each other. Those extra thirty overs are clearly making a difference to the way that teams go about their business. I cheerfully confess to being surprised by this turn of events.
3 Comments »England win a one-day series
By Will last year, mid-October, 7 Comments »
Even I, an insufferable cynic of one-day cricket, had to be impressed by England today. In fact, they have been the better team all series. Athletic in the field, imaginative and flexible with the ball, generally industrious with the bat and captained sensibly by Paul Collingwood.
Your thoughts on the match and series? Is this the turning point or were Sri Lanka caught napping in light of being Muraliless?
7 Comments »Ye Gods! A Test match is happening!
By Scott last year, at the start of October, 7 Comments »
We don’t get a lot of South Africans or Pakistanis in these here parts, but there IS a Test match going on as we speak- South Africa, batting first, are 104 for 1, with Gibbs on 50 - Smith out for 42.
Ahh. White clothes and a red ball. God is in his heaven and all is right with the world, et cetera!
Meanwhile, England play Sri Lanka in a Fifty/50 tonight, and Australia play India tomorrow. But who cares? Tests are the best!
7 Comments »Sri Lanka crumble
By Will last year, mid-September, 8 Comments »
Sri Lanka crumble. Sounds like a tempting pudding, that. They’re 80 for 7, Australia running through them like maniacs. Are they suddenly up for this match? Seems so. I’m not watching, but might force my German friends to listen to it on TMS later. Jawohl!
Cricinfo’s steaming-hot comms is here.
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