Following the 2-3 defeat to Zimbabwe in the home ODI series, the Sri Lanka captain also suggested he will consider stepping down from the captaincy

Andrew Fidel Fernando10-Jul-2017The unexpected 2-3 home series loss to Zimbabwe is “one of the lowest points” of Angelo Mathews’ career, and may in fact prompt the re-evaluation of his captaincy. Two days ago, Mathews hinted he may not be Sri Lanka’s captain during the 2019 World Cup, but an unexpected series loss to the 11th-ranked ODI side has his leadership draw particular scrutiny.”It’s one of the lowest points in my career, and a hard one to swallow,” Mathews said. “Everything went against us, from the toss to misreading the wicket. But there are no excuses. At the end of the day we were not good enough to beat them. They played better cricket.”Under Mathews, Sri Lanka have won an away Test series against England, and a home Test series against Australia – two of Sri Lanka’s greatest triumphs in the format – but they have been largely poor in ODI cricket since the last World Cup. They have defeated Ireland and West Indies under Mathews, but have lost home series against Pakistan, Australia and now Zimbabwe. Mathews said he would seek consultation before making a firm decision on his captaincy future.”Still haven’t thought about stepping down,” he said. “There’s time. I’ll give it a bit more thought and talk to the selectors. I haven’t decided anything yet.”Though they have won T20 series against depleted South Africa and Australia squads, Sri Lanka have not won an ODI or Test series this year. Their performances on the South Africa tour and the group-stage exit at the Champions Trophy came under particular fire.”We have not been consistent,” Mathews said. “The pressure is on all of us. The more we lose, the more pressure we are under. There is no solution for that and the only solution is winning. We try to win games, but we commit too many mistakes.”On Monday, Mathews largely dwelt on a substandard batting effort after Sri Lanka scored only 203 in the series decider and ended up losing by three wickets. Danushka Gunathilaka hit a pained fifty, and Asela Gunaratne scored a smart 59 not out – much of it in the company of the tail. However, the top order had failed to break the shackles Zimbabwe’s spinners had imposed on them and were bailed out, to an extent, by the 50-run ninth-wicket stand between Gunaratne and Dushmantha Chameera.”We did well with the bat in the last four games, but this game we were awful with the bat. If we could have got to 235, we could have done well. It was a flop today. There was some turn for the spinners in the beginning, but our eventual score wasn’t enough. We have a lot of improvements to make.”Despite the dispiriting defeat, Sri Lanka have little time to lick their wounds. The one-off Test against Zimbabwe begins on Friday, before a full tour against India kicks off on July 26.”We have an India series coming up, but before that, we have the Test against Zimbabwe to talk about. The Indian series will be even tougher. In a small period we have to fix our problems. As a team we did do the training, but nothing is working in the middle.”

Things got rather more difficult for India’s slow bowlers after they enforced the follow-on, as Sri Lanka delivered on their promise to use the sweep more

Sidharth Monga05-Aug-20171:27

Dasgupta: Hardik should have been brought on earlier

The third day’s play at SSC was a good illustration of how difficult winning Test matches can be. You nip an opposition out in under two sessions, you ask them to bat on because you suspect the pitch will slow down quickly, and then the opposition batsmen come with a game plan, attack you, have some luck running, and at the end of the day you have two wickets to show for 60 overs’ work. The effort to win looks that much bigger because India didn’t do too much wrong with the ball. They erred with the selection – Hardik Pandya ahead of Kuldeep Yadav on a turning track – but even he produced the breakthrough at the end of the day.The cause of what unfolded on day three was quite predictable. Sri Lanka spoke of sweeps and reverse sweeps even coming into the Test, Ajinkya Rahane in a press conference on day two said he anticipated sweeps and that they were a risky option, and history suggests India spinners don’t like being swept as Andy Flower, Matthew Hayden and Younis Khan among others have shown.The effect fluctuated wildly. Dinesh Chandimal delivered on his promise to play these shots but he found square leg first thing in the morning. Niroshan Dickwella continued sweeping and said at the end of the day that losing the captain early in the morning to that shot didn’t deter them. “Chandimal is only one wicket,” he said. “We are in a good position in the second innings because we kept sweeping.”At the forefront of it was Kusal Mendis, who scored his third Test century. In the second innings, Sri Lanka swept or reverse swept 35 of the 240 balls of spin they faced, a healthy 15%, for 63 runs and no wicket. In the morning, Dickwella swept or reverse swept 15 of the 37 balls of spin he faced, much higher 40%. The impact was there to see, especially on the bowling of Ravindra Jadeja, who went at close to five an over in the second innings. Neither he nor R Ashwin had a wicket to show for it.The sweep carries a bit of risk so you need top-class execution and a bit of luck. Ashwin complimented Sri Lanka for that. “I thought Mendis batted beautifully,” Ashwin said. “He put Jadeja off his length very quickly. Kept on sweeping him, and he was lucky, he got away with it, but credit to him, he batted beautifully.”R Ashwin: ‘A batsman who’s sweeping against me, I don’t really mind it, it gives me a good chance’•AFP

However, the idea that batsmen are sweeping him excites Ashwin. “You can try and vary your pace,” he said when asked what adjustments are required when batsmen sweep so much. “For me, the best option is to try and vary the pace and try and find the top edge, because as it is, I’m a tall bowler. To try and get underneath the bat is a bit of a no-no as far as I’m concerned because you start darting the ball in and you start bowling faster.”I did try a lot, I went wider, I went straighter. I didn’t give him a lot of boundaries in terms of sweep, which he did yesterday. So that was my plan, basically try and get him to play a sweep and… one run is a good trade-off for a top edge, that’s how I look at it. As a batsman who’s sweeping against me, I don’t really mind it, it gives me a good chance. But having seen him for the first time, probably the next time I will try and come in with a different plan.”The other important statistic for the second innings was the number of times the spinners beat the bat without getting the edge: 37 times, one in six balls. This was a little reminiscent of how India kept missing the edge in Pune against Australia earlier this year where the ball turned a lot, but a look at the pitch map will show that they did try to bowl fuller here but with no luck. There was also one big difference here. For Ashwin, the ball didn’t turn from the straight here, only from wide outside off, which worked for them if they were turning it back in, but not when taking it away.”You can change the angles, which I tried from over the stumps,” Ashwin said when asked of the adjustments spinners can make when they are missing the edge so often. “It’s pretty difficult because from the straight there is not a lot happening. It is only a kind of a visual mirage that you’re trying to create, try and turn the ball out from the left-hander and get him miss one that’s coming straight. Obviously that didn’t happen. With the technology improving more and more, the batsmen are pretty adept at covering their stumps and then probably playing inside the line for ones that are turning away. You do try everything in the middle; some day it works, some days it doesn’t.”The other challenge for India will be the dying bounce in the SSC pitch. “I think this wicket will get slower and slower,” Ashwin said. “It is not going to be easy work tomorrow for sure. We will have to be really disciplined. I thought we gave a few runs more than ideally we should have given today. Tomorrow we can probably try and squeeze them out and try and nip a few wickets up early. It is going to be very very important. Mind you, it is not going to be easy. Because it is slowing down at a very, very quick pace. Edges aren’t carrying. So that means we will have to stick to our guns and try to prise a few wickets out.”India were tested on day three – “Test teams are allowed to bat well,” Ashwin said – but how they respond to it will reveal a lot about them. If they do come back well, they will savour the win much more.

The bans handed out by SLC to the 22 players implicated in the Tier B match-manipulation case will be lifted, pending the result of an appeal process

Madushka Balasuriya01-Oct-2017The bans handed out by SLC to the 22 players implicated in the Tier B match-manipulation case will be lifted, pending the result of an appeal process.Players of Panadura Sports Club and Kalutara Physical Culture Club were last month banned for one year from all cricketing activities for their supposed role in manipulating the result of a Tier B first-class match in January – captains Chamara Silva and Manoj Deshapriya receiving two-year bans. However, upon receiving complaints from the two clubs, SLC has commenced a formal appeals process, and temporarily climbed down from the original punishments.The three-member appeals committee is expected to return with their final verdict in two to four weeks, until which time the players of Panadura and Kalutara are free to resume cricketing activities.Although some players had themselves lodged formal complaints, it is the clubs who were instrumental in persuading SLC to begin an appeals process. The fallout from the initial verdict saw Silva, along with his team-mates, seek out legal representation, as well as distance themselves from Panadura SC. Silva has claimed that he was never given an adequate opportunity, or even informed, to come speak before the original inquiry panel – something SLC contests – and has since called for a fresh inquiry into the allegations.A lawyer, speaking on behalf of the players of Panadura SC, stated that while his clients would be willing to speak before an appeal committee, they would still continue to call for a fresh inquiry. Accepting an appeal committee, he said, would be akin to accepting the original verdict.The exact scope of the appointed appeal committee is somewhat unclear, however. While a traditional appeal committee would merely be expected to review already existing evidence, this new committee is actively pursuing fresh evidence from the players of the clubs. As such, it bears resemblance to a fresh inquiry.SLC also stated that, should they so wish, the committee could even request ‘special powers’ from the board to interview individuals that may be implicated in the course of the appeals process. If this turns out to be the case, it would be a significant departure from the stance of the original inquiry panel, which did not see fit to investigate any individuals apart from those who had charges laid against them – ie. the players – during the course of its seven-month investigation.To further complicate the issue, Sri Lanka’s sports ministry may also launch a parallel inquiry, though an official announcement is yet to be made.

Four half-centuries, and a four-wicket haul from Ashton Agar led the visitors to a 103-run victory in the warm-up fixture in Chennai

ESPNcricinfo staff12-Sep-2017
ScorecardMatthew Wade shored up the Australians with a rapid 45•PTI

The Australians kicked off their limited-overs tour of India with a dominant 103-run win over the Indian Board President’s XI in their only warm-up match at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai. Powered by solid contributions from their batting order, with as many as four batsmen making half-centuries, the Australians ran up 347 for 7 before Ashton Agar returned a four-wicket haul to send Board President’s XI packing for 244.The Australians’ dominance began with a second-wicket stand between David Warner and captain Steven Smith, after Hilton Cartwright had been sent back for a second-ball duck by medium-pacer Avesh Khan. Warner raced to 64 off 48 balls and dominated the partnership of 106 before Kushang Patel, another medium-pacer, had him caught behind. Smith was more sedate for his 55 that took 68 balls, but with him and Glenn Maxwell falling in the space of six overs, the Australians went from 106 for 1 to 158 for 4.Travis Head added 88 with Marcus Stoinis, who top scored with 76 at No. 6. Head departed at the end of the 40th over, having scored 65 of 63 balls. Stoinis and Matthew Wade then pushed them into overdrive with a sixth-wicket stand of 85 that came in eight overs. Both batsmen fell in successive balls – Stoinis for a 60-ball 76 that had four fours and five sixes and Wade for 45 off 24 with two fours and four sixes – but the Australians still punched 16 runs in 11 balls after their dismissals.”I think when you are exposed to conditions, it obviously helps,” Stoinis said. “I’ve been part of three IPLs and A tour. Having an Indian coach … I have been working closely with him. That helps. Sriram and I got along very well at Delhi Daredevils in my first IPL. For four months I was working with him then. It was mostly defence in subcontinent and trying to trust that before you go on attack.”Hemang Badani, the Board President’s coach, didn’t think it was a 350 pitch and admitted they conceded too many. “I think it was 40 too many; 280, 290 would have been a decent target,” he said. “We would have planned and batted differently. With 340 on the board, it is difficult from ball one. Batting second tends to become difficult.”Board President’s XI’s spin duo of Washington Sundar and Rahil Shah held their own amid the carnage, giving away 55 runs in their combined 15 overs, with Washington’s figures reading 8-1-23-2.Board President’s XI, like the Australians, lost an early wicket in Rahul Tripathi but quickly recovered through a second-wicket stand between Shreevats Goswami (43) and Mayank Agarwal (42) that was worth 79. But 89 for 1 became 156 for 8 with little resistance coming from the middle order. Akshay Karnewar and Kushang held the Australians back briefly with 40 and 41 not out respectively, to help add 88 runs for the last two wickets. Agar dented the middle and lower order with 4 for 44.”Ashton Agar bowled beautifully,” Stoinis said. “It is also about understanding conditions and what lengths you want. I think everyone will get something out of it individually.”

Ed Cowan, the leading Sheffield Shield run-getter last season, was left out of the 12-member team for New South Wales’ opening game in favour of young batsman Daniel Hughes

Daniel Brettig23-Oct-2017Australian cricket’s push to find younger batting talent has been harshly underlined by New South Wales’ decision to drop last summer’s leading Sheffield Shield run-maker Ed Cowan for the younger Daniel Hughes.In what the Blues coach Trent Johnston described as the “toughest” selection call of his career, Cowan was left out of the XII to travel to Adelaide for the opening match against South Australia from Friday, despite leading all comers last season with 959 runs at 73.76 in nine matches. Among other things, Cowan’s omission has definitively ruled a line through his name in terms of any future recall to the Australia side.Rather than saying Cowan had been squeezed out by the inclusions of the Test captain Steven Smith and his deputy David Warner, Johnston made it clear that the 35-year-old had lost out to Hughes, 28, who made 543 runs at 36.20 in the Shield last season, also from nine matches. Hughes was one of the leading run-makers during the recent domestic limited-overs tournament.”NSW is fortunate that we have a wealth of talent available for our first game,” Johnston said. “It was always going to be a tough decision. We had to weigh up past form with current form.”Ed has been outstanding during the Sheffield Shield over the past two seasons and has an excellent record against the pink ball. Daniel Hughes has been in terrific form during the JLT Cup so there were lengthy discussions. Finally we decided to go with Dan in that last batting spot. It wasn’t easy. There were a lot of things we had to weigh up and consider.”Selection for the Shield rounds ahead of the Ashes has been done collaboratively between the coaches, the network of state talent managers and the national selectors – chairman Trevor Hohns, national coach Darren Lehmann, national talent manager Greg Chappell and Mark Waugh.The most obvious example of this is how the workloads of the fast bowlers are tightly mapped out at the National Cricket Centre in Brisbane, but there are also discussions about which other players the selectors wish to see ahead of the international season. In 2012, Chris Rogers came close to losing his state contract to make room for younger players, before Victoria were informed that the national panel had an eye on him looking ahead to the 2013 Ashes tour of England.Cowan, who can expect a recall when Smith and Warner return to the Test team, had more or less foreshadowed his own omission last week, stating he was “essentially no chance” of ever playing for Australia again despite his performances. He also noted how his former Tasmania team-mate George Bailey had been summarily dropped from the ODI team. “What percentage did I give myself last year? One or two per cent? I think you need to move the decimal place to the left. There’s essentially no chance,” Cowan told podcast.”The way the selectors have shown their hand, they’re not that interested in necessarily always picking their best team in all formats — before it was ‘we’ll play around with the T20 team and the one-day team’. I think Test cricket, sadly, has become a little bit like that as well. For the older guys who are performing, my gut feel is the door is probably shut.”You could probably track the Australian ODI performance on a downward trend the moment they stopped picking George [Bailey] because he was too old, and picking guys who hadn’t even represented their state.”Bailey is set to captain Tasmania in their opener, with both Tim Paine and the incumbent Test wicketkeeper Matthew Wade named in the Tigers’ squad. The national selectors have indicated they see both glovemen as contenders to be part of the Test team next month.Sheffield Shield squads
New South Wales: Steven Smith (capt), Sean Abbott, Trent Copeland, Pat Cummins, Moises Henriques, Daniel Hughes, Nathan Lyon, Nic Maddinson, Peter Nevill, Kurtis Patterson, Mitchell Starc, David WarnerTasmania: George Bailey (capt), Gabe Bell, Jackson Bird, Alex Doolan, Jake Doran, Andrew Fekete, Ben McDermott, Tim Paine, Sam Rainbird, Tom Rogers, Jordan Silk, Matthew Wade, Beau WebsterVictoria: Pete Handscomb (capt), Fawad Ahmed, Scott Boland, Dan Christian, Travis Dean, Aaron Finch, Marcus Harris, Sam Harper, Glenn Maxwell, Peter Siddle, Chris Tremain, Cameron WhiteQueensland: Usman Khawaja (capt), Joe Burns, Brendan Doggett, Luke Feldman, Marnus Labuschagne, Michael Neser, James Peirson, Matt Renshaw, Mark Steketee, Mitchell Swepson, Sam Truloff, Jack Wildermuth

The seamer’s maiden five-wicket haul sent Himachal Pradesh hurtling to 167 all out. Vidarbha, meanwhile, made Bengal follow on, while Goa gained a slender lead against Services

ESPNcricinfo staff11-Nov-2017Seamer Shahnawaz Hussain’s career-best figures of 6 for 53 helped Chhattisgarh bowl out Himachal Pradesh for 167 and hand them a thrashing by an innings and 114 runs. Shahnawaz’s maiden five-wicket haul gave Chhatisgarh their first outright win of the season and with it seven points.After Chhattisgarh posted 456 in their first innings to secure a 281-run lead, Himachal Pradesh were bowled out in 49.5 overs in their second dig. Himachal Pradesh’s innings was devoid of any momentum right from the start, as they slipped to 9 for 2, 88 for 5 and 121 for 7 at various stages. Only Nikhil Gangta (41) and Paras Dogra (35) played reasonably substantial knocks, but Shahnawaz cleaned up the middle and lower order. Earlier in the morning, Chhattisgarh added 67 runs to their overnight 389 for 6. Rishi Dhawan, Pankaj Jaiswal and Sidharth Sharma claimed three wickets each.Vidarbha held the whip hand at the end of day three after bowling out Bengal for 207 in their first innings and making them follow on in Kalyani.Resuming their first innings on 89 for 3, Bengal didn’t lose a wicket until the 15th over of the day, but once captain Manoj Tiwary (50) and Wriddhiman Saha (0) fell in quick succession, things went downhill for them in no time. From 132 for 3, they slipped to 172 for 7, and they were eventually bowled out for 207, conceding a 292-run first-innings lead.Offspinner Akshay Wakhare picked up three wickets, while seamers Rajneesh Gurbani and Lalit Yadav finished with two apiece. Following on, Bengal were in early trouble as they slipped to 10 for 3. Lalit struck three times in the space of two overs to remove Abhishek Raman, Abhimanyu Easwaran and Koushik Ghosh. There was some damage control done, however, by Sudip Chatterjee (40*) and Tiwary (36*) who ensured Bengal didn’t suffer any more jolts, moving them to 86 for 3 by stumps. They still trail Vidarbha by 206.A last-wicket stand of 27 between Keenan Vaz (70, 167b, 7×4) and Heramb Parab helped Goa secure a slender seven-run lead against Services at the Palam ground. At stumps, Services were 108 for 3 in their second innings.In the morning, resuming their first innings at 150 for 6 in reply to Services’ 263, Goa looked like they would concede the first-innings advantage when they slipped to 193 for 8. It was thanks largely to Vaz and overnight batsman Amogh Desai (52) that Goa eventually edged past Services. Vaz added 50 for the ninth wicket with Felix Alemao before the seamer Sachidanand Pandey – who would finish with five wickets – dismissed the latter. Vaz and Parab eventually ensured Goa achieved the lead.

Shaun Marsh completed his fifth Test hundred as Australia declared on 442 for 8 to pile the pressure onto England

The Report by Brydon Coverdale03-Dec-2017
Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsAustralia’s selectors picking Shaun Marsh, and Joe Root sending Australia in to bat. If these were two of the more controversial decisions made in relation to this Ashes series, only one now appears an inspired call. On the second day at Adelaide Oval, Marsh pulled and drove his way to the fifth hundred of his Test career, while Root faced the embarrassment of seeing Australia declare in their sixth session of batting after he sent them in.Their total was 8 for 442, and they had batted for 149 overs. Root had spoken at the toss about his bowlers getting two chances with the new ball on day one, a curious mindset for a captain choosing to field. By the time Steven Smith declared, a third new ball was on the horizon. Australia’s score was only the 97th-highest total by any team having been sent in to bat in Test history, but for Root that comfort was as cold as the rainy Adelaide evening.