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Plays of the Day from the second day of the third Test between Australia and Sri Lanka in Sydney

Andrew Fernando at the SCG04-Jan-2013The welcome
Few cricketers inspire the kind of universal admiration Michael Hussey has enjoyed in his career, and the spectators and his opponents at the SCG put on a fitting ovation as he arrived at the crease in the second session. The 26,420-strong audience, some of whom had adorned their nose and lips in Hussey’s signature zinc, rose to applaud him onto the arena, while Sri Lanka formed a guard of honour often reserved for the greats of the game. Hussey’s international career was too short perhaps for him to be considered among cricket’s finest, it is difficult to begrudge him the honour his opponents bestowed on him in his last match.The dismay
Clarke has barely put a foot wrong both with the bat and as captain in the past 12 months, but if Hussey does not bat again in the game, Clarke will have committed a blunder he will have a hard time forgiving himself for. Clarke pushed Dhammika Prasad to the left of the point fielder and called Hussey through for a tight single, but Dimuth Karunaratne rounded the ball and threw down the stumps to find even the sprightly, diving Hussey short of his ground. Clarke’s head dropped as he turned around to see the Sri Lankans celebrate at the other end, and he sank to his haunches on the pitch when the third umpire confirmed the visitors’ delight.The blows
Lahiru Thirimanne had spilt two catches at short leg in the third session, but when he finally caught one that Sri Lanka and umpire Dar thought had hit Matthew Wade’s bat, the decision was overturned on review. Almost as a punishment, Wade swept powerfully two balls later to collect Thirimanne painfully in the thigh, before the batsman’s aim improved and he got the fielder in the box with a similar stroke next ball.The trend
When Ed Cowan was caught short for 4 attempting to take a second, Australia had lost a top-three batsman to a run out in each Test this series. The dismissal was largely of Cowan’s own making as he sauntered a first, then stuttered when he saw Warner charging back for two, while Nuwan Pradeep had hauled the ball in and released it with speed, accuracy and power. Not since the Ashes series of 1977 had one of Australia’s top three been run-out in three consecutive matches.The missed chance
Sri Lanka had given Michael Clarke two reprieves in Melbourne, and their largesse continued in Sydney, albeit with the help of umpire Aleem Dar. Rangana Herath struck Clarke on the pad first with one that pitched outside off stump and straightened, but Dar turned down Sri Lanka’s voracious appeal as he had been doing for much of the day. Mahela Jayawardene considered asking for a review, but with only one remaining to them, the uncertainty writ on Herath’s face was enough to deter him. Replays showed however, that the ball had hit Clarke in line with off stump and would go on to hit middle.

Back in 1977, this correspondent was at the inception of World Series Cricket. (Sort of)

Steven Lynch14-Jan-2013Even before his untimely death on December 29 I’d been thinking about Tony Greig. Someone had kindly sent me a DVD of – the story of the World Series breakaway – for Christmas, and I’d been watching it in fits and starts, stopping the action when the kids appeared, in case Kerry dropped yet another f-bomb.The actor who played Greig was fairly convincing, although he wasn’t quite tall enough. Back in 1970, when he was first selected to play for England against the Rest of the World, a school friend and I made a terribly early start to go and watch Greig play a county match at The Oval. We were rewarded with a seat next to the dressing-room balcony, and a view of our lofty new hero (alongside John Snow, who spent most of the day reading a newspaper, lowering it agonisingly slowly if there was an appeal, which might force him to the inconvenience of putting the pads on). After that we followed Greig’s fine international career closely, and I was later delighted to meet him in various press boxes, when he would unhesitatingly answer any manner of question – including a cheeky one about his exact height: “Six foot seven while I was playing. But I seem to have shrunk a bit – only about six-five now!”On the whole, the programme was very well done. Lachy Hulme as Packer was imposing and menacing in equal measure: it must have been a daunting task to play the legendary ex-boss of Australia’s Channel 9 on a show made by Channel 9. The action sequences actually looked as if real cricketers were involved, although “Andy Roberts” did perhaps seem a bit more leisurely than the real thing. They were able to splice in archive footage from the time, and I couldn’t help comparing it with the missed opportunities of the mini-series, made around 20 years earlier, in which the players wore bizarre home-knit sweaters and most of the “Test action” took place on an outfield covered with more leaves than you’d see at an Under-11 game.Some of those players, too, were pretty unconvincing: “Bill Voce” looked about 50, which is probably why he bowled almost round-arm, while “Gubby Allen” was about a foot taller than the genuine article. The real Gubby was once reduced to apoplectic silence in an MCC committee meeting, when someone mischievously told him he’d been watching and didn’t think much of his bowling action.All the matches in seemed to be played out in front of exactly the same stands, but visited a few more places – even though a bit of nifty camerawork must have been necessary when they went to VFL Park on the outskirts of Melbourne, the scene of Packer’s first floodlit games, where all bar one of the stands have now been demolished.

I was there on the day in 1977 that Packer swept in through the Grace Gates for his momentous meeting with the ICC. I sneaked out of the office and watched as he and Richie Benaud got out of a big black car

The cricketers of also looked more like the real thing, especially an eerily feline Greg Chappell, and a doppelganger for Max Walker (he looked like him, anyway; wonder if he could do that famously tangled bowling action). Ian Chappell, speaking on Australian radio, suggested that some of the players had been ringing each other up and asking who was supposed to be who, but the main men were well defined, although a fondness for perms and moustaches understandably made identification a little difficult. Chappelli said he’d met the actor who played him, who admitted he’d had to lose a few pounds: “Mate,” replied Ian, “actually I reckon you should have put a few on!” The clothes, too, were spot on for the swinging ’70s: ideas man John Cornell sported a series of shirts whose collars would have been a hazard in high winds, and it might be better to say no more about some of the safari suits on show.I did think the first programme was a bit slow to get going, and that the second one ended rather suddenly – did it really take only a couple of decent gates at Packer matches to make the Australian board cave in? And what did the players think about the sudden outbreak of “peace”?The part I enjoyed most were the scenes supposedly filmed at Lord’s. Because I was there on the momentous day in 1977 that Packer swept in through the Grace Gates for his first meeting with the ICC. I sneaked out of the office and watched as he and Richie Benaud got out of a big black car. I may be wrong, but I think that was the first time that Benaud’s involvement with the new venture was made public.I didn’t have much more to do with the visit. As a cellar-dweller then, a terribly junior clerk, I was generally confined to life literally below stairs – the MCC ticket office at the time was in the old boiler room, below ground level in the pavilion. We got used to working out what was happening in matches by the crowd noise reverberating through the Long Room floor, and occasionally invented errands to dart outside and snatch five minutes of actual cricket action. At the opposite end of the age scale to me was Old Jim, who had already been given a gold watch for 50 years’ service on the railways, then worked part-time at Lord’s for 25 more before finally retiring as he approached 90. Jim was in charge of the filing – and, almost as importantly, the tea, which he made with stately precision at 11am and 3pm each day. It was great tea, too.Anyway, the day Packer came to Lord’s, Jim strolled out to start the brewing process just before three o’clock, and returned with even more of a genial smile than usual: “I’ve just seen that Terry Packer,” he announced – it must have been around the time Packer famously waltzed out of the meeting “for a look around”, leaving the Establishment to absorb his radical proposals. “Crikey, Jim, did he sign you up for World Series Tea?” I asked, before nipping out to the wash basins myself for a glimpse of the Distinguished Visitor. But he’d gone by then. A shame: maybe Ask Steven might have got going a bit sooner!

Plays from the IPL game between Chennai Super Kings and Pune Warriors in Chennai

Sidharth Monga15-Apr-2013The shot
It is a reverse lap. It is a reverse flick. It is a reverse leg glance, or an off glance if you will. It is Steven Smith up to mischief. It is a huge six. In the last over of Pune Warriors’ innings, Smith switched the stance early, but not the grip. Dwayne Bravo bowled one that would have hit the top of off had Smith not sent it sailing over short third man and some 20 rows behind the boundary. The most incredible part of the shot: it wasn’t a switch hit.The crossing that wasn’t
In the 18th over of the match, Mitchell Marsh cut Bravo in the air and straight to third man, and was so consumed by his disappointment he didn’t bother to even look up. Smith, though, was alert and wanted the strike, but to his chagrin he was the only one making that effort. By the time the catch was taken, Smith had reached within diving distance of the stumps at the strikers’ end, but Marsh hadn’t moved, and the new batsman faced the next delivery.Smith would encounter similar disappointment in the last over when Manish Pandey would refuse to try a single and get bowled when slogging, leaving the new batsman to face a dot ball: no run off the last two balls.The introduction
You know a Twitter joke has overstayed its welcome when it has reached Ravi Shastri, admittedly not an admirer of the micro-blogging site. At the toss, after introducing the captains, he went on to the match referee, “… and not Sir Ravindra, but Rajendra Jadeja.” SMH.The drop
You are a batsman who has not been sent out to bat even though seven others have had a hit. You are unlikely to get a bowl. It’s not quite an evening you are enjoying, and in the second over of your fielding effort you have a sitter coming your way at mid-on and you spill it. M Vijay, the beneficiary of your benevolence, goes on to add 23 more. You are T Suman, and where is the hole you can hide yourself in?

S Badrinath isn’t too affected by the lack of batting opportunities in the IPL as long as his team, Chennai Super Kings, is winning matches

Amol Karhadkar02-May-2013Balance is S Badrinath’s forte on and off the field. When it comes to the topic of him hardly getting a knock for table-toppers Chennai Super Kings in the sixth edition of the IPL, that balance comes to the fore.”To be honest, it is definitely not easy. To not be able to bat every game [while] playing as a batsman is something that’s really not enjoyable,” Badrinath said a day after Super Kings beat Pune Warriors. “I think I’ve got used to it a little bit, even though I would love to get more knocks and contribute with the bat.””Fortunately, we have a strong batting line-up. We have some of the best Twenty20 batsmen in our line-up, so with the flexibility that we have in our batting order, whenever we get off to a good start, I know it’s difficult for me to get a look-in. And I would always put the team’s priority over my personal aspirations.”Badrinath, along with captain MS Dhoni and IPL’s highest run-getter, Suresh Raina, has been a constant in virtually every Super Kings game. While Raina has batted in 87 innings in 91 matches and Dhoni has played 77 innings in 88 matches, Badrinath has played 64 innings in 87 matches.The difference is prominent when Badrinath’s statistics are compared to players with the most IPL appearances. With 87 matches, Badrinath shares the fourth spot along with Virat Kohli, behind Raina (91 games), Dhoni and Rohit Sharma (88 each). None of these batsmen, except Badrinath, have played less than 75 innings.At the end of IPL 2011, Badrinath had had a bat in 50 of the 62 matches he played. Last year saw him get nine knocks in 15 appearances while this year he has taken guard in just five of Super Kings’ 10 games so far.These numbers have a lot to do with his role at Super Kings as well. Badrinath has been utilised primarily as a rescue man, someone who walks in whenever Super Kings lose a couple of early wickets.”Whenever the openers get going, it gets difficult [for me] to get a bat,” he said. “During IPL 2009, in South Africa, Matthew Hayden was in such stupendous form that once he got his eye in, he was finishing games for us. That made it difficult for me to get a bat consistently.”Similarly, Michael Hussey has been in such great form this year that he has been playing the sheet anchor and the aggressor’s roles to perfection. And with Dhoni being phenomenal with the bat, I don’t mind not contributing in terms of runs to the team’s victory.”Against Warriors, he came in to bat after the openers had been dismissed early and his crucial 75-run stand with Raina set up a platform for Dhoni to finish the innings on a high note. Badrinath realises that, more often than not, he will end up being the silent contributor to the cause of the team. With the Super Kings outfit “remaining almost unchanged through the six seasons”, players know their roles, with little room for confusion, he adds.”T20 is a format where the top three batsmen invariably get the big scores,” he said. “But even without big numbers, players can make significant contributions. I would rather see Super Kings at the top of the table, instead of batting in every match.”Badrinath, who made his debut against South Africa in 2010, was recalled to the national side for the Test series against New Zealand last year. However, he was dropped without being given an opportunity.A prolific run-scorer at the domestic level, he entered IPL 2013 on the back of a mediocre season (by his standards), scoring 347 runs in six games at an average of 49.57. The IPL, thus, is the last opportunity this season for him to prove that he is still in form. But the 32-year-old isn’t too concerned about it.”Playing for Super Kings and playing for Tamil Nadu are two different things,” he said. “And even though I have been able to get limited opportunities with the bat so far, the IPL isn’t over yet.”As for the Ranji season, it’s true I haven’t had a [typical] Badrinath season, but the fact that I missed two games due to injury can’t be ignored. Besides, I don’t understand the double standards that are applied. Why are those who have scored just about as many runs as me without missing a match considered to have had a very good season and why am I told otherwise? Why is it that for Badrinath, a good season means getting a thousand runs and for others, even 500 runs are exceptional?”

With Sri Lanka’s seniors still going strong, Dinesh Chandimal will have to get used to batting lower down for some time. He wants the youngsters, including himself, to start contributing more if a crisis hits

Andrew Fidel Fernando in Colombo22-Jul-2013Dinesh Chandimal’s year could hardly have begun much better. Having sat the last half of 2012 on the sidelines, he was added to the New Year Test side after Kumar Sangakkara fractured a finger, and impressed with both bat and the gloves, hitting 62 not out alongside the tail in the second innings.Two months later, he made his maiden Test century on a batting paradise in Galle, but followed that with a much more valuable hundred in Colombo, against Bangladesh. In between, he had become his nation’s youngest ever captain in any format, when he was handed the Twenty20 reins, and he celebrated by leading his side to a first-up win.The last few months, though, haven’t quite gone according to plan. In April, he opted to turn down soft offers from the IPL, in order to work intensively with Sri Lanka’s batting coach on technical flaws that hindered his limited-overs game, as well as to learn some English. He has emerged with a slew of phrases that every sportsman finds useful in his career, but the rewards of learning are less evident in his ODI batting. In seven innings since the start of June, Chandimal has made 86 runs, at 14.33.His development in limited-overs cricket has to some extent hampered by the presence of Sri Lanka’s three top-order juggernauts. Chandimal has excelled in Tests, where he has had the time to construct innings, but his batting yet lacks the power to make good use of the finishing spots he has been saddled with in ODIs. With Sri Lanka’s senior batsmen reluctant to retire before the 2015 World Cup, Chandimal has figured he must adapt to batting lower down, as he may remain there for some time yet.”I need to know how to bat from No.1 to No.11. I think that’s what the best cricketers do,” Chandimal said. “When you have such good players in your top order, you have to fit where the team needs. In my last two tours there have been some small weaknesses in my batting and I have had to bat in different places in different matches, but I can’t be disheartened by that.”Chandimal also called on the other young batsmen in his side to begin contributing, after the senior batsmen had carried the side through tournaments in the UK and West Indies, without a great deal of support from the middle order. Sri Lanka’s 180-run victory in the first ODI was similarly propelled by Kumar Sangakkara’s 169, which constituted more than half of the team’s total.”We can’t always rely on our experienced players to score runs. As youngsters we are expecting that on the days when they can’t score, we will stand up and perform,” Chandimal said. “We have a lot of good young players – Upul Tharanga, Lahiru Thirimanne, myself. I think we have a lot more experience now than we did when we first started playing.”We’ve been given a big opportunity, as I’ve been given the captaincy and Lahiru is the vice-captain. As young players we need to know how to take hold of that opportunity with both hands.”Tharanga’s presence at the top of the order has helped settle the opening combination, after Kusal Perera could not find form in the Champions Trophy last month. Tharanga has 13 ODI centuries, including a career-best 174 since returning to the side last month, but he has in the past been wildly inconsistent. With so much youth in the middle order, however, Chandimal feels Tharanga’s 168 matches worth of experience, provides a better overall balance.”He has done really well since coming back into the team in the last tour. We saw how well he used his experience in the last few games. If you look at his statistics there’s no doubt he’s a talented cricketer. That opening combination is good. Because of the two new balls, you need that experience.”

Stats highlights from Australia’s emphatic Test win in Brisbane

S Rajesh24-Nov-2013

• The margin of victory, 381 runs, is Australia’s sixth-largest in terms of runs in a Test against England. Four of the five previous wins by higher margins were before 1950.
• England averaged 15.75 runs per wicket in the Test, which is their fifth-lowest in a Test against Australia in the last 60 years; all of those have happened since 1990. On the last tour to Australia England also had one horrendous Test, when they were bowled out for 187 and 123 in Perth and lost by 267 runs. (They averaged 15.50 runs per wicket in that match.) However, on that occasion the defeat only levelled the series, after England had won by an innings in Adelaide.
• This is the second time since the beginning of last year that England have been bowled out for under 200 in both innings of a Test. In Dubai against Pakistan last year – also the first Test of the series – they made 192 and 160. That was also the last time they had only one 50-plus score in the entire match. Overall during this period, they’ve been bowled out for under 200 nine times, all of them in overseas Tests.
• Since the beginning of 2012, England have lost four out of five first Tests in an away series, and averaged 24.05 runs per wicket in these matches. After the first Test, they have a 4-2 win-loss record, and have averaged 36.67 runs per wicket through the rest of those series.
• Mitchell Johnson had an outstanding match with both bat and ball, scoring 103 runs, and taking 9 for 103. It was only the seventh instance of an Australian scoring 100-plus runs and taking eight or more wickets in the same Test: the last such instance was more than 50 years ago, by Alan Davidson in the tied Test at the same venue in 1960.
• England’s total partnership runs for wickets five to eight over both innings was 25 runs, which is their lowest ever in Test cricket. The previous-lowest was 31, in 1888.
• Australia’s fast bowlers took 16 wickets at an average of 14.31 in this Test, their eighth-best in a Test since 2000.
• Australia’s win ends a sequence of nine Tests without a victory, a period during which they lost seven and drew two. The last time they went nine Tests without winning was in 1985-86: between November 1985 and December 1986, they went 14 Tests without winning, drawing nine, losing four and tying one.

Two days after being dropped from the list of contracted players, Dean Elgar demonstrated the technique and composure needed to face down Mitchell Johnson and co

Firdose Moonda in Port Elizabeth20-Feb-20140:00

Cullinan: SA gifted wickets to Australia

After surviving a hostile first spell from Mitchell Johnson, who bowled the first 12 balls he faced, waiting 20 deliveries and 42 minutes to get his first run, seeing Faf du Plessis accelerate past him but not caring as he perfected his own timing and placement and finding the space to bat with relative freedom, Dean Elgar finally ran out of patience. Who could blame him after the week he has had.On Sunday, Elgar would have started dreaming of a Test recall after hearing Ryan McLaren was ruled out of the Port Elizabeth match. By Monday, he may even have sent his whites to get washed in anticipation of playing when he heard Andrew Hudson, the convener of selectors, say the No. 7 position could be filled by an extra batsman and that person would come from within the squad. Elgar was the only extra batsman in the original 15.On Tuesday, he would have shelved all thoughts of that, or of playing for South Africa in the near future. That was the day he learned that from April, he will no longer receive a salary from Cricket South Africa. Elgar was one of two players in the Test squad, the other being Thami Tsolekile, who were cut from the contract list.

Elgar makes most of good news

Shortly after Dean Elgar found out he was cut from CSA’s central contract list, he was told he would probably play in the Test match. “It was the bad news first and then soften the blow with some good news,” Elgar said. “It was disappointing news ahead of a big Test but there was added motivation to show people that maybe they made the wrong choice.”
Elgar was even more pleased that his Test comeback allowed him to bat where he is most comfortable. “I’m more at home opening the batting, I’ve done it for 90-odd first-class games,” he said. And he focused on that rather than his record against Australia – a pair on debut. “That wasn’t at the back of my mind. A lot of positives came out of what happened. I have a learnt a lot and developed into a more experienced cricketer.”
His absorbing of pressure was the clearest sign of that and Elgar said he expects the pitch to become tougher to bat on as the match goes on. “At one stage, it was like I couldn’t get sand in the desert,” he said. “It was hard graft. PE plays like this – low and slow. It’s a patience game. This is the slowest I’ve seen PE play in a while but it’s also credit to the Australian bowlers. They identified the conditions and adapted.”
South Africa’s total, while not substantial yet, could still be handy. “First innings runs are golden at St George’s,” he said.
Almost as valuable as a central contract? Elgar wouldn’t say other than that he is certain he will find some employment from April. “I’m sure some franchise will sign me up,” he said.
Before that he has another job to do with the ball here. “Smithy likes to use a few pie-chuckers like myself,” he said. “I will definitely put my hand up to do a job.”

On Wednesday morning, Elgar would not have known what to think. Graeme Smith appeared worn down by the timing of the contracts announcement, called it a “curveball” and said if a player had been left off it and got the opportunity to play, they should use it to prove they are worthy. By the afternoon, Elgar would have known he was playing and may have thought the captain’s words were an instruction to him to show defiance.But it was only much later in the day that Elgar would have been sure not only that he would be in the XI but that he would be batting in his preferred position at the top of the order. He would also have known that the only other time he has played against Australia in a Test, his debut, he recorded a pair and that just last week he dropped David Warner when he came on as a substitute fielder in Centurion. It was a chance he should have taken. So was this one, which is why it was so important that he did not fumble.Even if Elgar’s confidence was at its highest, he would still have been nervous given that he was tasked with the most difficult job of the day: to see off the man who decimated the top order at SuperSport Park. Elgar may not have thought it would be that tricky when the first delivery Johnson served up was off target and went down leg.From the next one, he would have been sure what he was up against. It was full and straight and although not very quick at 137 kph, Elgar instinctively tried to flick it away on the leg side and hit it to short leg. The traps were all set and Elgar would have known the only way to win the battle was to stay patient.For the next three-quarters of an hour, Elgar showed what it takes to see off Johnson and proved he has the temperament to play Test cricket. He fronted up the way a Test opener should, got behind the line of Johnson’s deliveries and defended with the determination of a man whose livelihood was on the line.The St George’s Park surface did not offer Johnson as much in terms of bounce and carry but he was still quick, his bouncer was still fearsome and his fuller delivery threatened to sneak through Elgar’s stronghold at any moment. Elgar didn’t let it. He kept out the ones that looked like they would break his toes, left anything wide outside off and slowly trusted himself to start moving forward to deliveries instead of hanging back in his crease.After five overs, which included Smith’s dismissal, he had a ball trickle away off his hip for a leg bye. After two more deliveries, he saw Hashim Amla pinned on the pads by one that, on first glance, looked like it had pitched outside leg. Amla was given out and went to consult Elgar about reviewing. Given the stature of the man at the other end, there might have been pressure on Elgar to encourage Amla to seek a second opinion, but he stuck to his guns. Elgar told Amla he thought it was out. He was right.Dean Elgar’s composure showed how the Australia attack – Mitchell Johnson included – could be dealt with•Getty ImagesAll this happened before he had scored a run. South Africa were two down with only 11 on the board. None of those runs belonged to the two men at the crease. Things could have unravelled very quickly but Elgar ensured they did not.Du Plessis tried a few things, Elgar did not. He just presented his best impression of an impenetrable wall and left it there. When du Plessis got a short ball, despite the square leg in place, he pulled. When Elgar did, he either left it or ducked. When du Plessis got a half volley from Peter Siddle on the pads, he put it away. When Elgar got a similar length from Nathan Lyon, he defended.And then, after 11-and-a-half overs that seemed like a lifetime, Elgar brought out his slog-sweep. He sent Lyon over midwicket in a moment of aggression that took everyone by surprise but announced Elgar’s arrival. Then he disappeared back into his concentration zone and kept going.His concentration was impeccable despite the chirping from the Australians, which may have been about his employment status, and the one he wore on the shoulder from Johnson, which raced to him at 145kph and thundered into him as he realised he was in a bad position to do anything other than get hit. He did as AB de Villiers said and did not show any fear.He valued his wicket enough not to make any mistakes and with his caution came confidence. Elgar is a classy player with a range of elegant shots that he brought out as the afternoon went on. He played a little more away from his body to drive through the covers, pushed another one wide of mid-off, beat the cover fielder later on and tucked one off his hips to square leg.Although his half-century came up with an edge past the slips, other than that, he looked a man in control of what he was doing. He placed the ball where he wanted it to go, he threaded the fielders, he was on his way to a hundred and he should have got there.And then all that hard work disappeared when he decided to hit Lyon over midwicket and skied it. His magic number is 83 now. On Friday morning, Elgar will still not have a national contract but he has given those who issue the documents a reason to wonder whether they made a mistake.0:00

‘Patience game key in PE’ – Elgar

For almost two months, Sri Lanka have been successful in a number of high-pressure games in Bangladesh. It indicates that they are developing the knack of taming those pressure moments to their advantage

Mohammad Isam in Mirpur05-Apr-2014Given how the tour of Bangladesh has gone for Sri Lanka from February, a fitting end would be clinching the World T20. Their poor track record in tournament finals has been discussed at length, but this “winning feeling”, as described by their captain Lasith Malinga, has the ability to alter history when they take on India in the final on Sunday.They have repeatedly said that they would do anything to win, particularly after the designated T20 captain Dinesh Chandimal stood aside from the playing XI due to poor form. The decision itself says much about their psyche, but there have been progressive signs.For almost two months now, they have played a number of high-pressure games, and come out successful in all of them. It started with the two last-ball wins in the T20 series against Bangladesh back in February. They had come back from the dead in the ODI series too, and enjoyed an unbeaten run in the Asia Cup.”We have the winning feeling among everyone – batsman, bowlers and support staff,” Malinga said. “We are trying to play our best cricket, and we are winning. We are looking forward to giving our best tomorrow.”We won the Asia Cup here, and tomorrow is a good opportunity for us to prove ourselves once more. Everyone trusts us to give our best. If we do that, given that we’re used to the pitches and the conditions here, we should have a good chance.”In the World T20 so far, they overcame New Zealand in a low-scoring final group game to make it to the last four, where they put pressure on West Indies in a rain-hit game.Sri Lanka have been carried by contributions from several players and haven’t relied on just a few individuals. Kusal Perera and Mahela Jayawardene have been in good batting form while Angelo Mathews and Rangana Herath have stood up when needed. Herath’s spell against New Zealand stood out while Mathews made important runs in the semi-final, just when West Indies were looking to restrict them.What has stood out for Sri Lanka is their aptitude at handling the tough situations and ensuring they see it through till the end.They were slightly lucky to start off with in the first T20 against Bangladesh, when Thisara Perera’s waist-high full-toss off the final ball was miscued by Anamul Haque, giving the bowler a return catch. Two days later, Sachithra Senanayake hammered Farhad Reza behind square-leg for a boundary when two was needed off the last ball.Those two successive last-ball wins invigorated the team, who fought back from a sorry 67 for 8 in their next match. The allrounder Perera again made the difference with a counterattacking 80, after which the bowlers squeezed the game out of Bangladesh’s grasp. That game alone demoralised the home team, and it was inevitable that Sri Lanka wouldn’t be pushed in the next two games.The momentum carried over to the Asia Cup, where they won close round robin games against Pakistan and India, before cruising past the former in the final. These wins indicate that Sri Lanka are starting to enjoy the tight moments a little more, and having won so many of them here in Bangladesh, they are quite prepared for it. Their most remarkable turnaround has been winning the first ODI against Bangladesh after slipping to such a precarious position.Perera and Senanayake were helped by dropped catches but since you make your own luck, Perera ensured it worked in their favour. Having a team like Sri Lanka 67 for 8 should have been enough for the captain Mushfiqur Rahim to stifle them further. But as Perera attacked, Bangladesh backed off, to the point that the momentum had shifted quite forcefully by the time Sri Lanka ended their innings.At the start of the Asia Cup, when Misbah-ul-Haq and Umar Akmal led Pakistan’s fightback in a big chase, Sri Lanka stayed calm and somehow managed a tight over here, a crucial stop there, producing a breakthrough finally, and winning that opening game.Against India, it was Kumar Sangakkara who stayed cool with a superb century, but Perera and Senanayake once again ensured that Sri Lanka finished the game, shortly after he got out in the closing stages.With the attention on Sangakkara and Jayawardene playing their last T20 for Sri Lanka, what matters is how the team’s journey ends this season, and they have had a successful last two months in the country, taming the pressure moments.

Plays of the day from the match between Kings XI Punjab and Kolkata Knight Riders in Abu Dhabi

Siddarth Ravindran26-Apr-2014The single
“Gambhir, please open your account,” read a banner as the Kolkata Knight Riders captain walked in to bat after three ducks in a row. He was nearly dismissed first ball again as a leading edge was almost taken by the bowler Sandeep Sharma, who dived to his right and got a hand on the ball but couldn’t hold on. There was a Mitchell Johnson bouncer to survive soon after, and then Gambhir guided one to fine leg to score his first run of the season. The relief was short-lived for Gambhir, though, as he chipped a catch to short extra cover without adding to his score. At least he will be spared the “Audi” nickname Mark Waugh earned after scoring four ducks in a row against Sri Lanka in 1992.The run-out
Cheteshwar Pujara has played some lengthy innings in this tournament during which he struggled so much some of his fans wished for his dismissal. He didn’t last long today, but it was still a struggle. He wafted at his first delivery and was beaten, on his fifth he needed a big stretch to get home in time to complete the second run. After the first ball of the second over, the umpire raised his finger, when Pujara gloved (though his hand was off the handle) a Morne Morkel bouncer to the keeper only to be reprieved as replays showed the bowler had overstepped. Pujara heaved at the free hit and gave a catch to mid-off for a single. He never got the strike back, as he was run-out attempting a quick single three balls later. His luck had run out.The yorker
Morkel has been fearsome with the new ball this season, and was causing havoc with his bouncers. However, it was a pinpoint yorker that brought him what is currently the most prized wicket in the tournament. Glenn Maxwell has been laying bowling attacks to waste so far, and it was perhaps the confidence from those knocks which prompted him to move across the stumps and attempt a brash flick against Morkel. Even in this form, though, it was a tough shot to pull off against a 149kph yorker. Maxwell missed, and the ball lasered in to leg stump.The googly
It was the googly that first brought Piyush Chawla fame nearly a decade ago when he dismissed Sachin Tendulkar with it in a Challenger Series match. He showed why it remains a potent weapon in limited-overs cricket, when he confounded a well-set Virender Sehwag, the most destructive player of spin in the Kings XI side, with one that spun in to sneak between bat and pad and take the top of middle stump.The comeback
When Mitchell Johnson came out to bat, he was made to look clueless by Sunil Narine. The ball spun in between the big gap between bat and pad, handing Johnson a golden duck.The match was virtually over as a contest when Narine came out to bat in the 14th over with Knight Riders at 65 for 7. That didn’t prevent Johnson from firing a full, fast ball that that took out Narine’s offstump. If that wasn’t enough, Johnson also screamed in joy as though he had turned the game around, and not just taken a tailender’s wicket. Perhaps a reminder to Narine that Johnson too can make batsmen look clueless.

Plays of the day from the third ODI between West Indies and Bangladesh

Mohammad Isam25-Aug-2014The repeat offender
Mushfiqur Rahim missed a straightforward stumping chance off Abdur Razzak’s first over, the tenth of the innings, with Darren Bravo having jumped out of the crease and nowhere near within his ground. But the wicketkeeper had fluffed the ball too badly for a second go at the stumps. It was his second error in as many games, having missed Denesh Ramdin off Mahmudullah.The chaperone
Whether it was because of that missed stumping off his bowling or not, Razzak looked completely out of sorts in the rest of the game. In the 20th over, Ramdin had miscued a lofted shot off Mashrafe Mortaza. The ball looped up over Razzak at mid-on but he didn’t get under the ball, and by the time the camera panned on him, it looked as if he was merely ushering the ball.The six-hitter
There was no point in his innings that Ramdin looked uncomfortable, but there was a point when he just looked invincible to Bangladesh. He struck Mashrafe for two successive sixes in the 38th over and then off the last ball, made it three in a row with a belter down the ground. It was obviously hard to measure which of his 11 sixes was hit the hardest but this had an immediate impact on the viewer.The non-wide
Amid all the six-hitting, Sohag Gazi had a moment of bright thinking when he slipped one past Darren Bravo in the 41st over. He couldn’t even reach the ball, beyond the white mark, but the umpire did not signal wide.The catch
Having stretched his legs for four hours, Kemar Roach stretched the rest of his body in an acrobatic manner to take an outstanding one-handed catch in the second over. Imrul Kayes was the victim of his brilliance, having pulled the ball of Ravi Rampaul’s short delivery. It was hard to tell who was more stunned by that catch, Roach or Kayes.The act of charity
Towards the end of the match, Mashrafe Mortaza and Sohag Gazi were involved in a mix-up, one that could have proved fatal considering the stumps were thrown down with Mashrafe’s bat in the air. But umpire Richard Kettleborough didn’t go to the third umpire because, well, no one appealed. As Ravi Rampaul prepared to bowl the next ball and the replay shown somewhere in the ground, Chris Gayle shouted something at the umpire but it was too late.