A 2-1 result across five Tests in Asia is certainly not a failure, but things went pear shaped over the last few days

Alex Malcolm12-Jul-2022A reality check, indeed. Pat Cummins’ first defeat as Australia Test captain in Galle, by an innings inside four days, was more than just a blip on the radar.It doesn’t quite warrant the vitriolic email former Cricket Australia head of high-performance Pat Howard sent from a Dhaka cafe the day after their first-ever Test loss to Bangladesh in 2017.Nor does it warrant the resignation of the chair of selectors and wholesale team changes, as happened after Australia’s last Test match innings defeat in Hobart in 2016.It is the first defeat in 10 Tests for the new captain and the first defeat in five under new coach Andrew McDonald. Winning teams can have bad games and there are a lot of credits in the bank. If you had offered Cummins and McDonald a score line of two wins, two draws, and a loss from five consecutive subcontinental Tests prior to leaving for Pakistan in late February, especially in the wake of the messy departure of former coach Justin Langer, they would have gleefully accepted it.Related

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Cummins: Innings defeat a 'good reality check'

However, if you’d offered the same at 329 for 5 on the second morning of the second Test in Galle would they have taken it?”It’s a good reality check,” Cummins said post-match. “For people touring over here, it’s really hard. I think there’s so many positives out of last week that we did find methods that work. One small hiccup doesn’t mean you’ve got to change everything about your game.”This is true. Reacting to one loss emotionally, no matter how large, would go entirely against the grain of this team’s new philosophy of being cool, calm and composed at all times.But this was a little more than a hiccup. This capitulation had a very familiar feel to it for Australian teams on the subcontinent. For all the good work of Pakistan and the first Test in Galle, this would have felt like two steps forward and one decent step back.Australia’s collapse on the second morning was a reminder to make strong positions count•Getty ImagesTo the batting firstly. India’s Ravindra Jadeja would have been licking his chops as he watched during his morning coffee in England, as 30-year-old left-arm orthodox Prabath Jayasuriya tore through Australia twice to take the fourth-best figures in history by a Test debutant.Australia had mauled Lasith Embuldeniya last week to the point where Sri Lanka could not afford to pick him again. But the same methods did not work against Jayasuriya, who franked his tremendous first-class record with two spells of bowling that belied his Test inexperience.Where the sweep and reverse sweep had been so productive for Australia’s batters in the first Test, it caused no end of problems in the second. What was noticeable was how many Australia batters fell trying to sweep off the stumps, with Cameron Green (first innings), David Warner, Marnus Labuschagne, and Nathan Lyon all trapped lbw attempting to sweep.Contrast that with the diligence of Dinesh Chandimal, who used the sweep prodigiously but judiciously during his superb 206 not out. He barely once swept Mitchell Swepson’s legspin or Lyon when he bowled from around the wicket, given lbw was very much in play. He only swept Lyon when he pitched wide of off, so he could get his front pad outside the line and he could sweep with the turn, something Steven Smith prefers to do.The reverse sweep also yielded plenty of runs in the series but caused the downfall of Alex Carey at a critical time in the first innings. It would be rash and ill-advised for all of Australia’s top order to abandon their sweeping and reverse sweeping plans for India next year as a few did in Sri Lanka in 2016, but some refinement of those plans will certainly be needed.”I think it’s just those individual methods,” Cummins said. “Everyone does it in their own way, slightly different. But just trying to get a little bit better at everything you try to do. We’ll obviously sit down after this and review it and look at different areas and maybe tactics, but I think it’s just those methods, which might be quite different to what we experience back home in trying to be good enough overseas.”Likewise, with Australia’s batting selection on the subcontinent, refinement might be needed. Some of the areas were already known going in but it would have taken courage to make a change ahead of time.Travis Head’s record against spin was a watching brief for Australia’s selectors and he only confirmed what they already suspected. He could not protect his off stump nor could he score with any freedom. He was the only Australia batter not to make a half-century across the Pakistan and Sri Lanka series, with a highest score of 26. He now averages just 21.30 in Asia from seven Tests and has passed 50 only once.There will be loud calls for Glenn Maxwell for India next year, as he was close to playing in this series. But Maxwell averages just 26.07 in Asia from seven Tests and has also passed 50 just once, albeit it was a superb hundred in Ranchi in 2017. He also hasn’t played a first-class game in three years and is unlikely to play one prior to the India tour.The notion that he is a miles better horse for the course is not backed up by the numbers. Australia A’s concurrent tour to Sri Lanka yielded some excellent batting performances on similar pitches to that produced for the second Test. That Maxwell was called into the squad above any of those players did go against the high-performance philosophy they have been trying to move to in recent times.Warner’s form in Asia is also worthy of discussion. He scored two half-centuries across the two tours. He has the unenviable record now of being one of only three players in Test history to have batted in the top four more than 25 times in India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka without making a century. He averages just 26.13 in those three countries with a highest score of 71. He has three centuries in the subcontinent, two in Bangladesh and one in the UAE, but only once has he faced more than 200 balls. The need to bat long in the subcontinent, as shown by Usman Khawaja, is every bit as valuable as big runs and Warner has not been able to provide it over his career despite being unequivocally one of Australia’s greatest ever openers.Travis Head did not make a half-century across the two tours•AFP/Getty ImagesFrom a bowling perspective, as well as Australia have played in these tours, they have only taken 20 wickets twice and have failed to bowl an opposition out inside 160 overs three times. One of those was on a flat wicket in Rawalpindi that yielded just 14 wickets in five days. But both in Karachi and Galle, opponents have batted for more than 170 overs on pitches where other innings in the game have seen 10 wickets fall inside 54 overs.There will be questions raised about the composition of the attack and the form of Australia’s spinners, as they were unchanged for four of the five Tests. However, Australia’s fielding and reviewing were as much to blame in Galle. The bowlers created as many as 19 clear-cut chances to take just 10 wickets. Lyon and Swepson are lightning rods for opinion, but they had three missed stumpings (two were extremely difficult), a dropped catch, and four lbws between them that would have been out if either the umpire’s call had gone their way or reviews had been kept.Mitchell Starc also had Chandimal caught behind on 30. Australia fans will make noise around some of the umpiring decisions, but it’s worth noting Sri Lanka overturned three incorrect decisions against them in the Test because they kept reviews up their sleeve.Nathan Lyon shouldered a huge workload•Associated PressJayasuriya did, though, prove the value of a left-arm orthodox in the subcontinent, particularly on a decent pitch, where the angle to the right-handers and the odd ball not spinning can often cause more problems than a legspinner can muster. But Australia do not have a left-arm orthodox who averages 25.08 and strikes at 44.3 as Jayasuriya does, with their first-choice option Ashton Agar (whose tour was ended with a side strain) averaging 41.28 and striking at 80.7.Cummins admitted he could have managed his bowlers better, with Swepson and Starc under-bowled in Galle compared to Lyon’s marathon 64 overs.”I think field placements and using the spin bowlers, I hadn’t had a lot of experience with that,” Cummins said. “And just managing the tempo and even the bowling spells, 180 overs out here happens quite a bit overseas. Just managing different bowlers trying to keep relative control on the scoreboard and the scoring rate. It felt like I learned quite a bit.”It has been a useful learning experience for Australia. A deciding third Test against Sri Lanka would have been even more valuable. But alas, they now wait until February next year for the date with India in their conditions. Five Tests against West Indies and South Africa at home will not aid their preparation for that tour in the slightest.Therefore they cannot afford to brush this loss under the carpet, despite the positive nature of some of the gains over the previous four Tests. Sri Lanka have rather easily exposed some cracks that Australia thought they might have filled in. India have the skill to make them gaping holes next year.

The UP fast bowler talks about his skill development, support from his family, his IPL growth, and more

Vishal Dikshit and Nikhil Sharma16-Jun-2022Yash Dayal is a fearless bowler, and he loves bowling the bouncer. On his IPL debut against Rajasthan Royals, he was smashed for two fours and a six in the space of four balls by an in-form Jos Buttler, but Dayal didn’t hold back and banged in another bouncer. He couldn’t get Buttler out, but he was not going down meekly in this battle.Nearly 10 days later, Gujarat Titans were defending 156 against Kolkata Knight Riders, and again, the left-arm quick resorted to his bouncers. He had already dismissed Shreyas Iyer and Rinku Singh, and when Andre Russell took strike, Dayal sent down three bouncers in a row to one of the most feared batters in T20 cricket. The first one Russell ducked under, the second was edged for four, and the third got Russell in an awkward position when he fended to fine leg, but Dayal had overstepped.Related

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“I will be competitive and aggressive even if the batsman is going after me, there won’t be any change in that,” Dayal told ESPNcricinfo before the Ranji Trophy semi-finals. “Backing yourself is very important. A lot of things can come to mind [while bowling], but I try to back my instincts as much as possible. Then I bowl what is my strength, like a bouncer or yorker… balls I have confidence in, and I have mastered. I try to bowl those when things aren’t working properly like when I’ve been struck for a few boundaries in an over.”I was obviously nervous [on IPL debut], but I was not looking at the batsman. I was just focusing on what to bowl. I knew there would be pressure. He [Buttler] hit one boundary, then another, and I was not thinking that Jos Buttler is batting, but which is my best ball that can get him out. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen. And I was not worrying too much about what if he hits me, how many people are watching this game, etc. I just thought it’s a game, it may or may not go in my favour, but I must focus on doing my best.”I knew the bouncer is my strength. Whether it’s Jos Buttler or Andre Russell, I try to bowl my best ball and that happened too when I got Russell out, but it was a no-ball. At that time, I felt like I had committed a crime. I felt horrible. The captain and senior players motivated me, they said, ‘focus on the coming overs, it’s not like he can’t get out again.’ But at the same time, I was feeling horrible, thinking what have I done?”

Ashish Nehra was like a blessing to me. Even if I was leaking runs, the team management saw my intent and backed me for that and played me till the final. And I tried my best in every gameDayal on support from Nehra and Gujarat Titans

Dayal, 24, had played fewer than 15 T20 games when he came into the IPL and is currently playing only his 16th first-class game, the Ranji Trophy semi-final for Uttar Pradesh against Mumbai. His aggressive attitude might have leaked a few runs too many – his economy rate was 9.25 after nine IPL games for 11 wickets – but it also fetched him some big wickets: Ruturaj Gaikwad, Shreyas Iyer, Aiden Markram and Quinton de Kock, among others. Dayal believes he has come out of the tournament a much-improved bowler, having been under the tutelage of the former India left-arm quick Ashish Nehra, who is the head coach of Titans.”Ashish Nehra backed me a lot from the beginning,” Dayal says. “Earlier I used to try a lot of different things and experiment. But Ashish sir taught me that one must be centered and focused, and taught me some basic plans to follow without taking too much pressure and not being harsh on yourself. It’s a very competitive level of cricket so you must be smart too.”With his ability to swing the new ball and ace the slower ones and cutters, Dayal quickly became Mohammed Shami’s settled new-ball partner at Titans. Nehra, whose hands-on methods have been credited by several players for Titans’ success, had done his homework on Dayal. He knew what work was needed on him, and held separate net sessions to hone the bowler’s skills.”[He taught me] seam position for outswing, how to position the hand if you’re bowling inswing,” Dayal says, listing his learnings from Nehra. “He made me work on control a lot. He said how you deliver and execute is crucial, like how you bowl to the openers initially, what’s your plan for them, different plans for death overs.”Despite his high economy rate through the IPL, the Titans management, Dayal says, backed him and captain Hardik Pandya let him take his own decisions on the field, which further boosted his confidence.”Ashish Nehra was like a blessing to me,” Dayal says. “Even if I was leaking runs, the team management saw my intent and backed me for that and played me till the final. And I tried my best in every game.”He [Hardik] is very calm and confident, and he knows what to do at what point of the game. He is a bowler’s captain. If you have confidence in yourself, he lets you take your own decisions. That further boosts the confidence of a bowler. I would say he is the best captain I have played under.”Dayal (first from right, bottom row) was an IPL winner in his debut season•PTI Dayal was not a completely unknown entity when he was among the many uncapped players in the IPL mega auction this year. He had collected 14 wickets in seven games of the Vijay Hazare Trophy in 2021-22 at an economy rate of just 3.77, the best in the team. He had already made a name for himself after his first-class debut season in 2018-19 which saw him bag as many as 30 wickets at an impressive average of 24.70 in the Ranji Trophy.As a left-arm quick, a new-ball bowler who could bowl around 135-140 kph, and possessing variations like the knuckleball and the yorker, Dayal was fast-tracked into the India squad as a net bowler in January-February this year for the home series against West Indies. Straight from domestic cricket, Dayal was now rubbing shoulders with some of the best in the world.”Rahul Dravid sir [head coach] spoke to me at times, but Paras Mhambrey [bowling coach] spoke to me the most,” Dayal recalls. “He took a lot of interest and spoke to me after every ball I’d bowl in the nets, where to bowl to what kind of batsman, what kind of variations to use etc.”

My father has helped a lot in teaching how to shine [the ball] when it gets old, how to maintain it to reverse.Yash Dayal

Dayal was new to the dressing room, but he was familiar with most of the bowling tricks already. The outswinger to right-hand batters came naturally to him, he says, and he wanted to work on the one that comes in. He had already picked up the knuckleball from TV and YouTube and honed it further with his UP senior Bhuvneshwar Kumar. With a repertoire of deliveries very few possess at such a young age, he arrived in Ahmedabad to join the India squad.”I squared up Ishan Kishan once and one other time I beat Mayank Agarwal, piercing the gap between his bat and pad when he tried to defend,” Dayal remembers with glee about his highlights in the nets. He says there wasn’t a single batter in the nets he did not beat or dismiss, either bowled or caught behind. His big weapon was the inswinger, which was once his weak point.Dayal, as a result, was already on the wishlist of a few franchises in the IPL auction. Three teams bid for him and his value shot up from his base price of INR 20 lakh to the eventual INR 3.2 crore that Titans paid for him.Dayal comes from a humble socio-economic background in Prayagraj in UP. Born to an accountant and a housewife, Dayal learned the tricks of the trade from his father, who was a right-arm fast bowler in local cricket tournaments.”My father has helped a lot in teaching how to shine [the ball] when it gets old, how to maintain it to reverse,” Dayal says of his teens when he idolised Zaheer Khan while watching him on TV and indulging in videos of Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis on the internet.”I would wonder if doing such skillful things would be possible. Then I started watching their videos closely, my father helped a lot, and I started practising. Gradually there was a lot of progress and even now I haven’t mastered reverse swing. I’m still learning how to get better at it.”Dayal senior realised the potential in his son and took him to Bishop Johnson School in Prayagraj to be coached by Ghulam Murtaza, father of the UP left-arm spinner Ali Murtaza. Perhaps realizing that learning from only one coach wouldn’t be enough, he started taking his son to the city’s A division league, to compete against much older players, and to different coaches across the city.While Dayal was getting rejected in Under-14, 16 and 19 trials, he kept honing his skills and fitness. The door finally opened when he broke into the UP Under-23 squad in 2017-18, and he made his senior-level debut in the same season.Nearly four years down the line, Dayal is a regular in the UP squad now, an IPL winner, and on the fringes of the India squad. Until he breaks into that squad too, he wants to “keep working hard, keep training, and keep bowling.”

This series has lit up the island in ways that turbines, fossil fuels, and generators never could

Andrew Fidel Fernando22-Jun-2022Is this it? Have they arrived? Is this the new Sri Lanka? The future? Bright? Blinding as the sun?Energy. Remember that? Batters who will whisk the team out of a hole. Bowlers who will make an anthill of a target seem like a forbidding Himalayan peak. Fielders who don’t comically clang into each while circling under a gently descending catch. It has been long enough. Too long. Years since #SangaMahelaDilshanMalingaHerathMurali.Okay, but wait. What is the future, even? This is a nation run by a government essentially living hand-to-mouth. They are awaiting the next fuel shipments at the end of the week, desperately scrambling for money to pay for them. Meanwhile, fuel queues choke the roads like metal pythons, getting longer and fatter by the day. Trains and buses are crammed evermore with commuters who have no choice but to cling for life on the brimming footboards. The vegetable stalls and grocery shelves, though, are empty.Related

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In normal times you ask what things will be like down the line. Will this batter develop into the next guy to get 10000 runs? Oh and that bowler has something about him, no? Five years time, just watch. He’ll have won so many games by then. He’ll have such an aura.What about us, though? Where will we be in five years’ time? Still struggling? In queues? Skint? Abroad, after giving up on a country we love? In daily fits of rage at the news out of parliament?Stop. Save yourself the spiral. It’s not worth thinking about. For one night, you tune it out.It’s easy when they play like this. Dhananjaya de Silva, spindly arms in those long sleeves, turning his wrists to drive a fast bowler past a diving backward point. Charith Asalanka camping on his back foot to launch no less a bowler than Pat Cummins over the deep midwicket boundary, with a half-pull, half short-arm jab, that leaves a stadium breathless for half a second.Together, they put on 101 to rescue Sri Lanka from 34 for 3, and the is pouring out over the stands like a joyous waterfall, and the kids are dancing, the teenagers are selfie-ing, and a local pop hit comes on at the end of an over that has brought two boundaries, so in a second the entire stand is in voice, and you can feel it right? These are real smiles, not the barely-keeping-it-together smile when you learn that the bicycle you’re trying to buy to save on motorbike fuel, costs twice what it did two months back. This is real laughter, and happy hugs, not the we-made-it-through-another-day-without-collapsing ones.Look, it’s not real life. Everyone knows that. We all have powercuts to go back to. But then why is it that these two guys putting on a century stand is what makes life feel good again?

Right through the tour, in Pallekele as well as Khettarama, there have been these moments of pure elation, which even the unrelenting press that Sri Lanka’s daily life has become, has not been able to corrupt

Right through the tour, in Pallekele as well as Khettarama, there have been these moments of pure elation, which even the unrelenting press that Sri Lanka’s daily life has become, has not been able to corrupt. Dasun Shanaka’s manic hitting to win the third T20. The Wanindu Hasaranga googlies that batters still have not deciphered. Pathum Nissanka’s big, bold hundred.This was a Tuesday night, and traveling even a couple of kilometres is a trial because there’s so little petrol into the country. But more than 30,000 have made it to Khettarama, a ground which, at times like this, it seems especially fitting, is in one of Colombo’s most working-class neighourhoods. Who deserves this fun more than those who have been battered hardest and longest by the collapsing economy?Will this team, full of potential young stars, be the one that drags Sri Lanka’s men’s team into a glowing new age? Maybe. In Hasaranga, there is a potential global phenomenon. In Nissanka and Asalanka, two reliable operators. In Dushmantha Chameera a rapid and increasingly clever quick. So is this it? Have they arrived? Is this the future?It seems a silly question to ask right now. Because the future is the thing that poverty obliterates. And in this article, we’re living in the now.Sri Lanka celebrate after clinching victory•AFPThis series, which in cricketing terms is of no real use beyond preparation for an ODI World Cup that is more than a year away, and whose results don’t count towards the Super League, and which in most other countries would not be nearly this well-attended, has lit up the island in ways that turbines, fossil fuels, and generators never could.At Khettarama, on a Tuesday night, a team packed full of spinners turned derailed an opposition chase. There were close catchers in past the 40th over. Mid-pitch conferences on strategy as things got tight. A glimpse of a normal time.Even Lasith Malinga, who has raised as many roars at this stadium as anyone, was in attendance in his role as Sri Lanka’s bowling consultant. In that nerve-wracking final over that Sri Lanka should have had no trouble getting through, he was fuming outside the square-leg boundary like he wanted to beat up the universe for its failure to arrange for him to be the guy bowling to close out the game. An angry Malinga is, in its own way, a marker of normal Sri Lankan life too.They won off the final ball, and Khettarama exploded. The last few moments in this parallel universe. One in which, thank god, finally, there might be a future.

The reactions to the Commonwealth Games final, where Australia trumped India in a thrilling contest

ESPNcricinfo staff08-Aug-2022

An absolute roller coaster! Cricket couldn’t have asked for a better show from all the teams that took part on a global platform of #CWG22. Congratulations to both Australia and India on playing a great final. #FittingFinale

— Shikha Pandey (@shikhashauny) August 7, 2022

Two defining performances in India’s 2007 triumph, and two five-fors from Sri Lankan legends

ESPNcricinfo staff18-Oct-2022Voting for these match-ups has ended. Yuvraj Singh’s 70 and Rangana Herath’s 5-3 move to the semi-finals.

RP Singh’s 4-13 vs Yuvraj Singh’s 70

4-13 vs SA | RP Singh | Durban, 2007
India were defending 153 in a must-win contest to make the semi-finals, and RP Singh’s sensational effort ensured it was more than enough. He made the perfect start, trapping Herschelle Gibbs lbw with an inswinger, and two balls later induced an edge from Graeme Smith that was taken by Dinesh Karthik in the slips. In his third over, a vicious yorker – arguably the ball of the tournament – swung into Shaun Pollock’s leg stump. South Africa could have made the semi-finals if they got to 126, but RP Singh ended those hopes by bowling Albie Morkel.70 (30) vs AUS | Yuvraj Singh | Durban, 2007
India’s young side had made a slow start in the T20 World Cup semi-final and were 41 for 2 at the end of the eighth over. Yuvraj Singh began with a swivel-pull against Stuart Clark – one of the best bowlers of the tournament – for six off the second ball he faced, and smashed a 119-metre pick-up shot off Brett Lee in the next over. His entire innings was like a highlights reel: the 70 off 30 balls included five sixes and as many fours, and he almost single-handedly took India to a match-winning 188.ESPNcricinfo Ltd

Lasith Malinga’s 5-31 vs Rangana Herath’s 5-3

5-31 vs ENG | Lasith Malinga | Pallekele, 2012
Hosts Sri Lanka were defending 169, and Lasith Malinga all but knocked out defending champions England in his opening over. Luke Wright, Jonny Bairstow and Alex Hales were all dismissed in the third over of the chase, and Jos Buttler and Samit Patel were accounted for later. This was far from peak Malinga – he did not hit his yorkers as reliably as he generally did – but the sight of a fantastic fast bowler causing havoc was a sight to behold.5-3 vs NZ | Rangana Herath | Chattogram, 2014
Sri Lanka’s rousing T20 World Cup triumph may have never happened but for a spell of wizardry in the final Group 1 match. Chasing 120 under lights – with evening dew around – New Zealand were mugged by one of the great T20 spells. Rangana Herath wove a web of deception with his subtle skills. He didn’t concede a run until his 14th ball, delivered 18 dots in 3.3 overs, removed four of the top six, ran out Martin Guptill, and returned to the attack to complete his five-for.ESPNcricinfo Ltd