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Kusal Perera struck a 99 lit up by flashes of aggression, but tempered by maturity, while Lahiru Thirimanne stroked a serene 81 not out, as Sri Lanka made light work of a revised target of 225 in the second ODI against West Indies

Andrew Fidel Fernando04-Nov-20150:52

Sangakkara surprised at ‘one-sided’ series

Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsKusal Perera struck a 99 lit up by flashes of aggression, but tempered by maturity, while Lahiru Thirimanne stroked a serene 81 not out, as the second-wicket pair’s 156-run stand made light work of a revised target of 225 in the second ODI against West Indies. The match had been shortened to 38 overs a side, after rain forced an interruption of more than three hours 26.4 overs into West Indies’ innings. Johnson Charles’ searing 83 and Marlon Samuels’ measured 63 formed the guts of the visitors’ score.The match marked a bonafide return to form for three Sri Lanka cricketers, playing in their favoured format. Thirimanne had been poor enough in Tests to warrant his exclusion last month, but was chanceless on Wednesday, prospering square of the wicket as fluidity appeared to have returned to his game. Kusal had had a bleak Test series against West Indies with the bat, but here delivered Sri Lanka to the doorstep of victory before miscuing a short ball one run short of his third hundred. A trimmer Lasith Malinga also appeared back to near his best, both with the ball and in the field, effecting two direct-hit run-outs off his own bowling. He collected figures of 2 for 43 from 7.4 overs, first claiming a wicket with his second ball of the game, then thwarting West Indies’ final sprint with his variation.The victory hands Sri Lanka the series, with the third ODI to be played in Pallekele on Saturday.Kusal crashed two fours and a six from his first 11 balls, while the new-ball bowlers were in operation, but soon scaled down his ambition when the spinners came early to the crease. He found plenty of singles in the cover region, and was content to progress at less than a run-a-ball until he neared his fifty. He slog-swept seamer Carlos Brathwaite over deep midwicket to reach the milestone, then larruped two more sixes and a four off his next six deliveries. He was lucky to make one of those sixes – the ball was parried over the deep midwicket rope by Jermaine Blackwood – and that reprieve on 62 was enough to coax him back into a sager state of mind.Thirimanne began his innings with a late cut for four off Sunil Narine, and struck a high, straight six off Samuels soon after but, like Kusal, quickly established a pattern of singles and twos against spin. The cut was his most productive stroke; each of his five fours came in the arc between the keeper and sweeper-cover. Perhaps importantly, Thirimanne was not tested early in his innings by seam bowling, which has recently been a weakness for him.Kusal fell with 29 runs still to get. The scoring slowed considerably after his departure, but Thirimanne and Dinesh Chandimal nursed the chase home with nine balls to spare.West Indies appeared poised to push Sri Lanka’s target up closer to 240 when a well-set Samuels and Brathwaite were at the crease at the death. They struck 16 off Suranga Lakmal in the 36th over, but West Indies mustered only six runs from the last two overs, during the course of which their four remaining wickets were all surrendered via run-outs. They made 214 in the end, and this figure was scaled up via the Duckworth-Lewis method.Earlier, Charles had collected his first boundary via an outside edge that flew over second slip, but he quickly slipped into a more effective attacking rhythm. Charles was particularly severe on the spinners, who were introduced as early as the fifth over. Jermaine Blackwood had holed out trying to put Sachithra Senanayake’s first ball into the sightscreen, but Charles succeeded where Blackwood had failed. Two overs later, Charles ran at Senanayake to put him several metres beyond the sightscreen, registering the first six of the match.He continued to run at the spinners and hit them straight, but he also found the paddle-sweep productive. He slinked from leg to off to manoeuvre an Ajantha Mendis delivery to the long-leg boundary in the 11th over, then reached his fifty off the next ball, when Mendis went full and Charles launched him over long-on. The half-century was Charles’ fourth in ODIs, and came in 32 deliveries.Sri Lanka had claimed three wickets at the other end while Charles attacked. In addition to Blackwood, who perished for 9 on his ODI debut, opener Andre Fletcher had also fallen cheaply, nicking Malinga behind first ball. Darren Bravo appeared secure during his 33-ball stay, but was out lobbing Milinda Siriwardana to short midwicket for 21, ending a 70-run stand with Charles.Samuels had just begun to free his arms, hitting consecutive square boundaries off Ajantha Mendis, before Charles was out lbw to Siriwardana. The rains soon arrived to force the long interruption, when West Indies had reached 149 for 4 after 26.4 overs.Samuels continued to play his shots after resumption, but lost two partners in quick succession. He could have been out himself for 38 had Shehan Jayasuriya held the chance off Malinga’s bowling at deep cover. Instead, Samuels survived to wallop a straight six during Malinga’s next over, shortly before he completed his 50th run off the 51st delivery he faced.Samuels was at the centre of a minor controversy in this match, after he was cleared to bowl by the ICC despite the 14-day grace period afforded to reported bowlers having elapsed. West Indies had been wrongly told by the ICC that he was eligible to bowl in this match, and had picked their team on that basis, so the governing body made an exception in this case. He delivered 5.3 overs but did not make a major impact on the match.

Following Chennai Super Kings’ unexpected loss to Pune Warriors, batsman S Badrinath has admitted to the team having issues with their opening combination

ESPNcricinfo staff16-Apr-2013Following Chennai Super Kings’ unexpected loss to Pune Warriors, batsman S Badrinath has admitted to the team having issues with their opening combination. Apart from the match against Kings XI Punjab, in which Super Kings cruised to a 10-wicket win, their openers have failed to lay the required platform, Badrinath said.”The openers are not able to get us to the required start. In that one game against KXIP, the openers just saw us through. Apart from that, this is an issue that needs to be addressed,” Badrinath told the IPL website. “Faf [du Plessis] was brilliant for us last season at the top of the order. Opening is such a key role in Twenty20 cricket. In the first six overs the fielders are inside and you need to capitalise on that. That start takes on the momentum to the middle order and further in the innings.”In their first three matches Super Kings opened with Michael Hussey and M Vijay, and apart from the game against Kings XI, the pair put on stands of 10 and 4 in two overs each. Against Pune Warriors, Hussey was left out to accommodate allrounder Albie Morkel, and Vijay opened with S Anirudha, who was out for a second-ball duck. South Africa’s du Plessis, who was successful when given the chance to open in 2012, is out with injury.The idea behind leaving Hussey out, Badrinath said, was to improve the team balance: “It was something to do with the combination. We wanted Anirudha to get quick runs at the top, and to get Albie in to add some firepower in the batting and another bowling option. It was very unfortunate that Anirudha got out off the second ball.”Badrinath, however, still backed his batsmen to come good. “Let’s be honest: we haven’t been able to get great starts and we’ve lost too many wickets at the top order. That’s something that needs to be addressed,” he said. “However, these batsmen have done it for us before and we need to have faith in them.”

Sachin Tendulkar has been included and Virender Sehwag has been rested from India’s squad to the Asia Cup

Siddarth Ravindran29-Feb-2012

India’s Asia Cup squad

MS Dhoni (capt & wk), Virat Kohli (vice-capt), Sachin Tendulkar, Gautam Gambhir, Rohit Sharma, Suresh Raina, Manoj Tiwary, Ravindra Jadeja, R Ashwin, Praveen Kumar, Vinay Kumar, Rahul Sharma, Yusuf Pathan, Irfan Pathan, Ashok Dinda
Out : Virender Sehwag, Zaheer Khan, Umesh Yadav, Parthiv Patel
In: Yusuf Pathan, Ashok Dinda

Virender Sehwag has been rested from India’s one-day squad for next month’s Asia Cup, with Virat Kohli taking over as vice-captain. Sachin Tendulkar has been picked for the tournament, while allrounder Yusuf Pathan and Bengal fast bowler Ashok Dinda make comebacks. Fast bowlers Zaheer Khan and Umesh Yadav have been rested.Kohli’s elevation to vice-captaincy comes after his sustained run of success in one-day cricket. He was the highest run-getter in the format in 2011, is the leading run-scorer in the ongoing Commonwealth Bank series and has been one of India’s few bright spots on the dismal tour of Australia. “The selection committee and board feels that Virat Kohli could be good future captaincy material,” Kris Srikkanth, the chairman of selectors, told reporters in Mumbai.Over the past few days, there had been intense media speculation about whether Sehwag and Tendulkar would be selected for the Asia Cup. Sehwag has had a poor run in the ongoing CB series in Australia, averaging 13 in five one-day innings.Srikkanth stressed that Sehwag had not been axed. “Unfortunately Virender Sehwag and Zaheer Khan have been asked to take rest by the physiotherapist. It is purely on injury grounds both have been rested,” he said. “I can assure you that nobody has been dropped.”Tendulkar has been selective about the ODI series he plays over the past couple of years. The CB series, in which he’s made 143 runs in seven innings, was his first limited-overs engagement for India since last year’s World Cup.The CB series is also the only ODI series the injury-prone Zaheer has been involved in since the World Cup. The decision to rest him and Yadav opened the doors for Dinda, who last represented India in the previous edition of the Asia Cup, in 2010. His selection comes on the back of a successful Ranji Trophy, in which he was the second-highest wicket-taker with 37 in six matches. Several other contenders for a fast bowling slot, including Varun Aaron and Sreesanth, are still recovering from injuries.Allrounder Yusuf has recovered from a knee injury which cut short his Ranji season, and will resume his battle for the No. 7 allrounder’s slot with Ravindra Jadeja. Yusuf has been out of the Indian side since a listless tour of West Indies soon after being part of the World Cup-winning squad. Jadeja cornered that spot with some impressive performances against England and West Indies last year, but has not been at his best in the CB series. In the league phase, he took three wickets at an average of 109, and scored 101 runs in seven innings.Among the fringe players, India have retained batsman Manoj Tiwary and legspinner Rahul Sharma, but have axed backup wicketkeeper Parthiv Patel.India are defending champions of the Asia Cup, which will be held in Mirpur from March 11 to 22 and also features Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Pakistan.

ESPNcricinfo previews the third game of the 2011 World Cup between Sri Lanka and Canada in Hambantota

The Preview by Sahil Dutta19-Feb-2011

Match Facts

February 20, Hambantota
Start time 14:30 local time (09:00 GMT)
Ashish Bagai and his side can prove Associates have a role in World Cups with a good showing against Sri Lanka•AFP

Big Picture

Sri Lanka begin their World Cup campaign – the first in Asia since they stunned the world 16 years ago – against Group A minnows Canada. With a team forged around much of the same group of players that made it to the final in the Caribbean last time around, Sri Lanka start as one of the tournament’s fancied sides. Canada – a team of immigrants, expats and five home-grown former Under-19 stars – have had a good run in the warm-up against Netherlands and England but will need a World Cup miracle to beat Kumar Sangakkara’s side.Sri Lanka’s home record is imposing but the surroundings of Hambantota are almost as unfamiliar to them as they are to the visitors. A new pitch at a new stadium, the captains have been keen to praise the look of both. The state of pitches at this tournament is already shaping up into a bone of contention, and set against the fiasco at Eden Gardens, the Sri Lankan board should be credited for getting the stadium ready in time.The last time these two met in the World Cup, Canada slumped to the lowest World Cup score in history. The entire cricketing infrastructure in Canada has improved since then, with players centrally contracted for the first time and big sponsors like Reebok jumping on board. Upsets have been hard-wired out of the format for this World Cup, and with the ICC taking it a step further next time by expelling Associate nations altogether, a competitive show from Canada would do wonders to the minnows’ case for inclusion.

Form guide

(Most recent first)
Sri Lanka: WWLWW
Canada: LWWWL

Pitch and conditions

The Mahinda Rajapaksa International Stadium has not yet hosted a full international match so the pitch in Hambantota is something of an unknown quantity. There were concerns when the pitch produced a low-scoring ‘A’ match between Sri Lanka and Pakistan, but at the time the curator insisted his pitch was not to blame. After practicing at the ground Sangakkara was happy, saying “the wicket looked fantastic and the conditions were beautiful for cricket”. The Sri Lankan weather has been anything but for recent series and there were a few clouds circling on the eve of the game, which could mean an early outing for Duckworth and Lewis, in their fourth World Cup.

Watch out for…

There is still something about the 50-over format that promotes unqualified utility players, who are unable to hold their place in either discipline. England have Luke Wright, while Australia have John Hastings. Sri Lanka’s Angelo Mathews is the model the rest are chasing. In the last 12 months Mathews has averaged 54.50 with the bat, 32.90 with the ball, and has been a lynchpin behind the celebrated duo of Sangakkara and Mehela Jayawardene.After his exploits against England, there is one Canadian that everyone will be looking out for: Gun batsman Rizwan Cheema. The Pakistan-born’s ODI strike-rate of 119.4 beats even Shahid Afridi for crazed slugging. Faced with Lasith Malinga’s slingers and Muttiah Muralitharan his task is less than straightforward, but alongside the youngsters in the side and captain Ashish Bagai, he could be the prime contributor of runs.

Team news

Sri Lanka’s top-order is settled and the only contention is over the last bowling place. Ajantha Mendis’ star has faded as his mystery unravelled with exposure so he competes with the Rangana Herath for the second spinner’s role. If the damp conditions prompt another paceman, however, Thisara Perera might come up on the blindside to take the final bowling spot.Sri Lanka (probable): 1 Tillakaratne Dilshan, 2 Upul Tharanga, 3 Kumar Sangakkara (capt & wk), 4 Mahela Jayawardene, 5 Chamara Kapugedera, 6 Thilan Samaraweera, 7 Angelo Mathews, 8 Dilhara Fernando, 9 Rangana Herath, 10 Muttiah Muralitharan, 11 Lasith MalingaCanada have banked on their youngsters to support their array of more experience imports and will be hoping Hiral Patel and Nitish Kumar can come good.Canada (probable): 1 John Davison, 2 Hiral Patel, 3 Nitish Kumar, 4 Ashish Bagai (capt & wk), 5 Jimmy Hansra, 6 Rizwan Cheema, 7 Zubin Surkari, 8 Khurram Chohan, 9 Balaji Rao, 10 Henry Osinde, 11 Harvir Baidwan.

Stats and trivia

• The last time these teams met at the World Cup, Canada were bowled out for 36 and swept aside by nine wickets in a match that lasted a mere 23.2 overs – the quickest in World Cup history.
• Since making successive hundreds against Pakistan and Bangladesh in Karachi in June 2008, Kumar Sangakkara has played 59 matches, and made 1970 runs at 37.16, without ever passing three figures.
• Canada’s opening batsman, and producer of one of World Cup cricket’s most dazzling centuries – John Davison – is, at 40, the oldest player in the tournament.
  

  Quotes

  “Hard-hitting. I like to hit the ball… Out of the park”
  “You can’t change what other people say about us whether they say that we are good enough to win the tournament or whatever.”

A terrific all-round performance from Kane Williamson helped Northern Districts complete a ten-wicket thrashing of Auckland inside three days at Whangarei

Cricinfo staff14-Mar-2010A terrific all-round performance from Kane Williamson helped Northern Districts complete a ten-wicket thrashing of Auckland inside three days at Whangarei.Northern Districts took the upper hand on day one, dismissing Auckland for 227 after they chose to bat, with Brent Arnel, Joseph Yovich, Bruce Martin and Williamson taking two wickets apiece. Reece Young, who made 50, was Auckland’s only half-centurion and the innings suffered from a lack of partnerships. Northen Districts, however, started their reply poorly and were 36 for 2 at stumps on the first day.Williamson began the second morning on zero and went on to forge century partnerships with the Marshall brothers, Hamish and James, and Peter McGlashan. Williamson batted the entire day, scoring 163, and ensured Northern Districts had a lead of 121 at stumps with three wickets intact. He and McGlashan continued to build Northern’s advantage on the third day before getting bowled by Colin de Grandhomme for 192, his highest first-class score. Williamson had batted nearly eight hours, faced 352 deliveries and hit 22 fours and two sixes. Northern Districts were eventually dismissed for 410, with a first-innings lead of 183.It was fast bowler Graeme Aldridge, though, who made the victory possible inside three days. He ripped out Auckland’s top order, reducing them to 52 for 4 in the second innings, and finished with figures of 4 for 19 in 13 overs. Arnel and Martin continued Aldridge’s work and Williamson contributed 3 for 48 as Auckland were dismissed for 188. Auckland, who lost their ninth wicket with the score on 131, were saved from innings defeat by No. 10 Michael Bates, who slammed 57 off 25 balls with four sixes and six fours.His eventual dismissal, however, left Northern Districts with only 6 to get and the openers, BJ Watling and Brad Wilson, did it in an over.

Siddique took a four-for in the chase where Oman crumbled in the powerplay

Alagappan Muthu15-Sep-2025A skillful half-century from Alishan Sharafu and a dogged one from Muhammad Waseem took UAE to 172 for 5, and then a 42-run victory as well, in their Asia Cup game against Oman on Monday.

Sharafu’s method

Both teams were searching for their first points of the tournament and their challenge in Abu Dhabi was to negotiate a slow and low pitch. Sharafu did so by charging out of the crease. Twelve attempts just within the powerplay fetched all six of his fours.On the back of that, UAE, who were 11 for 0 after three overs, collected 39 runs off the next three and never looked back. Sharafu’s best shot, though, came outside the field restrictions, an inside-out drive over cover for six against legspinner Samay Shrivastava.

Waseem’s record

Waseem became the fourth-quickest batter to 3000 T20I runs, behind Mohammad Rizwan, Virat Kohli and Babar Azam. He wasn’t really at his best in this game. The 69 off 54 balls was often a struggle, but there were also clever moments, like when he saw a new bowler – Aamir Kaleem – coming on in the powerplay and smashed him for three fours in the over. Waseem went to his fifty with a trademark six down the ground.ESPNcricinfo Ltd

Oman didn’t help themselves in the field. They had a chance to dismiss Waseem on 27 off 22 but the fielder wasn’t all the way back on the long-on boundary, and not only did he miss the catch but he also let it go for four. Then with Waseem on 34 off 33, Shakeel Ahmed dropped a dolly at short fine leg.UAE finished on 172 for 5 with their middle-order players chipping in with crucial runs. Harshit Kaushik and Muhammad Zohaib put together hit 40 off 21 balls.

Oman’s collapse

Jatinder Singh briefly looked like the best batter on show as he found ways to time the ball in slow and low conditions. He raced to 20 off 10 but soon enough hitting through the line on a surface where the ball wasn’t coming on came back to bite him. The Oman captain dragged Junaid Siddique back onto his stumps during a period where his team lost three wickets in 14 balls.The powerplay was still going and Oman had lost nearly half their side. Four of their top five bagged single-digits and from a start like that – 32 for 4, then 50 for 5 – all they could do was try and play out the overs. Siddique threw a spanner in those works too, taking two wickets in the 16th over and finishing with 4 for 23. Oman were bowled out for 130.

His unbeaten 42-ball 87 made light work of Pakistan’s 178 as New Zealand won by seven wickets

Danyal Rasool21-Apr-2024It doesn’t seem to matter who turns up for New Zealand, the series they play in Pakistan invariably turn out to be competitive. After a below-par performance in the second T20I, a Mark Chapman-inspired New Zealand side brushed past Pakistan in the third to level the series 1-1. Chapman finished with an unbeaten 87 off just 42 balls as he made light work of the 178 Pakistan had put up, with New Zealand getting there with ten balls and seven wickets to spare.

Chapman picks up from where he left last April

Chapman was New Zealand’s most impressive performer when a similarly under-strength side visited in April 2023, and had little trouble picking up from where he had left off.Related

• Pakistan slowdown: Babar on the defensive, but Shadab wants more 'impactful innings'

New Zealand had begun brightly with the big-hitting Tim Seifert and Tim Robinson, but lost both in the space of seven balls to Abbas Afridi and Naseem Shah, respectively. At that point, with inexperience to follow and a battery of impressive bowling options for Babar Azam, the chase felt in severe danger of being going off course.But Chapman demonstrated that his ability extended beyond power hitting, as he set about taking apart the dangerous duo of Shadab Khan and Abrar Ahmed. He understood the target wasn’t huge enough to require reckless slogging and manipulated the field to pick boundaries in three successive overs the two bowled. There was a slice of fortune when Naseem fluffed a fairly simple chance off a miscued sweep, and it resulted in the batter going back into his shell for a stray Iftikhar Ahmed over.The reprieve ended up costing Pakistan dearly. Iftikhar was shown no such respect when he came back on, smashed for a huge six back over his head and, as Chapman steered New Zealand towards Pakistan’s total with chanceless inevitability, the flair in his game began to shine through, too. For he wouldn’t just get New Zealand to their target, but land a psychological blow by decimating their two prized fast bowlers.ESPNcricinfo Ltd

Shaheen Shah Afridi was the first to bear the brunt, as two boundaries and a six in the 15th over brought the asking rate below nine. Babar brought his ace Naseem back in immediately, but a worse fate awaited him. A carved six, a carved four, a straight six, and a pulled four. That’s how his first four balls went in a 23-run over, plunging the required rate to under a run a ball.It’s perhaps obligatory to say at this point that Dean Foxcroft was an able understudy, but in truth, this was a one-man chase. Just two boundaries came off Foxcroft’s bat in a 117-run partnership, and while Foxcroft struggled to keep his strike rate over 100, Chapman finished at more than double that. Pakistan will rightly reflect on the quality of their death bowling, but the fact that all it took was a solo effort to hunt down what they managed raises the question about the adequacy of that first-innings total.

New Zealand bowlers stymie Pakistan’s progress

Pakistan were put in to bat on a pitch Babar said was the typical batting-friendly strip Rawalpindi is known for, in stark contrast to Saturday’s surface. But the approach Pakistan took to setting a target was muddled at best. Saim Ayub got the side off to his trademark flyer, but in Zak Foulkes, Ish Sodhi and Will O’Rourke, New Zealand kept finding bowlers to sneak in tight overs and stymie Pakistan’s momentum.That was especially true once Ayub fell, and Babar and Mohammad Rizwan came together two balls after the powerplay ended. Overs six to 11 saw New Zealand allow just 36 runs as the momentum Pakistan had built faded, with Rizwan, in particular, unable to find the gaps he so cannily does in the powerplay. He would go off shortly after with a hamstring injury, while captain Michael Bracewell coaxed a false shot from Babar to send him on his way.Shadab Khan scored a quick 20-ball 41 to lift Pakistan•Associated Press

Shadab provides impetus to the innings

Pakistan meandered for another couple of overs, and it was Shadab Khan’s introduction that injected purpose into the innings. By now, the run rate had slipped to 8.07, but a couple of boundaries off his first four balls set the wheels in motion for an innings where he flew to 41 off 20. Alongside Irfan Khan, Pakistan began to blast their way back towards a competitive total. Perhaps cruelly for New Zealand, it was Bracewell, whose overs had reined Pakistan in so, who took the greatest hit during that whirlwind partnership as the pair smashed his final over for 19 runs.Once more, though, New Zealand found a way to have the final say, with Jacob Duffy and Foulkes managing a pair of tight final overs that kept Pakistan below 180. Pakistan might have felt it was enough against an enfeebled New Zealand side, but as is often the case in T20 cricket, there are few hiding places for below-par totals.