Lahiru Kumara – Bulletproof Truth

Group A’s Goliath and three Davids

“I want to be the man-of-the-series in this World Cup.” — Sri Lanka’s Bhanuka Rajapaksa isn’t short on confidence.

Telford Vice / Geelong, Victoria

FOUR teams, two matches, one day. Or around seven hours of Sunday. Geelong, Victoria’s second city, will kickstart the men’s T20 World Cup with a pair of doubleheaders featuring a Goliath and three Davids. Who will cast the first stone? Who will be shown to be living in a glass house? Who will gather moss?

Enough with the stone analogies already. Except to say that two of Sri Lanka, Namibia, the Netherlands and the United Arab Emirates will want to be the rocks from which the statues of the two Group A qualifiers for the 12-team second round are sculpted.

Closer to the truth is that the Namibians, Dutch and Emiratis will contest a single berth. It was difficult to imagine the Lankans slipping up against any of the other teams in the group even before Dasun Shanaka’s side won the Asia Cup in the UAE last month — which only underlines the islanders’ status as favourites to go through.

It’s tempting to consider Namibia or the Netherlands the favourites to snag the second spot, not least because the UAE have lost seven of the 13 T20Is they have played in 2022; most of them against the modest likes of Nepal, Germany and Singapore. On top of that, they have gone down in all three of their previous T20 World Cup games and 11 but of their dozen ODI World Cup matches. But the Emiratis have also beaten middling Ireland all three times they’ve played them in the format this year. So upsets — and any win for the UAE in this tournament would be an upset — are within their reach.

As a drop-in pitch, Geelong’s surface defies historical analysis and adds to the uncertainty of what might unfold, although the forecast for early rain — which washed out one of all four teams’ warm-up matches on Wednesday and Thursday — could enliven the surface at least for the initial exchanges of the day’s, and the tournament’s, opening fixture.

Sri Lanka look like they have too much firepower in all departments to be undone by Namibia in that match. The return of Dushmantha Chameera and Lahiru Kumara from the injuries that kept them out of the Asia Cup fits that script, and creates the prospect of a showdown with David Wiese, Namibia’s nuclear option.

If the UAE are to flip someone’s applecart, they would do themselves and everyone watching a favour by getting it done early in the piece rather than when it no longer matters. And there’s an even chance of that happening on Sunday — the UAE have won exactly half of their eight T20Is against the Dutch. The Netherlands prevailed the last time the teams met, in Dubai in October 2019, but the Emiratis reeled off four consecutive wins against them earlier in the same year.

You might not expect Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Yoko Ono to have some wisdom to contribute to this conversation, but this is all about the unexpected so sit tight. “Nothing is written in stone, as a career is an unpredictable journey,” Ibrahimovic said. Ono said something similar: “Nothing is written in stone. So don’t prepare yourself for a long and lucrative career. You might die tomorrow. Your gold holdings might become dust. Just make the music you want to make now and enjoy it.”

You heard them. Nothing is written in stone.

When: Sunday, 3pm and 7pm Local Time

Where: Kardinia Park, Geelong

What to expect: Morning rain that should clear before the start of the first match and stay away, thermometers that hover a degree or three under room temperature, and not a deluge of runs — 200 was breached nine times in the 2021/22 BBL, but not in any of the three games played at this ground in January.

Team news:

Namibia: The impact Morné Morkel makes as bowling consultant in his initial foray into international coaching is sure to be closely watched.

Possible XI: Stephan Baard, Michael van Lingen, Jan Nicol Loftie-Eaton, Gerhard Erasmus (capt), David Wiese, Zane Green, Ruben Trumpelmann, Jan Frylinck, Bernard Scholtz, Pikky Ya France, Ben Shikongo

Sri Lanka: Dilshan Madushanka seems in doubt having limped out of the nets holding his hip after bowling four balls during Saturday’s training session.

Possible XI: Pathum Nissanka, Kusal Mendis, Dhananjaya de Silva, Danushka Gunathilaka, Bhanuka Rajapaksa, Dasun Shanaka (capt), Wanindu Hasaranga de Silva, Chamika Karunaratne, Maheesh Theekshana, Dushmantha Chameera, Lahiru Kumara

Netherlands: Scott Edwards, the Dutch’s Melbourne-raised captain, has played 68 white-ball internationals — but is set for his debut in Australia.

Possible XI: Vikramjit Singh, Max O’Dowd, Stephan Myburgh, Bas de Leede, Tom Cooper, Scott Edwards (capt), Teja Nidamanuru, Roelof van der Merwe, Logan van Beek, Shariz Ahmad, Fred Klaassen

United Arab Emirates: At 16, left-arm spinner Aayan Afzal Khan is the youngest player in the tournament. He won’t turn 17 until two days after the final on November 13.

Possible XI: Muhammad Waseem, Chirag Suri, Aryan Lakra, Vriitya Aravind, Chundangapoyil Rizwan (capt), Basil Hameed, Zawar Farid, Aayan Afzal Khan, Karthik Meiyappan, Sabir Ali, Zahoor Khan

What they said:

“I look at the team compared to the first World Cup we played in, and there was a nervousness around. Of course there is again but there is more of a sense of calm.” — Stephan Baard on the progress Namibia hope to have made.

“I want to be the man-of-the-series in this World Cup. It will all come with the hard work that we’ve put in.” — Sri Lanka’s Bhanuka Rajapaksa thinks big.

“I suppose all the pressure is on Sri Lanka and Namibia from our group having played in the Super 12s last year.” – Colin Ackermann indulges in a spot of deflection, Netherlands style.

“What’s passed has passed. It’s a completely new team. There’s not even one person who has played a World Cup for UAE before on this team.” — Chirag Suri hopes for a brighter future for the UAE.

First published by Cricbuzz.

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2nd Test preview: Less a contest than a fight for survival

If Sri Lanka put up anything like a fight, they should be farewelled as heroes and awarded their country’s highest honour on their return home.

Telford Vice | Johanneburg

MANY will remember the Centurion Test for Faf du Plessis’ 199, Wiaan Mulder’s sturdy performance with bat and ball, Lutho Sipamla’s ballsy rebound from a meh beginning, South Africa’s innings victory and, of course, the Sri Lankans lurching from one injury crisis to the next. Fewer will recall that South Africa were chasing the game until almost an hour into the second day.

Sri Lanka’s first innings of 396 is the third-biggest total made by any team against South Africa at Centurion, and the Lankans’ biggest in a country where they have reached 300 only eight times but been dismissed for fewer than 200 on 14 occasions — five times at Centurion itself. So this effort represented significant progress in their coming to terms with a pitch that is nothing like anything they would have learnt to bat on, and which has led to the undoing of almost every visiting team who have played Tests there.

What might have been had five Sri Lankans, four of them frontline bowlers, not been sidelined by assorted mishaps and calamities? We will never know. The Wanderers would have presented an opportunity to answer the question had Dinesh Chandimal, Kasun Rajitha, Lahiru Kumara, Dhananjaya de Silva, Suranga Lakmal and Oshada Fernando not all been ruled out of the second Test. And it could get worse: Wanindu Hasaranga’s selection is subject to a fitness test.

It was seen as something of a miracle, especially by South Africans, when Dimuth Karunaratne’s team became the first Asian side to win a Test series in the country in February 2019. It wasn’t magic, of course: they played the better cricket. Not least Kusal Perera, who delivered among the most epic innings the game has seen in scoring an undefeated 153 in his team’s one-wicket win at Kingsmead. It should shock South Africans that Sri Lanka didn’t even need Perera to chase down their target of 197 to claim the St George’s Park Test by eight wickets. Likewise that Vishwa Fernando’s dozen wickets at 18.91 in the two matches was three more than Kagiso Rabada managed at 29.50. It’s a telling comparison considering each bowled 62.3 overs.

At Centurion, Perera — now opening, having batted at No. 5 in 2019 — made 16 and 64 and Fernando took 3/129. Those figures don’t reflect poor performances, but they are a long way from their matchwinning exploits of not quite two years ago. Happily, Perera and Vishwa Fernando are still in the mix. But it’s difficult to see them sparking the kind of revolution Sri Lanka would need to win at the Wanderers. That really would be a miracle.

Why should South Africa contemplate changes to an XI that has won so emphatically? If there was a case to be made for a departure from the Centurion side, it was that Rabada is back from a groin strain. But team management said on Saturday he would not be considered to ensure his readiness for the upcoming series against Pakistan and Australia. It’s a long shot, but that might open the door for the left-arm Beuran Hendricks, who represents a refreshing change from the home side’s otherwise steady stream of right-arm fast.

If it seems that there is too much dwelling on the past in this preview, which is after all meant to offer a look ahead to the next match, that’s because it’s hard to isolate the context of a match that promises to be less a contest between teams as a fight for survival by one of those teams. There is an unfairness about what the Sri Lankans are being asked to do, considering the wider circumstances. How could they possibly give a credible account of themselves when their ranks have been decimated by injury, and in the midst of a pandemic no less? The South Africans, meanwhile, would be forgiven for feeling queasy about being forced to throw punches at opponents who have a knee on the canvas and both arms tied behind their backs.

If the visitors put up anything like a fight, they should be farewelled as heroes and, on their return home, be awarded the Sri Lankabhimanya — or the Pride of Sri Lanka — the country’s highest honour. It is bestowed on “those who have rendered exceptionally outstanding and most distinguished service to the nation”. Certainly, they have fulfilled that criterion. But, like everything else about this tour, even this will not be simple: only five Lankans can hold the award contemporaneously.

When: Sunday January 3, 2021. 10am Local Time

Where: The Wanderers, Johannesburg

What to expect: A grinch of a pitch. Graeme Smith reckoned opening the batting at the Wanderers was tougher than any other job in cricket anywhere else, and it’s difficult to argue otherwise. The booming bounce and sneaky sideways movement eases slightly on days two and three. There is, at least, a downward sloping, lightning fast outfield to look forward to. But also variable bounce as the surface ages. And if the ever present cracks open up … look out.

Team news

South Africa: Mark Boucher is an old-fashioned cricketer, and old-fashioned cricketers don’t fiddle with winning XIs. Boucher said after the Centurion Test that he wasn’t about to tamper with a batting unit that had amassed 621, that he didn’t fancy an all-pace attack, and that Rabada’s return was not certain. An unchanged side seems the most likely outcome. Unless Hendricks is preferred to Anrich Nortjé, who is nursing a bruised foot. Raynard van Tonder, who was highly unlikely to play, is out of the reckoning anyway with a broken finger.

Possible XI: Dean Elgar, Aiden Markram, Rassie van der Dussen, Faf du Plessis, Quinton de Kock, Temba Bavuma, Wiaan Mulder, Keshav Maharaj, Anrich Nortjé, Lutho Sipamla, Lungi Ngidi.

Sri Lanka: Do they have 11 fit players? That’s not entirely an unserious question considering the epidemic of injuries that raged through Sri Lanka’s ranks at Centurion. Minod Bhanuka and Asitha Fernando should make debuts, and Dushmantha Chameera could crack the nod. If Hasaranga isn’t fit, Dilruwan Perera or Lasith Embuldeniya will likely be selected.

Possible XI: Dimuth Karunaratne, Kusal Perera, Lahiru Thirimanne, Kusal Mendis, Minod Bhanuka, Niroshan Dickwella, Dasun Shanaka, Wanindu Hasaranga, Asitha Fernando, Dushmantha Chameera, Vishwa Fernando.

What they said

“We had a convincing win in the first Test, but we know there’s a few red flags going into the second. Even though we scored 621 we shouldn’t take the hard work of batting for granted. We’ve got to be aware that we faced an attack that was affected by injuries. We’re mindful of that; we know we need to start afresh.” – Dean Elgar warns Sri Lanka not to expect any favours.

“Our bench is very strong, so I think we will be able to field a side that will compete with the South African team.” – Dimuth Karunaratne makes a profound prediction. Would that it comes true.

First published by Cricbuzz.

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Bavuma’s 0.1 foggy seconds

“I guess me walking prematurely, before the umpire had made a decision, probably was not the cleverest of things.” – Temba Bavuma

Telford Vice | Johannesburg

FOR three hours, nine minutes, 59.9 seconds and 124 deliveries at Centurion on Sunday and Monday, Temba Bavuma was the epitome of the modern Test batter.

He hustled and bustled. He played strokes as crisp as a new cotton shirt. He ran like the wind that wasn’t there to lighten the heavy heat of a Highveld midsummer’s day. He was as sure of foot as he was of mind. He was deft and decisive, and he was 71 not out in a stand of 179 with Faf du Plessis.

Then came the 0.1 seconds it took Bavuma to decide what to do about the 125th ball he faced. Dasun Shanaka’s shortish, widish delivery was an invitation to have a go. Bavuma obliged, cutting hard. Niroshan Dickwella caught the ball and gleefully appealled. Marais Erasmus was unmoved. Bavuma thrust his bat under his arm in a movement as sharply defined as everything else he had done, jagged his heels square of the crease, tilted his head backward, and strode off the ground steaming with disappointment.

He had crossed the boundary by the time the broadcaster’s gizmos revealed he had not hit the ball; that the edge of his bat had come nowhere near it, in cricket-speak. Which means he missed it not by much, but that he clearly missed it. So why walk? Or why not wait to find out what the umpire thought?

“It was nice to get runs under the belt; to get the confidence flowing,” Bavuma said in a video file released by CSA on Friday. “I would have wanted to score a lot more runs. The opportunity was there. I guess me walking prematurely, before the umpire had made a decision, probably was not the cleverest of things. But it happened in the spur of the moment.”

More happily for South Africa, Bavuma’s strange dismissal was but a blip on their march to victory by an innings and 45 runs inside four days — their only success in the four Tests they played in 2020. And that after Sri Lanka had scored 396 in their first innings, their highest total in South Africa. The home side’s response, helped by injuries to much of the Lankans’ frontline attack, was 621.

“We were able to bring the game back through strong performances, led by the batters,” Bavuma said. “There hasn’t been a lot of consistency or confidence in our batting. So the pressure was on the batters, especially considering they are the senior guys in the team, to step up and lead the way.”

South Africa’s attack had just a dozen caps worth of experience going into the match, and it took them time to settle in. “In the first innings, it wasn’t our best bowling effort,” Bavuma said. “The second innings [when Sri Lanka were dismissed for 180] was totally different … in terms of the discipline, intensity and ruthlessness that we showed.”

The second Test starts on Sunday at the Wanderers, where conditions are likely to be similar to those at Centurion. What would Bavuma change about South Africa’s approach? “Not a lot, to be honest. The challenge will be, if you do get in, to make sure you go and get the big score to be able to put the team in a good position.”

It seems the South Africans won’t want for opportunities to do so. Word from the Sri Lanka camp on Friday was that Suranga Lakmal will not be over the hamstring injury that kept him out of the first Test and will join Dhananjaya de Silva, Dinesh Chandimal, Kasun Rajitha, Lahiru Kumara and Oshada Fernando on the sidelines. Wanindu Hasaranga, who made a promising debut at Centurion, is to undergo a fitness test on Saturday.

South Africa have also had their mishaps, though they have been nowhere near as damaging to the cause. Glenton Stuurman has been released from the squad because of a quadriceps strain, a release on Friday said. That follows Migael Pretorius being let go on Wednesday after injuring a shoulder. It’s plausible that the two uncapped players hurt themselves by trying too hard to be noticed during training sessions. But their franchises, the Warriors and the Knights, would be justified if they were unhappy that players they sent to the highest level fit and healthy are coming home injured.

Not that Bavuma will be thinking of those who are no longer around as he looks to add a second century to the 14 half-centuries he has scored in his 68 Test innings. The closest he has come so far was at the Wanderers — his home ground — in March 2018, when Australia’s dismissal of South Africa left him marooned on 95 not out. As positive as the recollection of his performance in that innings will be, that wasn’t enough for Bavuma: “I’d like to create more memories; there is a feeling of unfinished business.”

First published by Cricbuzz.

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Centurion’s contrasting captains

“As a captain I’m trying to keep the team together and get them ready for the second Test.” – Dimuth Karunaratne

Telford Vice | Centurion

IF captaincy is partly about contrasts, you would struggle to find a pair of captains with as starkly contrasting stories as Quinton de Kock and Dimuth Karunaratne after the first test between South Africa and Sri Lanka at Centurion on Tuesday.

De Kock had the Test leadership thrust upon him despite his and Graeme Smith’s assurances that the captaincy of South Africa’s white-ball sides, on top of his heavy workload as the wicketkeeper and a key batter, was someone else’s job in the wake of Faf du Plessis stepping down in February. Not only was the Centurion match De Kock’s first as a Test captain, it is the only time he has been at the helm of a first-class team — in his 77th match at that level.

Karunaratne played 45 first-class matches before he was put in charge of a team: Sri Lanka A against their South Africa counterparts at Kingsmead in June 2012. He was back in Durban in February 2019, this time captaining the Test side, to preside over the first of the two most famous victories by an Asian team in South Africa. Another win at St George’s Park made Sri Lanka the only subcontinent side to win a Test series in the country.

Would Karunaratne lead his team to another triumph this time? That seemed a little less likely when Angelo Mathews withdrew from the tour, and more so when Suranga Lakmal was ruled out of the Centurion Test. Both had hamstring problems. Winning became unthinkable when Dhananjaya de Silva, Kasun Rajitha, Lahiru Kumara, Wanindu Hasaranga and Dinesh Chandimal were all injured during the first three days at Centurion. de Silva, Kumara and Rajitha have since been removed from the equation for the second Test at the Wanderers, which starts on January 3.

“As a captain it’s not easy for me,” Karunaratne said after South Africa completed their triumph by an innings and 45 runs after lunch on the fourth day. “If you don’t have bowlers to bowl in these conditions … [Dasun] Shanaka played as a fourth seamer and a batsman. Unfortunately he had to bowl many over because our two key bowlers were injured.”

Now what? The start of the second Test is six days away. What can Karunaratne do between now and then? “As a captain I need to get the message through that the series isn’t over yet,” he said. “We have another game to go. We’ll have plenty of conversations about the issues. As a captain I’m trying to keep the team together and get them ready for the second Test.”

De Kock had captained South Africa in eight ODIs and 11 T20Is before the Centurion Test. But white-ball leadership is surely inadequate preparation for holding a Test team’s reins? Just the opposite, it seems.

“It was a little bit easier,” De Kock said. “You have more time to think about things than in the other formats. But it also helps that I have some good leaders in my team. When I do need help I can go to them for advice. The likes of Dean [Elgar], Rassie [van der Dussen], Temba [Bavuma], Faf [du Plessis]. They’re a big help out there when I need them.”

De Kock has played 216 matches for South Africa, 177 of them in the company of Du Plessis. And 101 of those with Du Plessis as his skipper. “I’ve never captained a first-class game before, but I’ve been next to Faf for most of my Test career,” De Kock said. “I’ve learnt a lot from him, so I felt pretty much at home. I kind of knew what it was all about. It was pretty simple out there, to be honest.”

Good thing, for his own sake, that Karunaratne wasn’t around to hear that.

First published by Cricbuzz.

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What happens when Test cricket gets ugly

South Africa ended a difficult year by playing some of their most impressive cricket, but they deserved better than this pitiful spectacle.

Telford Vice | Centurion

NOT until they were required on the field did Sri Lanka show their faces at Centurion on Tuesday. While South Africa took to their half of the outfield to warm-up for the fourth day of the first Test, the visitors either sulked or licked their many wounds in the nets, depending on your preferred view. Or they were away from all eyes because they would resume 160 behind with an uncertain number of wickets in hand, and needed all the batting practice they could get.

At lunch, when the Lankans were 77 behind and seven down, Dushmantha Chameera and Asitha Fernando appeared on the field to bowl on one of the unused pitches. There was a spring in their step that had been robbed from Dhananjaya de Silva, Kasun Rajitha, Lahiru Kumara, Wanindu Hasaranga and Dinesh Chandimal. They had all suffered injuries on the first three days, but only de Silva had been ruled out — for the rest of series.

Cruelly, on another strip on the other side of the match pitch, Kagiso Rabada, freshly returned from a groin injury, bounded in like a man who couldn’t wait for the next time he would be in the XI. That will be on January 3, when the second Test starts at the Wanderers.

The last of the five wickets that fell in the morning belonged to Vishwa Fernando, who was run out in the last act of the session in the throes of confusion no doubt exacerbated by Hasaranga’s knee or ankle injury. Hasaranga ditched his bat, pads and gloves at the boundary, and began hobbling up the 48 steps to the dressingroom.

The second session began with Aiden Markram bowling from one end and Keshav Maharaj from the other — perhaps in a bid to revitalise the over-rate — and with Hasaranga at one end and Rajitha at the other. A pitiful spectacle unfolded with neither batter able to run, made even worse when they forget they were unable to run.

South Africa lost patience with the softly-softly approach after six overs of spin, and Lutho Sipamla steamed in — and Hasaranga hit him for fours through long-off, gully and down the ground. A menacing over from Anrich Nortjé followed, in which Rajitha leapt about like a lizard trying to escape a jam jar and scored no runs.

Hasaranga went two balls later, heaving Sipamla to long-off. His 59 came off 53 balls, and 54 of it flowed in sixes and fours. And with him went a lot of guts and grit. It took six more balls to end the match, which happened when Rajitha blipped Norjé to gully.

Wiaan Mulder, who had two catches dropped in the first session, added two wickets to the three he took in the first innings, and looked throughout like he wasn’t playing in only his second Test. He will play many more.

It hadn’t been Test cricket’s finest three hours. South Africa had claimed an emphatic victory, by an innings and 45 runs, but at what cost to the game? If this had been a boxing match, it would have been stopped in the second round. If it had been a football or a rugby match, fresh, healthy legs would have been sent into the fray. But this is cricket, which in these circumstances seemed anachronistic and brutish.

South Africa, too, deserved better. They ended a difficult year by playing some of their most impressive cricket for several years. Faf du Plessis proved, again, what a peerless asset he is to his team. Dean Elgar and Markram represented the old and new guards with aplomb. Temba Bavuma shouldn’t have walked, but he had been superbly composed and decisive until that moment. Sipamla showed courage to come back from a flaccid performance on the first day and earned his respect the hard way. Already, Mulder has made a strong case to be regarded as South Africa’s first-choice allrounder.

But we will struggle to remember those bright points. And struggle to forget stricken players trying to give of their best when they were far from their best. It is not a pretty memory.

First published by Cricbuzz.

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Arthur on a mission to save cricket from Covid

“Luckily we brought 21, otherwise Grant Flower would be batting at No. 3 and I’d be batting at No. 4 in the next Test.” – Mickey Arthur

Telford Vice | Centurion

MICKEY Arthur is a man on a mission after his Sri Lanka team were reduced to seven, possibly six, fit players after three days of the first Test against South Africa in Centurion. A man on a mercy mission to save the game as we know it from Covid-19, you might say.

Having Angelo Mathews ruled out before the series and Suranga Lakmal for the match, both with hamstring injuries, was bad enough. But then, on Friday, Dhananjaya de Silva was taken out of the equation for the rest of the tour by a groin problem. He has been followed to the sidelines, temporarily, at least, by Kasun Rajitha, Lahiru Kumara and Wanindu Hasaranga. Dinesh Chandimal may join them with an as yet undisclosed issue.

“We’ve picked up a huge amount of niggles; ridiculous really,” Arthur said after stumps on Monday. The core problem, he said, was the uncertainty caused by the chaos the coronavirus is causing in cricket.

“We built up for a Test series with Bangladesh [which was due to start in October, but was postponed], and we had two residential camps in Colombo when Colombo was in lockdown,” Arthur said. “We built up to a Bangladesh series that didn’t take place. We then had to deload the players because we couldn’t keep them loaded up at their level.

“Then the South African tour was on and then off and then on and then off. So we had a residential camp where we got our guys back. The background to that was that Colombo was in curfew; the players couldn’t move out of their homes. So a lot of the conditioning work had to be done at home. Once the South African tour was on, the board very generously gave us a residential camp. We had two weeks where we started to load the players up again.

“And then, unfortunately, we had the LPL [from November 26 to December 16]. From our residential camp we lost our players for a month to the LPL through no fault of anybody; that’s just how it works. We got them back the day we left to go to South Africa. In terms of loads, conditioning and quarantining, where players weren’t allowed to do anything, you can throw all that in the melting pot. Every one of those factors probably plays a role [in the spate of injuries].

“Getting enough time for preparation is going to be key. We didn’t get enough time here. But that’s through no fault of anybody; it’s just how the calendar worked out. We knew we were going to endanger some guys, which is why we brought 21 players. I certainly didn’t think we’d only have seven fit players in this Test match, and our most senior players in Angelo Mathews and Suranga Lakmal not being available. That takes nine players away from us, which is very detrimental. I do feel we are going to be a couple more down when we have to select for the Wanderers Test [which starts on January 3].”

Would Arthur like to see the ICC introduce Covid substitutes, as it has done for players who are concussed during matches?

“I would love to have one here. We’re five guys down at the moment. Luckily we brought 21, otherwise [batting coach] Grant Flower would be batting at No. 3 and I’d be batting at No. 4 in the next Test. I do sit on the ICC cricket committee and I will be having a chat at the end of this Test. India lost one of their quicks today, and I suspect that more teams are going to lose quicks as it goes on because the rigours of the workload are just going to be too much with Covid around and the quarantine process.”

Umesh Yadav was taken to hospital in Melbourne after complaining of calf pain during the second Test against Australia at the MCG. As things stand, he wouldn’t be allowed a runner when he batted. The ICC abolished them in October 2011. Arthur concurred that the issue might need to be revisited.

“If the world was normal I don’t think we’d be in this situation,” Arthur said. “The conditioning would be perfect and the guys would be ready to go. With the world being abnormal at the moment, that is something that can be looked at. I’m pretty sure it will come up for discussion at ICC level at some point. If Chandimal is out we’ve only got six fit players to finish a Test match with, which is not good enough for anybody. It’s not good enough for our team, for the TV audience, our for our position.”

The day’s play ended with Chandimal, who is 21 not out with Sri Lanka 65/2 in their second innings — 160 runs from making South Africa bat again — leaving the ground on a buggy.

“He’s in the changeroom getting some treatment. I went in there and I thought, being the glass half-full that I am, that it was just cramp. I’ve got a feeling it’s something more serious.”

But Arthur hasn’t lost his sense of humour, as he proved when he was asked whether the visitors would look to attack on Tuesday: “We’re going to get 400 ahead and then Dimuth Karunaratne is going to get six wickets and win us the game.”

First published by Cricbuzz.

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Du Plessis demoralises decimated Sri Lanka

Did Dean Elgar cry when Faf du Plessis got out for 199? Don’t be silly. People as tough as Elgar do not have tear ducts.

Telford Vice | Centurion

THE voice from above was emphatic: “It’s too hot! Don’t fall over!” Makhaya Ntini, now 43, a touch more ballast on his frame than in his playing days, his burgeoning afro silvering at the edges, still has his boom. So when he stood in his commentator’s get-up in Centurion’s open air pressbox on Monday and yelled his advice in voluble, voluptuous isiXhosa at a veteran member of the dressingroom staff making his way across the outfield many metres below, no-one in the ground could fail to hear his warning.

That was an hour before the start of the third day of the first Test between South Africa and Sri Lanka. After lunch, Ntini was proved not only correct but also prophetic. It was 31 degrees Celsius and three Sri Lankans had fallen over. Three more, that is. They could argue that they didn’t heed Ntini’s words because they don’t understand isiXhosa.

Lahiru Kumara, bowling the sixth over of the second session and his eighth of the day, left the field with his hand hovering over his groin after one delivery. Then Niroshan Dickwella went down as if he had been shot. Turns out he had been: by a bee that had stung him on the back of his neck. A buggy parked beyond the cover boundary, the same one that had ferried Dhananjaya de Silva to the dressingroom on his way out of the series with a torn thigh muscle on Friday, nudged closer in readiness. But, after treatment on the field, Dickwella returned to the fray.

That drama had barely subsided when Wanindu Hasaranga, in trying to stop Faf du Plessis’ smear for four off Dasun Shanaka, crashed to earth on the extra cover boundary and struggled to regain his footing because of an ankle or a knee issue. This time the buggy was required. The same dressingroom attendant Ntini had addressed from on high in the morning hurried to Hasaranga to hand him a requisite face mask for the journey. If you wanted to be cruel, you could have said those Lankans who weren’t going down like flies were being zapped by bees.

An hour later Hasaranga appeared at the top of the stairs that lead from the dressingroom to the field, and made his way, gingerly, down all 48 of them. Two overs after that the debutant leg spinner was bowling.

Mickey Arthur looked increasingly ill with each passing calamity. He had suffered the withdrawal of Angelo Matthews before the tour and Suranga Lakmal before the match, both with a dodgy hamstrings. Then came de Silva and, on Saturday, the removal of Kasun Rajitha with a groin injury. And then Kumara, Dickwella and Hasaranga were stricken. Who could blame Sri Lanka’s coach if all he could do was stare apoplectically at the field while keeping his mouth covered by the crook of his elbow like someone trying to keep his lunch where it belonged?

How Arthur must have envied his compatriots, who welcomed Kagiso Rabada back from a groin niggle in time for him to be picked for the second Test at the Wanderers on January 3. The sight of Rabada loping languidly around the outfield during lunch must have been a punch in the visitors’ guts.

And all that before Faf du Plessis fell a solitary run short of completing his first double century, ending a stay of almost seven hours in his 113th innings. He batted at least as well as he did in his first, in November 2012, when he made an undefeated 110 to save the Adelaide Test. This time, he has given South Africa a fine chance of claiming their first Test win in four attempts this year and only their second in their last 10. He did so the way he has always played: with discipline and intelligence, and not a little style. He did not agree: “I’ve made a lot better hundreds — when attacks are at their hottest, when conditions are at their toughest. I wouldn’t put this close to any of those.”

This was Du Plessis’ first century in 18 completed Test innings. He shared record stands for South Africa against Sri Lanka with teammates who are among those who might replace him as captain when Quinton de Kock’s part-time appointment expires at the end of the summer. With Temba Bavuma he put on 179 for the fifth, and he added 133 for the seventh with Keshav Maharaj. Going by the way they batted, Bavuma would make a solid if risk averse leader while the bullish Maharaj might have to be talked out of taking too many risks. Bavuma made 71 off 125 balls, and Maharaj an unbeaten 74 — his highest score — off 105.

Bavuma’s innings ended bizarrely when he flashed at Shanaka, turned on his heel, tucked his bat under his arm, and walked. Except that Marais Erasmus hadn’t given him out and technology showed he hadn’t hit the ball. Why? He thought he had heard a sound, came word from the dressingroom. After 14 half-centuries in 68 innings, the agonising wait for Bavuma’s second century continues.

When Du Plessis heaved Hasaranga to mid-on, failing to clear Dimuth Karunaratne, who held the catch high, he threw his head back in disappointment. Up in the dressingroom, Mark Boucher did likewise. Dean Elgar, who knows this pain having been dismissed for 199 against Bangladesh in Potchefstroom in September 2017, buried his head in his hands. Was he crying? Don’t be silly. People as tough as Elgar do not have tear ducts.

Morné Morkel, meanwhile, must have been searching for an eraser. Four hours before Du Plessis got out, the fast bowler tweeted: “I’m penciling [Du Plessis] in for a double … perfect day for it.” Whatever the state of the day, it’s rare for South Africans’ praises to be sung by Australian citizens.

Du Plessis’ dismissal prompted the unravelling of an innings in which the last four wickets fell for a dozen runs in 10 deliveries. Two of them went to Hasaranga, whose fortitude for bowling in what must have been pain was rewarded with 4/171 from 45 overs.

South Africa’s 621 was the highest total made by any team in the 25 Tests played at Centurion, and their biggest since January 2016 — 78 Test innings ago. Only six times in their previous 439 Tests have they compiled a higher score.

Lungi Ngidi had removed Karunaratne and Kusal Mendis by the end of the fifth over of Sri Lanka’s second innings, when still another visiting player lay prone and in need of medical attention. But it seemed all Dinesh Chandimal required was a bandage applied to his achilles, which his pad strap appeared to be pinching.

Mendis and Chandimal ensured the Lankans endured no further hurt, in any sense. Or so it seemed until the close, when the dreaded buggy collected Chandimal at the boundary at the close, perhaps only to spare him a painful walk to the team bus. But, with only five wickets in hand, possibly, and 160 needed to make South Africa bat again, the damage has been done.

The day ended as it began, with Ntini booming from the press box, this time at a cameraperson stationed close to the fence: “You’d better come here! If you stay in the sun for much longer you’ll turn purple!” Many present laughed, but not the Sri Lankans. And not only because they don’t understand isiXhosa.

First published by Cricbuzz.

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Centurion an emphatic ally in South Africa’s cause

“You don’t want to go into a game thinking you are going to bomb guys out and it doesn’t happen.” – Anrich Nortjé

Telford Vice | Johannesburg

THE newest of South Africa’s regular Test grounds is the most South African of them all. A particular South Africa, that is. For there are many. On weekend afternoons here, the braai smoke draws an aromatic veil over the ground, the grass banks hum with beery buzz, and conversations clatter in, mainly, Afrikaans.

But foreigners are welcome. Even the opposition are treated with more respect at Centurion than at many other grounds. Except that there won’t be a crowd on Saturday for the match against Sri Lanka, the first Test played in South Africa since Covid-19 changed everything about the world and how we live in it. So there will be no gracious reception from the locals to take the edge off the conditions, which would seem bespoke for South Africa’s apparently bottomless well of quality fast bowlers.

Batting in the first four-and-a-half sessions at Centurion is often an exercise in survival. And a good idea to survive it is. Because in the next four-and-a-half sessions batters prosper more than they would elsewhere. The pitch loses its sting and the outfield, invariably quick, has hardened in the sun and is quicker still. So while their have been 14 hauls of more than five wickets in an innings in the 25 Tests played here, there have also been six scores of more than 150 — two of them double centuries.

Add to all that a welt of clouds banking on the horizon early in the day, lightning bolts scragging across the sky as tea approaches, and more than the odd thunderstorm of biblical proportions in the third session. In the open pressbox, reporters on deadline have ended up typing furiously while cowering under their desks with their shirts pulled over their heads to keep themselves as safe as possible and their laptops something like dry.

There’s a theatrical quality to the drama of Test cricket at Centurion, and mostly the heroes of the piece are South Africa. Of those 25 Tests they have played here since November 1995 they have lost only two. Sri Lanka have been the opposition in four matches and have been beaten in all of them, twice by an innings.

But you need to go 21 places down the list of best bowling performances in an innings at Centurion to find the first one against Sri Lanka — Vernon Philander’s 5/53 in December 2011. The only other Lankan entry on this side of the equation in the top 30 is Allan Donald’s 5/54 in March 1998, the same match in which Muttiah Muralitheran took 5/63. Shaun Pollock’s 111 in January 2011, Daryll Cullinan’s 103 in March 1998 and another 103, by Neil McKenzie, also in January 2001, are the only centuries scored against Sri Lanka at Centurion.

Hashan Tillakaratne’s undefeated 104 in November 2002 is their only hundred here. Tillakaratne batted for five-and-a-half hours and faced 231 balls for his prize. But let us not call that innings dour considering Centurion was also the scene of a 161-ball 97 by AB De Villiers against New Zealand in April 2006 and Kumar Sangakkara’s 98 in January 2001, which took 215 deliveries.

So, for all Centurion’s emphatic allegiance to South Africa’s cause, Sri Lanka have had their moments. But they have been few and far between. Whether they can put enough of them together this time will be key to their chances of breaking their duck at the ground.

Kusal Perera’s 153 not out at Kingsmead on Sri Lanka’s previous visit to the country, in February last year, blazed a new trail for his team’s history in South Africa and led to them becoming the first Asian side to win a Test series here. But flat, flabby Kingsmead is not Centurion. Kusal is class on legs, as he will need to be if he is to repeat his 2019 heroics in this match. Lahiru Kumara, quick but erratic, could be the Lankans’ best hope of matching the home side in the pace department.

Both teams are playing their first Test of the coronavirus era, but the South Africans are also going where they haven’t since Faf du Plessis quit the captaincy in February. Quinton de Kock, who has replaced him for the summer, has big boots to fill. He has played 215 internationals in all formats, but has never captained in a first-class match. De Kock will have to find a way to win despite an inexperienced pace attack and a batting line-up strong on sturdiness but light on flair.

Centurion will allow South Africa to start as favourites. But they will have to work to keep that status.

When: Saturday December 26, 2020. 10am Local Time

Where: SuperSport Park, Centurion

What to expect: Fast, bouncy and swinging for the first day or so, flat for the next day or so, up and down for the rest of the match. Expect an epic thunderstorm in the afternoon. Perhaps every afternoon. But, usually, only for an hour.

Team news

South Africa

Beuran Hendricks’ removal from the equation — possibly because he has tested positive for Covid-19, although CSA won’t confirm that — and Kagiso Rabada’s absence because of a groin strain changes the look of South Africa’s likely attack. Also, Lungi Ngidi and Glenton Stuurman are trying to overcome minor physical issues. An all-seam approach might have been an option if none of that was the case, but surely not now.

Possible XI: Dean Elgar, Aiden Markram, Rassie van der Dussen, Faf du Plessis, Quinton de Kock, Temba Bavuma, Dwaine Pretorius, Anrich Nortjé, Keshav Maharaj, Glenton Stuurman, Lungi Ngidi.

Sri Lanka

Angelo Mathews is out of the tour with a hamstring injury and Oshado Fernando will miss the first Test because of an ankle problem. Suranga Lakmal is doubtful with a hamstring strain he suffered during training on Wednesday.

Possible XI: Dimuth Karunaratne, Lahiru Thirimanne, Kusal Mendis, Minod Bhanuka, Dinesh Chandimal, Dhananjaya De Silva, Dilruwan Perera, Niroshan Dickwella, Lasith Embuldeniya, Vishwa Fernando, Lahiru Kumara.

What they said

“There’s going to be a little bit more bounce, a little bit more pace. We’re definitely going to use it to our advantage but we don’t want to get carried away. You don’t want to go into a game thinking you are going to bomb guys out and it doesn’t happen.” — Anrich Nortjé tries to curb his enthusiasm about bowling at Centurion.

“We will be playing for the first time after Covid, so a few things are new. We’re learning how to play from out of a bio-bubble. But we’re not worried about Covid; we just want to play good cricket and enjoy the time we’re here. We are not talking or thinking about Covid.” — Dimuth Karunaratne refuses to be vexed by the virus.

First published by Cricbuzz.

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