Sri Lanka, scrappy?

April 2, 2012 – 12:22 am ||

We don’t know how long it has been exactly since Sri Lanka won a test at home.  But it’s felt like an aeon. We were going to write up a flattering post last week when they pulled off the win but we then ate  some thai food we didn’t agree with.

A test win is a test win and probably one that should not be argued against. Test wins are hard fought. And this one certainly was. Mahela Jayawardene is probably being bathed in pure white milk by nubile virgins as we apeak.  And so he should.

The win however, should not gloss over some of Sri Lankas timeless battles with consistency at the top order. Of course you could argue that 15-3 and 14-3 are nothing but.

Sri Lanka continue to search for the ideal opening pair. Paranavithana has now been dumped for Thirimanne. A right he has earned on the back of his decent run in the middle order in ODIs. A quick stint at the top against the red ball, with pace and spin, has proved yet again how vastly different the two formats are.

Thirimanne isn’t a bad player but he can easily drift into being another player shafted for failing in a couple of tests. In the middle order he proved that he can survive in an alien world. But maybe it hid the fact that his technique is too loose against the moving ball early on. Sri Lanka should give him a chance to prove that he can be a test match opener and with most of  Sri Lankas next assignments being at home, it would be stupid to not give him any leeway.

Dilshans contributions in this test were bordering on comical.  Dilshan doesnt need to tame himself but there is no harm in getting yourself in. On a pitch like Galle, blocking 20 balls is worth it before trying to belt one into the sea.

Sangakkara continued his stop start form from the ODIs in to the test. He has been setting a dangerous trend in starting series badly. And it is hurting Sri Lanka. And it hurts us. So get it together Kumar.

It’s barely believable and we feel weird writing about it but the thing that impressed us the most about Sri Lanka was the fight they showed in the lower order.

Sides dont usually win after being 3 for nothing in both innings. And they shouldn’t. The fact that England could not polish off Sri Lankas tail which fetched a 160 and 110 runs for the last 4 wickets in each innings played as important a role as Jayawardenes (plural) batting and Heraths bowling. And of course England ‘sin ful’ batting

It seems like an extension from their ODI form where they refused to give up. And if anything should be carried over from an ODI series (the Asia cup did not exist in our minds), we are glad it’s this.

Sri Lanka it seems, no longer wilts under the pressure but are willing to scrap. And if they are to string together a meaningful number of test wins and not just isolated triumphs then scrap they must.

And scrap they did. We liked it. We liked it a lot.

Written by: damiths
Posted in: england in sri lanka 2012


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Mahela has a good day

March 26, 2012 – 11:46 pm ||

It’s always interesting listening to all the international commentators talk so highly of Mahela, when most Sri Lankans rate him as alright at home and a bit pants away.

And then there are days like today when the disparity of his home and away record is as unimportant as Roshan Abeysinghes infomercials on SL cricketers backgrounds.  Jaywardene has these days where he walks out and in the space of about 10 balls he’s assessed the pitch, the bowlers, and the total his side needs. And when his side is 3 down on the opening day of a test series it’s quite important that he is able to do this.

He also likes being captain. And he likes playing at Galle and against England.

And while a lot of things were stacked in his favor, a lot of things weren’t. With his top 4 back warming the seats, he had Chandimal, in his 2nd test, PJ, coming off injury and the bowlers. Those partnerships read, 62, 42, 21, 62 and 36*. This says as much about his ability as about his aptitude for getting the best out of his players.

Ranaga Herath usually comes out there looking like he’s got fire ants in his undergarments. Today he was so sedate that I tweeted wondering if he had been given a tranquiliser. It had Mahela written all over it.

It’s not often you see a really intelligent innings by a batsmen. While the other end resembled a black hole sucking in the SL top order, Mahela was calm. With the tail, he controlled the strike as well as Steve Waugh in his prime. And I can honestly say I’ve never seen to many late cuts in one innings in all my life. His foot movement to the spinners was immaculate. Being dropped twice only made this very real innings seem more human. Not some other worldly super innings that no one could ever fathom. Here was batsmen in his purest form batting to put his side in the best possible situation. Hiccups are a  part of the deal .

This was a batsmen who was playing exactly the way you’d expect someone to in these situations. And that’s the reason why this innings was so good. He read the situation and he figured out what needed to be done and he did it. It seems so simple but its not something Sri Lankan batsmen are very good at.

Of course all this could be useless if England end up batting for a couple of days. But for Sri Lanka to be batting first, 11 short of 300 on Day 1 is pretty good.

 

Written by: damiths
Posted in: england in sri lanka 2012, mahela jayawardane


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Eng v SL – facts you wish you had known #1

March 26, 2012 – 11:00 am ||

#1

The current Ch4 Video about crimes against humanity is actually a remake of a two part series that Ch4 themselves aired in the late 90s and early 00s.

The first part  focused on the 98 test at the Oval where Sri Lanka were accused of ‘abject disregard to the finely balanced mental stronghold by their imperial masters on the former colony’.

This video caused a major uproar in the international community. It scarred a generation of young English men and a spike in suicide levels in London was directly attributed to the disturbing imagery shown in super slowmo technology.

Part 2 was based on the 03 test at the SSC. Ch4 called it a follow up to the 98 video to show the ‘continued ignorance of the Sri Lakan side to accept socio economic norms’. The innings and 215 run vicorty they argued further undermined Englands willingness to offer Sri Lanka 3 test series.

Current English fans were appalled when it was rerun recently. Many of whom had never seen England cricketers looking so bewildered and despondent.

It was reported that Chris Broad was so angered by the horrific scenes in the video that he deficated on top of  the blueray copy he had bought.

This was of course before he became a match referee, naturally.

Written by: damiths
Posted in: england in sri lanka 2012, england v sl facts


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Eng v SL – facts you wish you had known #4, #3, #2

March 25, 2012 – 10:06 pm ||

#4

The Don – Anurasiri, not Bradman, has been a Sri Lankan Selector since 1854. So it would seem odd that he only picked himself for one test against England in 91 where he picked up the important wicket of Graham Gooch. When he was on 174. It is said the Anurasiri was so hard on himself that he hardly picked himself again. Many had thought him dead when he made a comeback by picking himself in 98 before disappearing again. A selection policy that he now uses on several select Sri Lankan cricketers.

#3

Jayananda Warnaweera was accused of doctoring the pitch to suit his own needs after he took 8 wickets in the game to lead Sri Lanka to victory over England in 93 for the first time. In 2011, the ICC used this evidence as proof of ‘a track record of influence on a game’ to prove that the Galle pitch did not meet ICC requirements.

#2

Kumar Sangakkara once brutally attacked Nasser Hussain for calling him a pseudo intellectual at the German Restaurant in Colombo. The pair had been jousting verbally all tour in 2003 and it came to a head at the restaurant when Sangakkara told Hussain that the year of wine he ordered was not a particularly good one.

 

What will be the number #1 Fact that you wish you’d known? Tune in tomorrow.

Written by: damiths
Posted in: england in sri lanka 2012, england v sl facts


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Podcast – Eng tour and Death of a Gentleman with Jarrod Kimber

March 24, 2012 – 6:56 pm ||

In Part 1, Jarrod Kimber, of cricket with balls and two chucks fame, join us hours before he flies out to SL to cover the England tour, to chat about the English set up and how important the tour is for both sides

 

In Part 2 Jarrod talks in detail about his current labour of love  – the circket documentary – Death of a Gentleman. And me and Andrew hi-jack it a little to talk about test cricket in Sri Lanka.

The film Jarrod is making, along with Sam Collins of the Two Chucks, is a  snapshot of  Test cricket against the Australia/ India series 2011-12, trying to work out if the game they love has a future along the way. It is a completely independent film, so they need all the help that they can get in terms of money and crew.

Visit the movie website http://deathofagentlemanfilm.com/ (@doagfilm)and learn more about the film and how you can help.

This could possibly be the most important made about cricket in the current climate that its in. So give these guys your fkn money people! We did. And will continue to !

 

Hosts

Damith (www.theflylsip.net and on Cricinfo Here).

Andrew Fernando, who writes for The Pigeon and has a column here. Check him out on Cricinfo here.

Guest

Jarrod Kimber, writes at cricket with balls (@cricketwballs), produces The Two Chucks (@thetwochucks ) for Cricinfo and is currently working on the cricket documentary – Death of a Gentleman (@doagfilm)

Written by: damiths
Posted in: podcast


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