All posts by csb10.top

As Mumbai Indians dealt Kolkata Knight Riders’ chances of defending their IPL title an almost fatal blow on Tuesday, beating them by a whopping 65 runs, Sachin Tendulkar served up his most impactful showing of the season till now. Even as his opening partner Dwayne Smith struggled to score at a run-a-ball, Tendulkar knocked off 48 off 28 at a strike rate of 171.42 to help set his team on their way to 170.Till the Knight Riders game, Tendulkar had been striking it at a rather sedate rate (after the game, his season’s strike rate stands at 125.13). However, he has looked to be aggressive whenever he has got in, Tendulkar said. “If you look at the whole season, whenever I’ve batted, I’ve not been able to spend much time in the middle. But whenever I’ve batted, I think it has been pretty aggressively,” he said after the match. “Every day you can’t go out and find the middle of the bat. This [Wankhede pitch] is the kind of surface where there’s a bit of help too upfront for the seamers, and so when you’re striking the ball well, you should be aggressive and make the most of it.”Today was one of those days when I was striking the ball well and I thought that if I’m striking the ball well, I should be the one who is more aggressive.”He has been enjoying his time in the IPL, Tendulkar said, and “sharing” with his Mumbai Indians team-mates. “I’m enjoying, I’m in love with this game. The passion for the game is very much there, so whatever time I get on the field I make the most of it.”It’s all about give and take [with team-mates]. It’s not about just being one-way traffic, where I just keep saying things and I don’t absorb anything from them. I’ve learnt a lot from many guys in the team and it’s about discussing cricket. The more you discuss the better you get, the more you know. It’s all about sharing.”Dinesh Karthik, meanwhile, continued his prime form for Mumbai Indians, stringing together 34 not out off 18 in the victory. He and the team have been benefitting a lot from Ricky Ponting’s presence, Karthik said. “The other day I had a doubt and I walked up to Ricky. All he said was that if you see the ball and think you can hit it, you hit it,” Karthik told the IPL site. “That, I thought was a very positive input and the one I really liked.”He is the biggest thing to have happened to Mumbai Indians. He has this aura about him and he brings in a lot of positive energy into the team. Some of the things that he says in team meetings and some of the points he brings to the fore are really hair-raising. He is the key reason for us to be so positive and motivated.”

ScorecardDavid Balcombe took two of the wickets to fall on the final day as Hampshire crushed Worcestershire•PA Photos

For Hampshire, this was a triumph deserved not least for having been thwarted by the weather when they were in an almost exact situation a fortnight ago, against Leicestershire. Then, as now, they required five wickets on the final day of the match. The difference on this occasion was that, although the floodlights had to be turned on before Worcestershire’s final wicket fell, the skies remained clear.The one batsman who might well have prevented Hampshire from winning by an innings, or indeed winning at all, was Daryl Mitchell. The Worcestershire captain was making his 100th first-class appearance and he deserved to mark it with a century given that his application was altogether of a different kind to what the rest of his team had produced.Mitchell remained at the crease for a further 50 minutes, collecting straightforward runs at the start of the session when James Vince and Liam Dawson were on. The new ball would clearly be the sticking point. This was duly handed by Jimmy Adams to Chris Wood and David Balcombe, the thinking being, perhaps, that it was too cold for James Tomlinson to gain any swing.The captain was but eight runs short of a century when he aimed slightly across the line at Wood and was leg-before. Whether this was through a momentary lapse in concentration or momentary movement, his and Worcestershire’s hopes of drawing this match went with him. He had faced 249 balls and struck just eight fours, which told more of his resolve than any inability to find the boundaries.Michael Johnson, who had once played club cricket in these parts, was supportive in contributing 44 with six fours but, 14 runs later, he too went leg-before, going back on his stumps to Balcombe. The tail went swiftly: Richard Jones chipped to midwicket, having been softened up by a bouncer, and Danny Briggs, sensibly brought into the attack at this point, had Gareth Andrew held at long-on, failing to clear Sean Ervine. Briggs then bowled Chris Russell for a duck, the batsman groping uncertainly against perceived turn.Whether it was worth turning the floodlights on for Russell to try to contend with Briggs – it would not be unkind to state that he would have groped uncertainly whatever the conditions – was another matter. The cost of so doing, although not as expensive as many punters might imagine, would still hardly be borne by the size of the gate. Not that spectators do not like a good moan. There are already complaints here that they will not be able to afford to stay in the new four star hotel at the Northern End, which will be completed in time for next season.What can Adams glean from this initial success, other than that his own batting is in fine order and that his attack, although lacking a strike bowler, is quite capable of bowling out (weak) batting sides such as Worcestershire’s? He admitted that he thought hard about giving them first innings upon winning the toss on Wednesday. It was perhaps just as well he didn’t, for rain was falling not long after victory had been secured shortly before lunch.

Michael Lumb, who was one of three England cricketers barred by Nottinghamshire from taking part in the 2013 Indian Premier League, has admitted he considered going freelance rather than miss out on the opportunity to play in the most lucrative event on the growing Twenty20 circuit.After careful thought, the 33-year-old batsman, part of England’s successful T20 side in India and New Zealand over the winter, rejected the idea because he wants to achieve success with Nottinghamshire. But he believes others on the county circuit will choose not to seek full-season contracts if it rules them out of the IPL.”I think you will see more and more of that with the money being thrown round these leagues, especially among players who don’t see themselves playing Test cricket, if the English clubs don’t allow their players to go because it clashes with county fixtures,” Lumb said.”I think there is a mood among the players to change things so we do get the opportunity to play. If the rules can be done in such a way that we can take part, we’d like to play. But at the minute that’s not going to happen.”Lumb’s warning provides a clue to the strong debate taking place in private between the ECB and players’ representatives, led by the Professional Cricketers Association, over the rights of England players to compete in IPL rather than be persistently excluded.Lumb has played in the IPL twice before, notably with Rajasthan Royals in 2010, but along with Alex Hales and Samit Patel, he was told he could not put himself forward for the 2013 player auction because of the fixture clash between IPL 2013, which starts on April 3, and the County Championship, which begins seven days later.Nottinghamshire encourage their players to play competitive cricket during the English close season but were not prepared to lose three players at the start of the domestic programme. They had a contractual right to insist that their players were available for the full county season.”Our players can play wherever they want to between October 1 and April 10,” Nottinghamshire director of cricket Mick Newell said. “I’ve got no issues with that. We encourage our players to play abroad — Riki (Wessels) went to Bangladesh, Hales and Lumb to the Big Bash and Samit’s now got a gig in South Africa. But there has to be a point at which you say ‘no, we need all of our best players together now’.”With the English county season continuing until the last week of September, clashing dates mean that no English teams will participate in the Champions League this year. Lumb regards that as another contentious issue, especially after his own success with Big Bash side Sydney Sixers in last year’s Champions League, when his unbeaten 82 was the match-winning innings in the final.”Having no teams in the Champions League is a huge blow for English counties,” Lumb said. “I was part of it last year and I know it is a fantastic competition.”Playing the final at the Wanderers in Johannesburg was great for me because it allowed me to play in my home town and in front of my mum and dad, who had not seen me play for a while. But for any player to play before a full house in a stadium like that is a fantastic buzz.”As for the IPL, it is disappointing that we can’t be involved this year. I can see it may cause a bit of trouble in the future and it something the management and coaches need to sort out.”I don’t know how it will work or if there is a solution. I have thought about going freelance but for me it is not the right thing at the moment. I’m enjoying my cricket right now and enjoying being at Notts, with this group, and I want this group to have success, so for me it is not really an option. But I can see other players looking at it.”Lumb’s comments follow Matt Prior’s admission that England players are becoming ‘frustrated’ that central contracts restrict them to being available for only half the IPL because of the clash with Test fixtures. Prior, championed in England at least as the finest wicketkeeper-batsman in the world, but not a part of England’s T20 side, was given a base price of $200,000 dollars at the IPL auction but failed to attract a bid, leaving Kevin Pietersen and Eoin Morgan as the only centrally contracted England players in the 2013 tournament.The Professional Cricketers’ Association is pressing the ECB to allow England players to play a fuller part in the event when their central contracts are renegotiated in October, although the ECB is thought unlikely to yield given its commitment to broadcast partners to put on seven Tests every summer. One solution to ease the burden – a six-Test summer – is only debated in private.Meanwhile, Newell admits he is worried that the likes of Lumb, Hales and Patel, who accepted the county’s hard line this year, might not always see his point of view.”It does concern me,” he said. “It is going to come up again regularly and it is an issue the counties have to address.”Next year, because there is a World t20, the IPL is going to start later and push more into our season, which means it is going to cross over the start of our new t20 competition. Somebody is going to have to have a look at that aspect too.”I think Hales is a bit young yet to be selling himself around the world but players who are 34 or 35 such as Owais Shah and Ryan ten Doeschate will just do that. And down the line Michael Lumb might want to do it as well.”

Mohammad Ashraful’s career has had several surprises: his debut century against Muttiah Muralitharan, the breathtaking 158 against India, or the wondrous century against Australia. It has always been about how he handled a top spinner or attack with ease, even at the tender age of 16.So the moment Ashraful broke his own record of highest individual Test score for Bangladesh, you wondered how a batsman who had averaged 13.22 in domestic first-class cricket earlier this season, could reach such a height?Unbeaten on 189 in Galle, Ashraful batted for little over eight hours, and faced more deliveries than any Bangladesh batsman ever did in a Test innings. He was mindful of all these records, as you would be after reaching such milestones. Ashraful had to play a more risk-free brand of cricket to reach this stage and you wonder how a naturally aggressive batsman could restrain his instincts for so long on a good pitch.He withstood several challenges in this innings. Ashraful was returning to the Test side after more than a year and was batting at No. 3, a position where he has previously averaged 8.25 and has not batted in since mid-2008.He hardly skipped a beat after Jahurul Islam’s dismissal before tea on the second day. Despite Anamul Haque’s sluggish batting at the other end, Ashraful continued to hit the gaps and ensure Bangladesh didn’t stop scoring runs. When Mominul Haque came in, he played with preservation in mind.They made a fetching pair, of similar height and build, but the combination was broken 43 minutes into the morning of the third day. It would have been easy for Ashraful to play a rash stroke, but this is where he caught many off guard.When Mahmudullah ran down the wicket to be stumped, Ashraful could have settled for an impressive half-century and a place in the team secured. However, as he said later on, he wanted to make sure Bangladesh were not going to subside.With Mushfiqur Rahim, Ashraful found a rhythm that he failed to produce with Mominul. The pair remained unbroken till lunch, Ashraful having reached his first century in over four years. Immediately afterwards, he let the captain settle, feeding Mushfiqur the strike.The surprise of Ashraful’s watchfulness stopped at that point, because as soon as Sri Lanka took the new ball, the shots began to flow. The square drive and the cover drive followed by some chips, clips and nudges against the spinners. Occasionally he would hang back and let the game flow around him. This was not Ashraful’s territory, but he was still there.Some of Ashraful’s comfort was due to Mushfiqur’s presence at the other end. The Bangladesh captain has completely come into his own after taking over from Shakib Al Hasan. He bats at a higher tempo and average, and often looks like a batsman in command of a partnership. He dominated this stand too, scoring 152 out of the 261 runs for the fifth wicket. Mushfiqur has been in form since the 2011 World Cup, scoring 15 points higher than his career average.After this season’s National Cricket League, it was easy to see why Ashraful was falling so far behind in the pecking order. There were promising players like Anamul Haque and Mominul Haque vying for spots, while his Dhaka Metropolis’ team-mates Mehrab Hossain jnr and Marshall Ayub staked claims with domestic runs.You half expected Ashraful to get out at some point during the day. But this was an entirely different batsman, one who batted an entire day for the first time in his Test career.Since he last scored a hundred in 2008, Ashraful had made just one half-century. When he was dropped in December 2011, there was hardly any hope of a comeback because Bangladesh cricket rarely does comebacks. Ashraful, with three centuries in different formats at different levels, found his way back, crawling out of the country’s ever-growing scrap heap of talented batsmen.There was a part of his innings that said a lot about his confidence. Ashraful made Angelo Mathews, the new Sri Lanka captain, employ a deep point, and invariably change that fielder’s position several times. He used width well, but he was also carving with the face of the bat so that the ball travelled downwards past regulation backward point, and he often hit it hard enough to beat deep point.His skill wasn’t a surprise, but it is how Ashraful lived to tell the tale that made everyone take notice.

Scorecard
Tasmania bowlers wrecked Western Australia’s top order after being bowled out for 211 in Perth. Luke Butterworth struck in his first over to remove Liam Davis while Ben Hilfenhaus snared the other opener, Marcus Harris, in his third.Western Australia’s troubles were further compounded when they lost John Rogers and Luke Towers with the score on 28, and before the end of the day, they lost two more, including captain Mike Hussey, to be left tottering on 6 for 54, 157 runs behind Tasmania.The day had started on a positive note for Western Australia. They had put Tasmania in to bat and Ryan Duffield had got rid of the openers by the 11th over. The batsmen who followed, all got starts but were not able to build on. They were 5 for 86 at one stage and managed to get to 211 with some handy lower order contributions.Jason Kresja top-scored with 36 while Hilfenhaus added 23. Duffield and Ashton Agar shared three wickets apiece, while Burt Cockley and Michael Hogan picked up two each.

Unpaid fees and broken promises could lead to a players’ boycott of the Bangladesh Premier League, Tim May has warned. May, the chief executive of the Federation of International Cricketers’ Associations (FICA) has revealed that “many” overseas players involved in the BPL remain unpaid and that players’ patience with the organisers has worn thin.”The players are very seriously considering some sort of boycott simply because there is little else they can do,” May told ESPNcricinfo. “They were promised 25% of their fees as soon as they arrived in Bangladesh, another 25% before the last game and the final 50% within 150 days of the end of the event.”In most cases, those first payments have not been made. As for the rest of the fees the players are owed, well, good lucking seeing that.”May admitted to a sense of frustration at the situation. After severe problems securing payments after the first instalment of the BPL, FICA advised players against taking part this time. Many ignored the warnings, however, and are now asking FICA for assistance.”We didn’t say this might happen,” May said. “We said it would happen. So yes, there is an element of frustration. We gave the players strong advice and they ignored it. They seem to have thought ‘it won’t happen to me.'”So, what do we do? The answer is we look at the bigger picture: we try to help the players in the same way in the way a foreign embassy might try to help people who find themselves in trouble in a foreign country they have been warned against visiting. Our obligation is to protect players’ welfare and we will continue to look at way we can do that.”We believe the new administration behind the Bangladesh Cricket Board should be better than the one that preceded it. We hope that the delays might be because they had little time to prepare ahead of this season of the BPL but, at the moment, we do still have some doubts about the BCB.”May did express the hope that the episode might convince players to take warnings from FICA more seriously in future. In particular, he hoped that players considering taking part in the Pakistan Super League might reflect that.”There are good reasons why just about every government in the world is advising its citizens against travelling to Pakistan,” May said. “There are good reasons why none of the major cricket boards are sending their teams to Pakistan and there are good reasons why most independent security experts say that it is not safe to visit the country.”We are not making up the security concerns we have with Pakistan. We have an obligation to look after the welfare of players and there is nothing more important than their personal safety. We are strongly advising foreign players not to take part in the Pakistan Super League, but we understand that some are likely to do so anyway.”

Match facts

December 25, 2012
Start time 1900 (1330 GMT)India v Pakistan? Time to go to the ground•Associated Press

Big Picture

Just the plain fact that this tour is actually happening is a gargantuan achievement for the Pakistan Cricket Board and its chairman Zaka Ashraf. How many diplomatic and political channels must have been traversed, how many meetings arranged and attended, how many people cajoled and persuaded, and how many prayers said in the hope that nothing goes wrong at the last moment. Well, Pakistan are finally here, on Indian soil, for their first bilateral tour in five years. It does not matter that it is apologetically short, it does not matter that it is barely squeezed between the two legs of England’s India visit. Thank heavens to Christmas then, for ensuring a gap existed in the first place for the two Twenty20 internationals and three ODIs to be sneaked in.The rivalry needs no introduction. In the earlier part of the previous decade, the historic Indian tour of Pakistan in 2003-04 – after another five-year break in ties – heralded a surfeit of bilateral series to the extent the rivalry began to feel a bit jaded. Since 2007, or more pertinently, since the Mumbai attacks of 2008, fans have had to rely on crumbs – a Champions Trophy game in 2009, a couple of Asia Cup matches, a World Cup semi-final in 2011, and a World Twenty20 clash in 2012.MS Dhoni might say it is just another series but it isn’t. Privately for the players, and openly for the fans, India v Pakistan will always be a coming together of shared history, culture, language, fear, hopes, love, hatred. India v Pakistan will always convert a neutral venue into a sea of flags of the two countries. India v Pakistan will always do strange things to players; it will drain flair out of those who have it, and it will inject flair into those who haven’t had it till then, and won’t have it thereafter. India v Pakistan will always make temporary fans out of people who run away from cricket otherwise.Too much cricket? Underperforming Indian team? No Sachin Tendulkar? All valid concerns and worries. But come the first ball in Bangalore on Tuesday evening, few will be able to resist watching.

Form guide (Completed games, most recent first)

India LWWWL
Pakistan LWLWW

In the spotlight

The last time these sides met, in the World Twenty20 in Colombo, a hesitant Mohammad Hafeez set the stage for a dull performance from Pakistan. The captain, having chosen to bat, made a 28-ball 15, defending and defending without intent. Hafeez’s approach continued when Pakistan fielded, diffidence replacing his usual pro-active, snappy self. It had to be the pressure of an India-Pakistan game, for in their next match against Australia, Pakistan were back to playing aggressive, stirring cricket. How will Hafeez cope this time?Virat Kohli is one young Indian batsman many Pakistani fans admire and despise in equal measure. The man is brash, but he gets the runs. He swears, but he is dependable. He’s played a couple of match-winning innings against them already, including the outstanding 183 in the Asia Cup earlier this year in Dhaka.

Stats and Trivia

• This will be the first T20 to be played between the two sides in India.
• Pakistan have played four bilateral limited-overs series in India, and have won two.

Quotes

“We want him to stay at the peak. We don’t want to put too much pressure on him. At the same time, other bowlers also have to take wickets to give confidence to him.”
“T20 is slightly different. You have to be a bit unorthodox and try a few different things. It is different from the longer format. So I think a few games will give us time to get into the groove.”

Australia’s captain Michael Clarke is far less equivocal about Ricky Ponting’s international future than the man himself, insisting his 37-year-old predecessor as leader can prosper again with the bat despite a dire Test in Adelaide.On a pitch so good that South Africa were able to survive the final day for the loss of only four wickets, Ponting was bowled twice in the Test for only the second time – the first being on a poor surface at Delhi’s Feroz Shah Kotla in 1996. Acknowledging his poor display, Ponting said he was tentative, and expected a discussion on his future to take place with the selectors soon.Clarke, however, left no-one in doubt of his desire to see Ponting go on for some time yet in his summation of the No. 4 batsman’s position at the end of the Test. Ponting’s value to the team as a senior figure, a standard setter at training and a source of batting and captaincy advice for Clarke remains highly regarded, even if his supply of runs has all but dried up.”The one thing we need to keep in mind, is he was the leading run-scorer in Shield cricket leading up to this summer. So he’s batting well,” Clarke said of Ponting. “We could all get out early in our innings. Every single one of us, the start of your innings is the toughest time to bat, especially when you’re facing the best attack in the world.Ricky Ponting was bowled in both innings of a Test for the first time since 1996•Getty Images

“Once he gets in, I have no doubt at all he’ll go on to make a big score. He knows how to make big hundreds, he’s still as good a player under pressure as anybody in that change room. He’ll just be working as hard as he can to get through the start of his innings like the rest of us, and then he’ll cash in and make a big score, I’m confident of that.”Ponting’s increasingly shaky place in the team appeared a less central concern for Clarke than how spent his bowlers looked at the conclusion of the Adelaide Test. With Nathan Lyon blunted and Ben Hilfenhaus exhausted, Peter Siddle’s attempt to win the Test virtually on his own in the final session set a rare standard for commitment, and Clarke said more of the same would be required in Perth if Australia are to gain belated reward for two strong but ultimately thwarted performances in Brisbane and Adelaide.”It’s what’s expected if you want to play for Australia,” Clarke said. “If you want to be the best, you’ve got to dig deep, you’ve got to try to find a way. I pay a lot of credit to Sidds, he showed a lot of heart today, that’s what we’ve come to expect from Sidds, that’s why he’s been a wonderful performer for Australia. That’s what I expect from all the bowlers, all the batters. Sometimes it’s tough out there with the bat or with the ball, you’ve got to find a way to have success.”From all the bowlers, it was an amazing effort. Losing James obviously hurt us, I don’t want to take anything away from South Africa, they did really well today. I thought Faf [du Plessis] was outstanding on debut to make a hundred, in conditions like that, under pressure. The wicket played really well, but I felt like we tried everything in our power – around the wicket, over the wicket, short balls, pitch it up, reverse swing, spin, I thought we had a red-hot crack. We did everything we could to try to win this Test, it was just unfortunate we couldn’t get over the line.”Some scrutiny will fall on Lyon’s spin as he wheeled away for 50 overs in the fourth innings but seemed to tighten up as a bowler on the final day. Lyon’s arc flattened notably and he appeared to rush through his overs, but Clarke said the match would provide valuable lessons for a bowler who has played half his 30 first-class fixtures on the Test stage.”I thought Gaz [Lyon] bowled really well through this Test,” Clarke said. “Things didn’t go his way, a few balls just went either side of fielders or didn’t quite grab the edge, the wicket still played pretty well, wasn’t as up and down as I’d expect on day five. But I thought Nathan did very well.”

Peter Siddle and Ben Hilfenhaus will not bowl another ball before the first morning of the third Test against South Africa, beginning on November 30 in Perth, as Australia try to freshen up the exhausted fast bowlers after their unstinting but ultimately fruitless efforts in Adelaide.Siddle’s performance was particularly noteworthy, pushing through crippling fatigue to take the hosts to within two wickets of a 1-0 series lead. Those exertions mean both he and Hilfenhaus are in considerable doubt to be recovered in time for Perth, leaving open the possibility of a dramatically recast bowling attack that may feature Mitchell Johnson, Mitchell Starc, John Hastings and Josh Hazlewood.Australia coach Mickey Arthur indicated that a wholesale swap of bowlers for Perth was a distinct possibility, granting the captain Michael Clarke a far fresher line-up of bowlers while South Africa continue to rely on the same quartet they brought for the tour. The visitors have been helped by the stout batting display that not only secured a draw but also gave Australia’s bowlers an enormous workload while their opposite numbers reclined in the Adelaide Oval dressing rooms.”It’s certainly something we need to look at,” Arthur said. “I think both Hilf and Sids have been outstanding, especially Sids – I thought there was a huge effort, a really warrior-like effort. We’ve got a couple of days off, I can’t see them bowling any balls at training, so we’ve just got to see how they pull up, see how they come up in Perth.”Hence we’ve given ourselves cover, in case they don’t pull up well we’re in a position where we could go with a completely different attack into Perth. That will depend on how Hilf and Sids travel, and we’ve had Mitchell Starc with us and we know he’s ready to go as well.”The training becomes more individualised now with such a quick turnaround. We’ve got a lot of new bowlers coming in, those bowlers will be very keen to impress I’m sure. So the quality of bowling around the nets is going to be first rate – and I’m sure our bowlers are going to get a really good hit out and be ready to go, come Friday morning.”Johnson’s return to the squad for the first time since he suffered a serious foot injury while batting during the dramatic Johannesburg match a year ago is a nod to his formidable record in Tests at the WACA ground – 30 wickets at 18.13 in four matches – but also an acknowledgement of his improved consistency this summer.”That does play a role, he’s had good success at the WACA ground but he’s just shown really good progression through the whole summer so far and it’s really good to have him back. He gives that little bit of fire and if selected sure he’ll be ready to go,” Arthur said. “I thought Mitchell was outstanding for us in the one day series in Pakistan, he bowled superbly, arguably one of our best bowlers there during that one day series.”He’s been making good progress through Shield cricket, I went and had a look at him at the WACA just last week and he looked in fairly good touch … so I think he obviously thoroughly deserves his place and we’re very lucky we have a lot of depth in this bowling department right now. These two guys [Siddle and Hilfenhaus] have given it their all and we can have a look at how everybody comes up and make a really well-considered decision for Friday.”Another decision Arthur described as well-considered was that to play James Pattinson at Adelaide Oval after he pushed through 53 overs in the first Test of the series at the Gabba. Having bowled only 9.1 overs in South Africa’s first innings in the second Test, Pattinson was forced off by a side/rib injury that ended his Test summer. 
”He’s a young fast bowler, he’s going to get injured,” Arthur said. “Medical reports were that he should be ok, ultimately myself and Michael [Clarke] and the selector on duty make the call and we wanted to go with Patto because we thought he had bowled really well in Brisbane. Unfortunately, young fast bowlers get injured so it was disappointing to lose him during the Test match.”One of Arthur’s chief tasks will be to ensure his team looks beyond the disappointment of Adelaide, emphasising the positives of dominating the world’s No. 1 team for extended periods of both Tests rather than mulling over the two wickets they were unable to take to secure victory.”We’ve had a quick chat about that – it took a massive amount out of the blokes and I’m just so proud of the effort each and every one of them gave. The guys are gutted we didn’t pull this Test match off,” Arthur said. “We spoke to them about it, hopefully we can put that behind us now and it all starts again for us first ball in Perth on Friday.”

Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsAaron Finch was the top scorer for Ruhuna with 65•Ron Gaunt/SPORTZPICS/SLPL

For the third consecutive night in the SLPL, a brutal opening stand was the bedrock of a comfortable win as fifties to Aaron Finch and Gihan Rupasinghe helped Ruhuna Royals crush Uthura Rudras by 35 runs in a rain-curtailed 16-overs-a-side encounter. Finch made 65 and Rupasinghe 50 as the pair struck 11 fours and four sixes between them. Lasith Malinga’s 4 for 21 then ensured Uthura never looked like chasing down the revised target of 154 at any stage.Finch attacked from the outset, clobbering a straight four from the first ball of the innings, before launching a six two balls later in the same area. Rupasinghe was slower to the charge, but his was no less savage when it began. A four over extra cover and a six over midwicket heralded a slew of boundaries either side of the wicket, and though his innings could have been ended on 26 had Farveez Maharoof held a straightforward chance at short fine leg, he continued to make merry, reaching his-half century in 34 balls, before being undone by a surprise bouncer from spinner Jehan Mubarak. At his fall, Ruhuna were well-set for a big total, at 97 for 1 from 10.5 overs.Finch switched to consolidation mode after the wicket, passing 50 in 37 balls, with a busy Chamara Silva for company before the rains came. The delay shortened the game by four overs, and while Finch and Silva fell attempting to accelerate in the 16th over, Ruhuna had not lost too many wickets to prevent a favourable Duckworth-Lewis revision to their score of 145 for 3.Malinga’s two early strikes removed Uthura’s most dangerous batsmen in Imran Farhat and Brendan Taylor to escalate their task from difficult to near impossible. Two more wickets fell in quick succession to lengthen their odds further, and though Farveez Maharoof blasted a valiant 17-ball 32, his team-mates’ pedestrian progress prevented Uthura from asserting any sort of pressure on the opposition. Malinga returned to take two more scalps toward the end of the match, capping off a dominant night for one of the competition’s favourites.