Rest of the World

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Big partnership in the context of the game. If they can add another 20-odd, the lead becomes noteworthy in a low scoring slug fest. As is Jansen showing he may well become a #7, while Keshav is playing with the poise of a man who has 3 Test 50s. Very organised. He probably has done himself a disservice, especially in a South African side both devoid of batsmen and obsessed with pace, in not working a little harder on his batting to be a #7.

Lunch at 99/2.

In a major shock , thirty overs were bowled in the two hours !

Mainly due to Mendis bowling through the session. Took one , should have had a second. But Australia have a handy platform...

I can't pretend I watch every SL game, but when I do manage to catch them, I always think Rajitha is a decent seamer and am surprised he isn't in their first choice XI. I must just miss his bad performances clearly!

They actually managed to bowl all 90 overs in the six hours, no need for the extra half-hour. Astonishing achievement. Sri Lanka should be awarded many test championship points.

The actual game though - 298/5, Smith and Labuschagne with centuries. Smith's average over 60 again and closing in on Mitchell. Surely no way back for Sri Lanka.

Australia still on top here on day two. Smith "back to form" with 145 no ... Though a six wicket haul by a (famous Sri Lankan name !) Jayasuriya pinned them back to 364 all out.

And a good start with the ball as a terrific catch by Cam Green gave Starc an early break.

Sri Lanka 14/1 and need someone to bat long...

Well this pitch is very different from the first one...Sri Lanka replying to the Aussie 364 with a big second wicket stand. Swepson bagging a welcome break late in the day ; but at 184/2 overnight the home team will feel they are back in the game.

Good first session for the hosts...lost Mendis early ; but Matthews and Chandimal have batted calmly to lunch at 262/3 , so just 102 behind.

Game very much open at this point.

352/4 in the 118th...Lyon in his 47th !

Australia have had a couple of half chances - and if they hadn't wasted all their reviews on speculative calls might have had a not out for caught behind reversed. But it's been hard work for the bowlers today. Sri Lanka all but level now and with the potential to turn this position into a commanding lead.

Probably regretting some rather careless batting (Carey , I'm looking at you !) on day two.

Still things can change quickly in Tests. Cummins certainly won't be letting his head drop...

Oh dear ... Not Lyon's day . Beats Kamindu completely but Carey misses a very simple stumping ...and Lyon seems to have suffered some damage as he limps off...

And now Chandiimal goes to 81 with a lofted drive and levels the score.

Sri Lanka building a strong position here. Drinks taken at 365/4.

Hundred for Chandimal

402/4 ...home team well on top.

431/6 at the close . Lead of 67 and with Chandimal still in they have a chance to push on tomorrow against some tired bowlers.

Batting might not be easy as the pitch wears. Been a few tricks today : seemed every time I looked Carey was missing another stumping chance . In fact he and Dickwella seem to be having a competition to see who can miss more...

The test is really well balanced. Australia might skittle Sri Lanka out in double quick time tomorrow, giving themselves time to bat and set a testing target on the last day, or Sri Lanka could push the lead beyond 150 and leave Australia scrambling for survival.

New Zealand also beat Ireland in the first of three ODIs. Ireland did appear to have the game wrapped up - NZ needed 20 off the last over with just one wicket left - but Bracewell clubbed the tourists to victory, with 127* off 82 balls.

alfie wrote:431/6 at the close . Lead of 67 and with Chandimal still in they have a chance to push on tomorrow against some tired bowlers.

Batting might not be easy as the pitch wears. Been a few tricks today : seemed every time I looked Carey was missing another stumping chance .  In fact he and Dickwella seem to be having a competition to see who can miss more...

Haven't seen the live action, but been catching up on the highlights...and yeah the keeping, not impressive all round!

Great day for Sri Lanka, put themselves in a good position in his game - albeit we saw against England last year, that could soon turnaround tomorrow.

A word for Kamindu Mendis on debut - looked a good player, former Sri Lankan U19 captain, averages 61 in first class stuff...one to keep an eye on I think.

Sri Lanka grinding on this afternoon...lost Ramesh Mendis to a Starc lbw but Theekshana has supported Chandimal to 490/7 ...after a tiring 168 overs for the toiling Aussie bowlers. Starc is in his 24th and bowling well across the right handers with this third new ball.

But the lead is now 126. Getting a bit menacing . Pitch still OK for batting ; but going to be a bit of pressure on the Australian bats in the third innings - especially if they lose a wicket or two early.

150 for Chandimal now

Cummins bowls Theekshana...498/8 and scoring has ground to a halt as Chandimal tries to farm the strike.

Reckon he needs to tee off and try to boost this lead over 150.

Lunch. Lead is 135. Chandimal unconquered on 153

Only 68/2 in that session. Only 24 overs too.

Lyon has bowled 64 overs for 2/194 ... Might be looking for a spa bath after this is done.

Chandimal putting Australia to the sword now...206no , sixes all over the place. Lead up to 190 and last Man Rajitha has had to defend just seven balls.

Pace bowlers unable to shift him ,back to spin...and Swepson does the trick , finally : Rajitha lbw and all out 554.

Chandimal unconquered

What a knock by Chandimal! Really had quite the career revival this year

Khawaja gone shortly after tea ...59/2 now and Australia under a bit of pressure. Got their premier pair at the crease now : if Sri Lanka can part these two early they will fancy this.

Jayasuriya impressive again ...nice bit of bowling to claim Khawaja to a sharp catch at short leg...

Wow ! Smith gone lbw for a duck...reviewing , but...no that is stone dead . Total desperation waste of a review and Australia in serious trouble at 59/3.

Head not lasting long...bowled neck and crop by Mendis for 5.

74/4 . Ominous looking scoreboard as Green joins Marnus... Really need a big partnership here !

Travis Head in the subcontinent shouldn't be a thing - exceptional in Aus/NZ/Eng/SA conditions, but he cannot begin to play spin. Aus going to need to find someone in place of him for that upcoming India tour in Feb 23 imo

Now Marnus departs...plumb lbw to Jayasuriya. At least he didn't waste a pointless review.

115/5 and sinking fast , I fear ...

Gets worse...two gone in one over and the amazing debut for Jayasuriya has now netted 11 wickets in the match !

I imagine Chandimal will get PoTM but really this chap ought to in my book...

Doesn't look like we will need a day five. 120/7 and only the bowlers left with Carey.

Cummins seeing attack as the best means of defence...partnership of 23 now - but that is still 50 behind. Going to need a sort of Botham 1981 effort to turn this around...

All done ! Six for Jayasuriya again and an innings win for the hosts

Remarkable comeback after the heavy loss in the first game , especially with their Covid casualties. But a fully deserved drawn series

That is a really quite astonishing win for Sri Lanka, and a very poor defeat for Australia. As Alfie has described above, to come back from all the setbacks from the 1st test and what happened Covid wise between games, very impressive. And also losing the toss here too!

Aussies have to be bitterly disappointed to not win this series 2-0, when after day 1 it was really on a platter for them. But then, I guess winning test series in Sri Lanka isn't for everyone is it...

Good Golly I'm Olly wrote:That is a really quite astonishing win for Sri Lanka, and a very poor defeat for Australia. As Alfie has described above, to come back from all the setbacks from the 1st test and what happened Covid wise between games, very impressive. And also losing the toss here too!

Aussies have to be bitterly disappointed to not win this series 2-0, when after day 1 it was really on a platter for them. But then, I guess winning test series in Sri Lanka isn't for everyone is it...

Not just Covid wise either - the turmoil in the country as a whole! Astonishing win.

That is an absolutely amazing win for Sri Lanka, on a par with Bangladesh upsetting NZ and similar to India beating Aus when India were injury-ravaged.

An utterly stupendous debut for Jayasuriya - can't be too many bowlers who start their test careers with two five-fors and a match haul of 12/177! And he only came in because of the Covid situation. Hopefully not a one-hit wonder like Ebadot's match-winning display v NZ was for Bangladesh.

Also opens up the World Test Championship. South Africa are now in 1st at the expense of Australia, whose final ambitions have taken a hard blow.

Sri Lanka up to third (!) - they've got Pakistan visiting for two tests starting in five days time, then a trip to NZ next March, which are their final four games in the cycle. They need four wins out of four to have a realistic chance of making the final, which doesn't look plausible.

Don't think Sri Lanka will be consistent enough to make any sort of push for the WTC : but they very well might wreck Pakistan's chances.

Australia will have some thinking to do re India...

Ashwin, Jadeja and Axar should do similar to Australia as they did to England given several of the Australia batters playing of spin being on an England-esque level.

Being able to field those three spinners and due to their batting have Axar at 9 is just ludicrous depth in Indian conditions.

Australia having a lot of lefties in their order and Ashwin being statistically the best ever bowler to lefties helps too of course.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=USj87RNJ2Lk&ab_channel=JarrodKimber

That's a great video there about Axar that I might have posted before - not certain. Hamanish Ganjoo's article is fantastic too. The combination of him being so quick that it's difficult to use your feet, a release point as high as Jamieson making him near impossible to sweep, releasing so wide on the crease meaning he turns the ball away from right-handers but it still angles into them. He's such a unique bowler and it makes him so interesting.

The nature of 'lift' that Hamanish discusses meaning some bowlers deliveries hang in the air longer, hence land fuller due to the revolutions on them is absolutely fascinating as well. We are seeing slower ball bowlers utilising this in shorter forms but as this gets analysed more we will see bowlers figure out how to maximise it. The fact this harks right back to Spofforth analysing baseball pitchers and pretty much inventing swing bowling, where he thought he could get the ball to swing in, out, up and down is just another fascinating layer to it. Analysis allowing us to see how the game used to work, as well as works now in more depth is one of the most interesting parts of the modern game to me.

It will be really fun watching the next few years to see if Axar keeps excelling and other bowlers start copying him. Or if batters find a way to neutralise him more a bit like when batters started playing Kumble like an inswing bowler to try to somewhat nullify his 'slider' which he got to drift like a leggie.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-62123966

This looks more fun than the actual IPL.

Anticlimactic End for Aus after their win in Pak and easy walk in first test

Fascinating article you flagged there , KC The only quibble I have with all that is that his Test sample is so small , and so restricted : and the 20 wickets in two matches in Ahmedabad in which he barbecued England with , it might be said , a fair bit of assistance from the conditions ; rather skews his overall figures.
His Test figures are quite out of synch with those for various white ball or FC formats also. I think we probably need to see what he does in other places to form a rounded view of him as a bowler - for all the interesting features which have made him a problem for batsmen.

Imagine the Aussie think tank will have had a bit of a look at that article too so will be interesting to see how Smith and his mates try to deal with him when they visit...

Ireland lose an ODI series 3-0 to New Zealand...but Ireland could have won all three!

First ODI, NZ were 281/9 after 49 overs, chasing 302, and triumphed. Second ODI, NZ were 0/2 after 2 balls and 177/6, chasing 217, and triumphed. Third ODI, Ireland were 241/2 with 15 overs left to 361, but lost by a run.

NZ's 100% start in the ODI Super League continues.

Jayasuriya doing to Pakistan what he did last week to Australia...

Five for him now as Pakistan stagger at 112/8 chasing the host's 222.

Have to wonder why it took until he was thirty to get a chance at Test level ! If he can get one of the last two he will become the first Test bowler ever to get six wickets in his first three innings...already one of only three to have three fivers...

But Babar singlehandedly dragging Pakistan up towards their oppoment's score...

Last man Naseem has scored none of the current 26 run stand...174/9

Remarkable effort from Babar...on to 110 now and they are nearly on terms...

After they saw their prospective first innings lead trimmed down dramatically by Babar , Sri Lanka might have suffered a bit of loss of momentum ... But they have gone about building their position quite well - Mendis and Fernando's partnership now worth 91 and the lead out to 136 with 8 wickets in hand.

Shouldn't think there will be less help for the spinners as the game progresses so that is starting to look a bit threatening for Pakistan.

My apologies to Fernando for the jinx as Yasir has picked him up first over after lunch

132/3

Yasir doing his best to keep Pakistan in the game...has also removed Mendis and Dhananjaya , while Matthews fell cheaply...

But : lead is out to 224 so at the very least the visitors would need the Highest Innings Score of the Match in the Fourth Innings

I am sure guildford will tell you how difficult that is to achieve...

from the little I have seen the pitch is now a classic raging turner spitting cobras
Problem for Pak that Alam is too ordinary...that he has 4 wickets is a testimony to the pitch
and Yasir produces an unplayable delivery when he gets his landing right ....which he does once every 5 overs

In between Lanka has smacked enuf runs to put the game beyond pak's chase
But you don't say impossible these days for any chase...."who knows what might happen is a safer prediction"

Tea and the lead is 261 with three wickets left. Ominously for Pakistan Chandimal is still there...while Ramesh Mendis , who is surprisingly dominating the scoring (19 of a partnership of 22 !) is giving him good support.

Lead nearing 300... Theekshana still keeping Chandimal company. Pakistan must be getting tired of bowling at him...

They have the new ball and they really need to wrap this up quickly.

Shaky times for Pakistan. Are they going to Bazball this chase?

If Pak too were to chase this down on what is real difficult pitch.....4th inning chases would lose their aura

68/0 off 23 overs. This is starting to resemble that fourth innings bug on the old Cricket Captain games, where chases were so much easier than they should have been.

Of course, Sri Lanka should still win from here. Should...

Duty281 wrote:68/0 off 23 overs. This is starting to resemble that fourth innings bug on the old Cricket Captain games, where chases were so much easier than they should have been.

Of course, Sri Lanka should still win from here. Should...

This in underlined is what I told myself and most of cricketing community believe also in the last  3 chases against India i.e by SA and Eng
relying on history and conventional wisdom

Could be heading for a great finish as Pakistan have made a solid start to their chase...126/2 off 42. A lot depends on Babar though , I think. Long way to go...

Pakistan's first dismissal was very harsh and quite unsporting from the Sri Lankan keeper.

Pakistan 215 away, eight wickets left. They repose as much faith in Babar as England do in Root. The tail also looks England-long as well.

Duty281 wrote:Pakistan's first dismissal was very harsh and quite unsporting from the Sri Lankan keeper.

Pakistan 215 away, eight wickets left. They repose as much faith in Babar as England do in Root. The tail also looks England-long as well.

I wasn't watching at the time . Understand he was stumped after lifting his foot , no ? In what way was it unsporting ?

alfie wrote:

Duty281 wrote:Pakistan's first dismissal was very harsh and quite unsporting from the Sri Lankan keeper.

Pakistan 215 away, eight wickets left. They repose as much faith in Babar as England do in Root. The tail also looks England-long as well.

I wasn't watching at the time . Understand he was stumped after lifting his foot , no ? In what way was it unsporting ?

It was a play and miss by the batsman, the keeper collected the ball, then the batsman started to scratch his guard for the next delivery and he was stumped.

Not a fan of that, but it is out by the letter of the law.