With only 50 runs separating Pakistan from Sri Lanka, the 1st Test match could go either way. It is difficult to predict what a good score would be. I suppose anything above 250 would mean something for the Sri Lankan bowlers to defend. But there is a lot of time still left in the match and their key spinner Mendis was ineffective in the first innings.
So far, the Test has been good to the bowlers and avoided the large partnerships that often take the fun out. We also saw Yousuf making a century on his return to the team. Pakistan will be looking forward to him and Younis to ensure that their chase will be successful. The opening batsmen for Pakistan failed, but Pakistan has some depth in its ranks.
If Sri Lanka manage to bat through the entire day, I would put the match beyond Pakistan’s grasp. The big difference so far has been the absence of Murali, but if Pakistan have to chase 300 or so on a difficult pitch, it would be very difficult.
Today’s match against Sri Lanka almost went Pakistan’s way. They got early wickets. They got wickets frequently. They bowled out Sri Lanka on the first day. Unfortunately, they could have done much better, with Sri Lanka managing 100 off the last four wickets, and then both the Pakistani openers back within 7 overs. Maybe they should have let Sri Lankans bat another 7 overs or so to start afresh the next day.
Sri Lanka, to their frustration of their opponents, have been displaying a habit of their lesser batsmen and bowlers turning out to be heroes when their main stars (Sangakkara, Murali) fail. Today was no exception. This is good for Sri Lanka in the long run and is similar to Australia in the sense that opponents wait for retirements and injuries, but the replacements are even tougher to beat.
Of course, this could also be like the West Indies. I remember Jimmy Adams making a ton of runs when visiting India, thus preventing us from winning a series against them. But Adams never had a great career and India just happened to be a place where he clicked. I suspect Paranavitana and Thushara are also the same material who may make it difficult for Pakistan, but never fulfilling their promise in the long run.
This blog will also keep an eye on Dilshan’s fortunes during this series. Remember that we have always classified Dilshan as the ultimate maker of “convenient innings”, i.e., he just does enough to remain in the team, usually with big scores against Zimbabwe and Bangladesh and sometimes with big scores in the last Test of a series. But this year has been good for Dilshan with his form in the World Twenty20. We will see if this is his breakout year, or if it is more of the same. With a 28 in the first innings, not a good start.
While the Ashes are going on, we will have a fight between two subcontinent teams. Pakistan will be taking on Sri Lanka in their den, a difficult proposition always. Kumar Sangakkara will be leading the team at home for the first time. Mohammad Yousuf is back, though will he mark a return to his world-record-breaking form? This will also be the first series after the Sri Lankan government defeat of the LTTE. Hopefully, some LTTE remnants do not cause any violence during this period.
Test Schedule
1st Test: July 4 to July 8
2nd Test: July 12 to July 16
3rd Test: July 20 to July 24
One-Day Series
1st ODI: July 30
2nd ODI: August 1
3rd ODI: August 3
4th ODI: August 7
5th ODI: August 9
Absolute brilliance! For a team that started their tournament disastrously with losses in the warmups against South Africa and India and then a first group loss to no-hopers England, this is an amazing turnaround. Today, they turned in a powerhouse performance against the favorites Sri Lankans.
The key for Pakistan was to get the Sri Lankan top order out quickly. They got the openers with the in-form Dilshan falling to his favorite shot for a duck. Then Jayawardene fell too, but Sangakkara slipped through. With Mathews giving him great support at the end, Sri Lanka posted a score which gave their bowlers something to defend. For most teams, 138 would have been a miserable score, but the Sri Lankan bowling is so rich in talent that you wondered if Pakistan let the match slip away from them in the final few overs. Perhaps someone else should have bowled the final over.
But all that seemed irrelevant as Pakistan went out to bat with a plan and executed it to perfection. They did not lose any wickets during the Powerplay, but maintained a steady runrate. No double wicket overs. After the openers left, Shahid Afridi and Shoaib Malik played one of the most responsible innings I have ever seen with Malik ensuring that Afridi kept his cool. As the Lankans slowly gave up hope, Afridi launched a few boundary hits to seal the deal. The perfect innings at the perfect time! While Afridi will keep the honors, let me say that Malik deserves almost as much credit for staying with Afridi and helping him put it together.
Tough luck for Sri Lanka, but Pakistan deserved to win today and Sri Lanka didn’t. Sri Lanka had a case of India-tactics-itis, where they tried to upset Pakistan with silly tactics (unnecessary batting promotions, heavy rotations of bowlers) that backfired on them. Sri Lanka did not believe that they could win and Pakistan, for all their unpredictably, had the confidence, playing straightforward cricket, taking no risks and trumping Sri Lanka.
This victory means so much for Pakistan. Unable to play any Test cricket in 2008, losing team members to ICL, getting tours cancelled, having the visiting Sri Lankan team being attacked by terrorist and starting off with poor performances in the Cup, they managed to turn it all around. The captain Younis Khan and the management deserves a lot of credit to keep the team spirits up and get everyone performing.
But, of course, Younis will be eating a few words tonight. Yes, those very words he said when they lost to England in the first match:
It won’t be a disaster even if we exit before the Super Eights It would be sad if we don’t make it, but I have never attached too much importance to Twenty20 cricket, as it is fun cricket. I mean it is more for entertainment, even if it is international cricket. It is all for the crowd. Twenty20 is all about fun. Everybody expects players to come out and entertain.
In the end, there was no need for elaborate calculations to discern who would qualify. Pakistan won in a canter. And with all due respect to the Netherlands, their inexperience and skill level came through today when confronted with Pakistani players at the top of their game. The period of the match when the Pakistani spin duo ran circles around the Dutch batsmen was a class act indeed.
Pakistan won the toss and batted first contrary to our expectations that they would rather chase knowing their target. This showed a self-confidence that would be proven right by events. There were a few good overs by the Dutch bowlers, but the Pakistan team accelerated at the right moments and set a good target. The captain Younis Khan played a good hand as did most of the top order.
Of course, there were two targets for the Netherlands. One to win and one to stay ahead of the Pakistan Net Run Rate. In the respect, Pakistan scoring 175 meant Netherlands had to score 151 which is less than what they had scored against England and won. So perhaps Pakistan can be faulted for not trying harder to reach a 200+ score.
The Netherlands innings was a big disappointment. Instead of moving the scoreboard along while preserving wickets, the Dutch batsmen kept putting pressure on themselves. Of course, the Pakistani bowling had much to do with it. Perhaps this was the first time that the Dutch had faced such quality spin and they did not know what to do. There were quite a few attempted slogs that ended in tragedy.
So Pakistan move on and Netherlands return with the good memories of their first match. Pakistan has a good chance of progressing from their group being bracketed with Ireland, Sri Lanka and New Zealand. But their troubles are not yet over. Even though they had a massive win, their fielding let them down a few times. Considering that the catches and runouts were missed in a low-pressure scenario, they have to worry how the fielders would perform in a tight match.
Both England and Pakistan have come back from a miserable outing to a thumping performance. What they need to understand is what has changed and how they can keep the momentum going.
Year 2008 witnessed the opening of IPL (Indian Premier League), the mega event from BCCI that clearly gave cricket a stunning make-over and boost in game excitement, viewership and tremendous marketing potential. The mantra for 2008 became T20 or, as it is called, 20-20. A 3-hour-rapid fire game that takes you to the edge of your seat until the final ball is bowled.
IPL is BCCI’s response to the rival Indian Cricket League (ICL) into Twenty-20 era. They pulled up 8 teams from Indian cities bringing overseas and domestic player mixture. The key difference being IPL swamped in current top International players while ICL dominantly settled for retired, yesteryear stars. IPL is BCCI’s child, so you can imagine the media attention, money involved is big.
South Africa Record 2nd Highest Run Chase in Test Cricket History
South Africa beat Australia in the first Test of their series by 6 wickets chasing down a huge victory target of 413, becoming, in the process, the 2nd highest-run chasing team in Test cricket. AB de Villiers was chosen Man-of-the-Match for his unbeaten 106 in the chase (and for his vital 1st innings 63 and pouching 4 catches off the Australian batting line). Graeme Smith continued to excel in batting in the 4th innings, with his average the 3rd highest in history, behind Geoff Boycott (England) and Sunil Gavaskar (India). West Indies still hold the record for highest run chaser, scoring 418/7 against Australia in 2003.
The Super Six of 2008
Chanderpaul 6 and Win – In their ODI home series against Sri Lanka.
Mystery Spinner – Ajantha Mendis
2008 saw the entry of a new (yet another!) spin wizard from Sri Lanka with his finger talking googlies, flippers, offbreaks, legbreaks and anything you can spell. He clearly gave India a very hard run during their away series and even India’s strong middle order were unable to read him. Mendis took 26 Test scalps and lead the 2008 ODI bowling with 48 wickets at an astonishing average of 10.12 and economy rate of 3.54. He is overturning the conventional wisdom in ODI where bowlers are relegated to side acts as batsman become big bat bullies.
Take a look at Mendis cleaning India’s clock in the Asia Cup final.
2008 Top Performances – Batting & Bowling
Top 10 ODI Batsmen
Gautam Gambir (India): 1119 runs – Gambir came of age this year and stabilized the Indian opening.
ICC embraced the technology to allow the batting or fielding team to appeal against umpiring decisions. Considering the amount of pressure the umpires are involved in making critical decisions which significantly impact game outcomes, this is definitely a welcome move from ICC. Not to say anything about avoiding acrimonious incidents such as what happened in the Sydney Test between Australia and India.
Controversy
Harbhajan Singh made his mark on 2008, but not always in a good way. He and Andrew Symonds were involved in a racial sledge/abuse case that resulted a three test ban on Harbhajan Singh. Not satisfied with that, Harbhajan got into a slapping incident with fellow Indian teammate Sreesanth and got thrown out of the IPL. He is back with the Indian team spearheading the Indian attack.
Well there you go that rounded up 2008 stories. Let’s look forward to yet another exciting year of cricket in 2009.
