෴||Pakistan tour of Sri Lanka 2014 Official Thread||෴|Aug 6- Aug 30|2Test -3ODI|

[Henry L]

• 9 Number of times Saeed Ajmal has dismissed Jayawardene in Tests, which is the most any bowler has dismissed him. Jayawardene has hit 224 runs off Ajmal in 20 innings at an average of 24.88 per dismissal. For Ajmal too, this is the most he has dismissed any batsman in Tests.

Smart Stats

 

[Henry L]

• 2006 The last time Jayawardene and Sangakkara both failed to score at least 30 in an innings in Tests at the SSC, Colombo, before this one. The last such instance also came against Pakistan, when Mohammad Asif and Umar Gul had the hosts reeling at 26 for 4 in thefirst innings of the Test.

Smart Stats

 

[Henry L]

• 2007 The last time before this Test eight or more wickets fell in the first day's play at the SSC, Colombo. On that occasion, Sri Lanka bowled out Bangladesh for just 89 runs after asking them to bat first. The hosts lost three wickets before the close of play, taking the wickets tally to 13 on day one. Since then, teams have averaged 48.9 runs per wicket on the first day at this venue as opposed to 32.6 in this Test.

Smart Stats

 

[Henry L]

• 11 Number of Sri Lanka openers who have got out in the nineties in Tests including Upul Tharanga in this Test. Including Tharanga's, the last three such instances have come against Pakistan. Sri Lanka's other opener, Kaushal Silva, also got out on 95 against Pakistan in Dubai earlier this year.

Smart Stats

 

[Henry L]

India hope for final twist

http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=cric:53ecb33ae4b020a4ac388d99

 

[Henry L]

Match facts
August 15-19, 2014
Start time 1100 (1000 GMT)


Big Picture
Rarely has a Test series flipped so abruptly. After the second Test at Lord's, India were hailed as a more resilient version, finally capable under the enlightened leadership of MS Dhoni of competing over five days outside Asia. As for England, Alastair Cook's captaincy was vociferously condemned and a new leadership group, from the coach, Peter Moores, to the national selector, James Whitaker, were desperately seeking any form of consolation.
Two Tests later and the final stage in this Investec Test series has taken on an entirely different complexion. India's team selection has been strange, resilient is the last word that would be used to describe their pitiful batting display in the second innings at Old Trafford and it is Dhoni's wicketkeeping and tactics that are now under scrutiny with his side 2-1 down with one to play.

 

[Henry L]

As for Cook, respect for the way he stuck things out at the Ageas Bowl when the going was tough has blossomed into a general acceptance that his inner steel makes him England's obvious leader in Test cricket for years to come. How could we ever have thought any differently?
Devotees of momentum can only conclude that the series is as good as over. But The Oval is not a bad place for India to make their last stand. The pitch will lack the pace of Old Trafford and England's new-ball bowlers, James Anderson and Stuart Broad, have already shouldered a heavy burden. India's campaign against Anderson, though, has given them extra determination to see it through.

 

[Henry L]

Form guide
England: WWLDL
India: LLWDD


Players to watch
Initial descriptions of Stuart Broad's protective covering after his nose was broken by a Varun Aaron bouncer at Old Trafford made it sound as if he would be wearing some kind of fearsome Promethean face mask. Sadly, that is not quite the case, although he will wear a nose splint to disguise the temporary damage to his boy-band countenance and after coming through a net session in good order he will be in the mood for some heavy chords.


India's thoughts will centre once more on Virat Kohli. For such a feted player to fail so abysmally has been the turn-up of the series. This should have been the series in which he proved his class. Instead, Anderson has unpicked him with ease and he has still to pass 50 in eight attempts. He has one final chance to respond.

 

[Henry L]

Stuart Broad has ditched the idea of a Bane-style mask for something more practica

 

[Henry L]

Team news
A fast, bouncy pitch in south London might have been enough to win Steven Finn a Test recall, but those days have long gone and expectations are that England will retain the side that won so impressively inside three days at Old Trafford. Finn joined up with England after taking four wickets for the Lions against Sri Lanka A, but they were expensive wickets and his display was not quite as impressive as some reports made out.


England (probable) 1 Alastair Cook (capt), 2 Sam Robson, 3 Gary Ballance, 4 Ian Bell, 5 Joe Root, 6 Moeen Ali, 7 Jos Buttler, 8 Chris Woakes, 9 Chris Jordan, 10 Stuart Broad, 11 James Anderson.


After being ruled out of the last two Tests with a leg injury, Ishant Sharma, hero of their victory in the second Test at Lord's, could return in place of Pankaj Singh, whose popularity has been in inverse proportion to his wickets. Gautam Gambhir looks set to keep the opening slot. Stuart Binny cannot be entirely discounted as a possible replacement for Ravindra Jadeja.


India (probable) 1 Murali Vijay, 2 Gautam Gambhir, 3 Cheteshwar Pujara, 4 Virat Kohli, 5 Ajinkya Rahane, 6 MS Dhoni (capt & wk), 7 Ravindra Jadeja/Stuart Binny, 8 R Ashwin, 9 Bhuvneshwar Kumar, 10 Varun Aaron, 11 Ishant Sharma.

 

[Henry L]

Pitch and conditions


England's hot spell has departed, temporarily at least, and temperatures are expected to hover around 20C throughout the Test. There could be a shower or two on Friday, but generally the outlook is cool, dry and at times breezy. Half of the pitches at The Oval have been dug up to encourage more pace, but the Test pitch remains on the old part of the square and should be a blessing for India after their inability to handle the pace and bounce of Old Trafford.

 

[Henry L]

Stats and trivia

• Anderson needs eight wickets to overtake Ian Botham's England record of 383 Test victims. He already has 21 wickets in the series.

• Kohli's run of eight innings without a fifty since his unbeaten hundred against New Zealand in Wellington is the worst run in his 28-Test career.

• Stuart Boad tweeted pictures of the super villain Bane as options for a face mask he could wear to protect his broken nose. Bane is known as "The Man Who Broke The Bat", which would seem appropriate, except that refers to Batman, not cricket bats, and anyway Bane took so many illegal substances to achieve his strength that Broad would only fail a drugs test.

 

[Henry L]

Quotes
"We saw last week the guts and determination Jimmy showed when he was not well. That was extraordinary and that tells everyone what a bloke he is. And to back that up with his talent and skill means he is a very, very talented cricketer."
Alastair Cook ladles on the praise for James Anderson

"It's never that the result is more important than the process. It is always the process that will be the key because it puts less pressure on the team. It is an important Test match but at the same time still it is the breaking up of the sessions that matters because that will give us an advantage. So we will still be looking more into the process than the result."
MS Dhoni won't be changing his approach with India 2-1 down

 

[Henry L]

Tharanga, Hitchcock horror or Eastwood western?



The first moments of a Test are almost always absorbing, even if that match eventually becomes dull. There is so much information go be gained about the protagonists. Are the openers in touch? Does the bowler have rhythm?


Mostly, though, the first few exchanges reveal something about the living, breathing 22-yard unknown on which all of the action pivots.


This information is at a premium at the SSC, which is notorious for its featherbeds. However, it does occasionally produce good pitches. The bone-dry surface which it turned out for the Test against last month conjured a close finish, despite South Africa's ultra-defensive approach from day two.

But if spectators hoped to come to a swift judgment on the pitch by watching Upul Tharanga's opening exchanges with the Pakistan bowlers, they might have wound up at more of a loss than when the match began. Tharanga is gifted beyond a doubt, but he also has talent for high drama.

 

[Henry L]

Upul Tharanga floundered, frustrated, but ultimately flourished

 

[Henry L]

On Thursday, this was clear from the outset. The first ball of the morning - a full and juicy delivery from Junaid Khan - was pushed firmly through the covers, hands and feet moving fluently to the ball. Deliveries two and three were defended nicely, but then came a drastic falling away.


Ball four, pitched on a length and moving slightly away, was edged towards the slips but it fell short. The next delivery was a similar one, but this time Tharanga's shoes were sucked in to a black hole on the crease, and he barely neared the ball with his waft.


Junaid went fuller for the final delivery, swinging it a little and searching for that faint edge, only to find the batsman had suddenly moved into place and sent the ball screaming through cover.


Plays, misses and driven fours are common in the early moments of a Test, especially when a team seeks to take the match by the scruff, but only few like Tharanga play each ball so differently from the next. The result is disorienting.

 

[Henry L]

300 a good total - Tharanga

• Upul Tharanga, Sri Lanka's top-scorer on day one, expects the SSC pitch to take substantial turn as the match wears on.
• 
  
• Pakistan's bowlers extracted both movement and turn to leave Sri Lanka at 261 for 8 at stumps, though the spinners only accounted for one of those wickets.
• 
  
• The last Test to be played at the venue in July, featured considerable turn on days four and five.
• 
  
• "Normally the SSC pitch is not turning for the first few days, but it did something today - big turn," Tharanga said. "I think it will turn as much as the last match. Even for the seam bowlers, sometimes the pitch was a bit two-paced. Some balls went through quickly, others got stuck in the pitch and came slowly."
• 
  
• Tharanga said Sri Lanka would aim to get 300 in their first innings, and believed that constituted a good total.
• 
  
• "It's not easy to play shots on this pitch, because when the pitch is two-paced, we can't time the ball perfectly. First innings runs are crucial and if we can get as much as we can from here, I think our bowlers can put them under pressure. You can't score runs freely, like on SSC tracks of the past."

 

[Henry L]

Is this pitch good for batting, or is it a bowler's strip? Is the ball moving, or is the batsman just making it seem like it is? Has Tharanga been weighed down by a string of mediocre scores, or is he fighting his way back?


Through most of his 92, Tharanga played sublime shots, particularly through his favoured cover region. But he was also having his outside edge beaten by away-seamers, being cut in half by indippers, wafting at air when spinners turned the ball away from him, or chipping it just wide of the close fielders when it spun towards him. He has played like this before.


So many Tharanga innings are like switching between a Hitchcock horror and a Clint Eastwood western. One moment he is the blonde being brutally stabbed in the shower. The next, he is ice-cold, shooting up the whole saloon by himself.

 

[Henry L]

It is normal for batsmen to go through dry months, then for fortunes to turn, and torrents of runs to follow. But Tharanga's form changes with the direction of the wind. Average deliveries are made to seem unplayable. Really good balls are smoked to the fence.
Not everyone can withstand such sudden peaks and troughs, but aside from natural ability, Tharanga also has zen in spades. Saeed Ajmal got the second ball of his 47th over to kick up from the rough, inducing a false shot that almost had Tharanga caught by short leg.



One moment Tharanga is the blonde being brutally stabbed in the shower. The next, he is ice-cold, shooting up the whole saloon by himself



Ajmal shot an "almost had you" smirk at the batsman as the fielders around the bat began to chirp louder. The bowler turned to his mark with a spring in his step. Yet, just when Tharanga could have been intimidated, he was slinking forward next ball, finding the pitch of the delivery, then caressing it past mid off.
"A lot of times, when you get tracks like this, you give a few chances," Tharanga said of the several close calls in his innings. "Saeed Ajmal was turning it today. What I did was just put it out of my mind, because that ball is already gone. Then I focused on the next ball."

 

[Henry L]

Tharanga needed a score in this match. It was no surprise when the selectors brought Dimuth Karunaratne into the squad after the Galle Test. There had been a good chance Tharanga's return to the Test side after seven years would last only three games.


It is also no surprise that Tharanga polarises fans. Supporters point to his 13 ODI tons. "Not even Marvan scored that many, and he played many more innings," they say. Detractors draw attention to the many low scores, or that uncannily common form of dismissal: the nick to the keeper or slips. If a decent score follows in the second innings, he may soon get his chance again in ODIs.


Tharanga frustrated at the SSC, but he flourished as well. Sri Lanka would be staring at defeat without him. He is an easy batsman to like, for the prettiness of his strokes and the calm he exudes at the crease.


But he is also a man whose career perpetually seems at a crossroads. Given his experience and approach, he seems an ideal man to become Sri Lanka's long-term opener, but it is becoming increasingly difficult to predict which fork Tharanga will take from here.