Posts Tagged ‘Sri Lanka’

Lankan Diary: Day One: Ayubowan!

Posted: September 17, 2012 by thecognitivenomad in Cricket
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Chandrasekhar Jayaramakrishnan

(F)lag Carrier it is

The delay, in itself, could have easily accommodated two end-to-end nail-biting T20 games. Nail-biting because the five-and-a-half hour wait mandated searching for alternative means for appetite – Air India will certainly not be an airline we’d consider flying again.

The fact that three other airlines (Jet Airways, SpiceJet and Sri Lankan Airlines) scheduled to depart later that day managed to take off by the time we were caught between searching for answers and cursing our luck, didn’t help the cause either.

The advantages of traveling as a group is that such delays don’t bog you down as much as it would have had you been a lone traveller. Topics spanned Samaraweera’s record outside the subcontinent (with Goutham  & Abhishek explicitly mentioning his twin hundreds in South Africa), cobwebs of the Atherton vs Cook Flintoff endorsements, Steve Waugh’s deliberation on not penning the Sarwan-McGrath incident in his autobiography and the ridiculous money some of these young cricketers were charging for an interview.

There were times when the magnitude of the delay caught raw nerves – the only bright side being the possibility of fellow traveller Triyambak, holder of a virgin passport, having to narrate his tale of a first foreign trip that didn’t cross the International Departures area.

Touch Down Colombo

The contrast in weather was evident, if not obvious. Cloudy skies are like two-edged swords (especially if you are on vacation) – lack of heat could mean an escapade from sunburns (which has well documented stories here), but the possibility of showers could well ruin our purpose for the trip here – the cricket!

We started on a conversation with one of the guys, Haroon, selling local sim cards in the airport. He named Malinga, Gayle and Kohli as his three favourite players (much to Goutham’s delight as two of three represent RCB in the IPL), and declared himself a Wayamba fan, a team in the SLPL led by Mahela Jayawardene. You could’ve easily mistaken him as a stand-up impersonator of Sri Lankan cricketers, given the way he appeared and spaced his words in English, but maybe that’s the case with all Sri Lankans.  They’re very friendly , warm and polite.

Ranveli

Ranveli Beach Resort seemed a more-than-decent place for budget travellers like us. The 1.25 hour journey from the airport to the resort was taxing – both physically and monetarily (costs us close to 3600 SLR for the journey), but the relief of having made it to Sri Lanka, given the morning’s proceedings, swept such concerns under the carpet.

One of our room attendants, a young lad going by the name Ruwan, spoke a bit of Tamil. He mentioned being a fan of Sangakkara and Tendulkar, and reckoned if Sri Lanka weren’t going to win the World Cup, the Indians were his close favourites.

Captain Goutham welcomes latest additions to CECC – on foreign shores

Numbers 00, and 17 were handed over their Couch Expert Cricket Club (CECC) Jerseys and the Baggy Blues by skipper Goutham Chakravarthi. 00 – Suneeth Sastry volunteered to sponsor a tablet PC for CECC to help Chief Statistician Badrinarayana Vengavasi (also part of the SL touring party) work with numbers, graphs and wagon wheels.

CJ receiving his CECC jersey from Goutham in Mt. Lavinia, Colombo

Number 17 – yours truly, who is yet to make his debut for CECC, has a clear road now to grab the first choice wicket-keeper position owing to the fact that current wicket-keeper Muthukumar Ramamurthy is about to enter the second innings of his personal life. Muthu, are you reading this?

Zimbabwe can take positives out of the Pakistan series

Posted: September 15, 2011 by The CouchExpert in Cricket, Series
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Srikrishnan Chandrasekharan

Aizaz Cheema had an impressive series for Pakistan with the ball

Pakistan completed a clean sweep in the ODIs against Zimbabwe. It was a very good performance from the Pakistan team with some new faces in their bowling line up. Aizaz Cheema made an impressive debut for Pakistan in the series and led the wickets tally. It was a significant performance by the 32 year old making his debut taking wickets with a good strike rate, average and economy. The experienced Younis Khan won player of the series award. The Pakistan openers did a tremendous job in giving a good starts when the team needed.

It was a tough series for Zimbabwe playing against Pakistan that had a good mix of experienced and young blood. Zimbabwe team played good cricket throughout the series. The first match of series had a nail biting finish; the second match was a complete domination by Pakistan openers. In the 3rd match there was plenty of expectation that Taylor would continue his good form with the bat to save their side from the whitewash. Unfortunately he got out early and wickets fell down at regular intervals to eventually push Zimbabwe short by 28 runs.

Team and management of Zimbabwe Cricket should focus on the positives out of the tour. They were able to score 220-plus in all the matches and given a good fight. The team needs to invest more time towards areas of improvement and rebuilding the team for the upcoming T20 against Pakistan followed by New Zealand and West Indies series in the month of October.

On the other hand, Pakistan needs to strengthen their team for their upcoming series against Sri Lanka. The series will be held in Dubai due to security constraints at Pakistan. It promises to be a good contest with Pakistan showing good promise.

 

Mahela Jayawardene is Sri Lanka’s finest batsman

Posted: September 4, 2011 by The CouchExpert in Cricket, Opinion
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 Goutham Chakravarthi

 4 September 2011

On Saturday, Mahela Jayawardene scored his 29th Test hundred to draw level with Donald Bradman. It was a spiteful pitch and runs were hard to come by. It was an innings in a losing cause against a team that no longer is the best going around. Yet, runs against Australia don’t come easy at the best of times. Ricky Ponting turned the ball square on this wicket and Mahela himself would have fancied his chances bowling spin on a wicket that had more turn in it than all the head turns a pretty girl would manage in a lifetime. It was Mahela at his best – playing late, with soft hands and precise footwork and impeccable judgment.

Mahela has drawn level with Bradman on 29 Test hundreds

Often, Aravinda de Silva from the emerald isle is talked up as its best batsman. Sanath Jayasuriya is the darling of the masses in the shorter format. Kumar Sangakkara, a contemporary, is widely regarded as Sri Lanka’s best batsman recently. Even with all the runs Mahela has conjured up wafting his bat like a wizard would his wand, he has churned close to ten thousand Test runs in a remarkable career. He must be the most stylish right-hander in the game even as the world is obsessed with Ian Bell and VVS Laxman.

Often his record at the SSC is held against him. Even otherwise, he would be the modern day giant that he is. He averages over 50 in the 4th innings. They say 20 of his 29 hundreds have come in Sri Lanka. In a career spanning over 14 years he has played only 4 Tests in Australia (1 hundred, ave: 34.25), 4 Tests in New Zealand (1 hundred, ave: 27.71), 4 Tests in West Indies (1 hundred, ave: 42.00), 5 Tests in South Africa (highest: 98, ave: 31.40). In a similar time frame, VVS Laxman has played 11 Tests in Australia, 5 in New Zealand, 10 in South Africa and 16 in West Indies! It is a shame that such a remarkable talent has had to play so less in these countries. Agreed his record isn’t the best there, but he has hardly been a failure. He has Test hundreds in all Test playing countries barring South Africa. He cannot be faulted for not being given more opportunities to better his performances. If scoring hundreds across the world is the barometer for judging batting greatness, he is up there with the best.

The disadvantage of coming from a smaller Test playing nation is the lack of deserved recognition a player should get. If he were an Australian or an Englishman, he would be constantly referred to as a modern day great. Chanderpaul, Mohammed Yousuf and Kallis have suffered the same fate over the years. But more important than the media space and public opinion, it is the respect of fellow players and opposition that counts. No cricketer or sane cricket scribe would have less than the highest regard for Mahela.

Mahela’s all round game makes him truly remarkable. He reinvented himself as a limited overs player after pushing himself to open the innings in T20 cricket. He is a player in the classical mould, but he has come to the realization that he can now paint modern art too. There is as much colour in his cover drive as there is in his imagination that can pull out a scoop to a fast bowler. He is the writer who has not only mastered long hand writing but someone who can tell an epic in a tweet. He has got it all. He is the master who not only knows all the tunes, but knows when to play them. He is Sri Lanka’s finest batsman. He’s done it with tremendous grace and dignity.

ODI Round-Up: Zimbabwe and Australia take 2-0 Lead

Posted: August 14, 2011 by The CouchExpert in Cricket
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 Srikrishnan Chandrasekaran

 14 August 2011


The two one-day series in Zimbabwe and Sri Lanka are both two matches old with Australia and Zimbabwe taking 2-0 leads. Here is a round-up of the first two games of both series.
Zimbabwe Vs Bangladesh:

Brian Vitori has started his international career with a bang against Bangladesh

A young boy, Vitori, being 21 years of age made his debut in the one-off Test for Zimbabwe, started off with two consecutive five wicket hauls. He has got decent pace, and more importantly, he moves the ball away from the left-hander and into right-hander. He might be the youngest cricketer to take 5 wickets haul in his first two matches. Utseya on the other hand continued to show his good skills of spin bowling. Taylor started off well with two tosses in a row and put the opposition in and bowled them to a reasonable total which they chased without much difficulty. The Zimbabwe batsmen Sibanda and Masakadza have shown a lot of character and played good cricket against Bangladeshi spinners to take their team to victory. This is a very good start to the 5 match series for Zimbabwe. The top order of Bangaldesh team collapsed on both the matches and middle order / lower order players made a decent progress to put up a score to fight for. The captain has made good progress in both batting and bowling on the 2 matches. Team Zimbabwe is just a win away from their ODI series win. Bangladesh have put lot of work to give a fight on the upcoming matches.

Sri Lanka Vs Australia:

Mitchell Johnson has starred with the ball for Australia in the ODIs in Sri Lanka

Dilshan won 2 consecutive tosses, elected to bat but his batsmen haven’t been able to put up a decent score against top class Austraklian bowling on good batting tracks. Australia has dominated the series so far with their strong pace bowling attack and their batsmen showing good skill in handling the pace and spin of Sri Lanka. Senior batsmen in the Sri Lankan line-up are yet to score big runs in the series. Once again in the lower order Kulasekara shows lot of potential as a batsmen. On both occasions Australia won the match with lot of overs and wickets spare. Sri Lanka need to work really hard to win the series from here (0-2). They can probably try promoting Mahela as opener and push Tharanga down to no. 4. They can also give a chance to Charma silva / Samaraweera instead of Chandimal. Australia lost both the T20 matches, but have come back very strongly on the ODIs. The bowlers have done a fantastic job so far which has eased their batsmen to bat without the pressures of chasing big totals.

Let’s hope for a come back from both Bangladesh and Sri Lanka in the upcoming matches. The Asia teams are really struggling in last 2 weeks or so to put a decent score / fight against their opposition. Not too much to cheer about for the Asian teams.
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