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Jake Lehmann made 73 for the home side but generally their batting struggled

AAP16-Oct-2022Jackson Bird and Peter Siddle wound back the clock to help Tasmania run through South Australia for 227 on the first day of their Sheffield Shield match.After the Redbacks won the toss, Bird claimed South Australia’s first four wickets in the morning session before Siddle cleaned up after lunch, with both bowlers finishing with 4 for 51.Only Jake Lehmann and debutant Ben Manenti offered any real resistance for the hosts, with the latter attacking Siddle late in his innings.Manenti’s first day in the Sheffield Shield then reached another high just before stumps, when his a one-handed screamer at second slip allowed Harry Conway to remove Caleb Jewel and leave Tasmania 1 for 17 in reply.That was a rare highlight for the Redbacks on a tough Sunday at Adelaide Oval. Bird in particular had the ball moving, with the 35-year-old beating openers Henry Hunt and Jake Weatherald off the seam to have them caught behind.Former Test skipper Tim Paine caught well behind the stumps in his second game back, diving to his left to remove Weatherald when Bird had squared up the left-hander.Bird claimed Travis Head’s wicket in his next over for five when the left-hander inside-edged a yorker onto his stumps. The former Test quick also trapped Jake Carder lbw for 13, leaving SA struggling at 4-59.About the only man who looked in against the seamer was Lehmann.  He brought up 50 just before tea when he pulled Bird for four amid three consecutive boundaries, after also taking a liking to Sam Rainbird earlier.The left-hander eventually fell victim to Siddle, who removed Lehmann and Wes Agar in successive balls in the final session. Siddle also got through Alex Carey’s bat and pad to bowl the Test wicketkeeper on 25, before gaining and edge from Conway to take his fourth victim.At that stage, it looked as though the Redbacks would likely be all out for less than 200, before Manenti got swinging later and hit Siddle for two powerful sixes over midwicket and mid-on.The son of Australia’s world champion men’s rugby sevens coach John Manenti, Ben helped the Redbacks put on 35 for the last wicket to give South Australia something to bowl at come Monday.

Vishmi Gunaratne sidelined due to a stress fracture on her back while Ama Kanchana and Udeshika Prabodhani have been dropped

Madushka Balasuriya21-Sep-2022Sri Lanka have made three changes to the side that travelled to Birmingham for the Commonwealth Games in July-August, as they named their 15-member squad for next month’s Asia Cup.Wicketkeeper-batter Kaushani Nuthyangana, left-arm seamer Tharika Sewwandi and allrounder Madushika Methtananda come in for the veteran pairing of Ama Kanchana and Udeshika Prabodhani, and 17-year-old Vishmi Gunaratne.Twenty-year-old Nuthyangana, who will deputise for Anushka Sanjeewani behind the stumps, has been earmarked as a talent for the future, as has 21-year-old Sewwandi who will take up the left-arm seamer spot vacated by Prabodhani. Methtananda, meanwhile, is in line to make just her second appearance for Sri Lanka, having made her first back in 2019.Of the changes, the only enforced one is that of the highly-rated allrounder Gunaratne, who is suffering from a suspected stress fracture on her back. Sri Lanka Cricket would have ideally liked to have included her, but a recent MRI had highlighted the injury; SLC decided rather than risk aggravating the injury, to instead focus on having her fit for the inaugural Under-19 Women’s T20 World Cup in January in South Africa.Both Kanchana and Prabodhani meanwhile have been omitted as a result of poor recent form, though the latter’s game time is also understood to being managed with her having turned 37 just this month.The rest of the side remains unchanged, with Chamari Athapaththu leading a squad consisting of batters Hasini Perera and Harshitha Samarawickrama, and allrounders Kavisha Dilhari, Nilakshi de Silva, Malsha Shehani and Methtananda, as well as Sanjeewani and Nuthyangana.Sewwandi will be the lone frontline seamer in the squad, with the likes of Achini Kulasuriya, Methtananda, Nilakshi and Shehani able to chip in with their medium pace.It’s on the spin-bowling front though that Sri Lanka are relatively well covered, as they will be able to call on veteran left-arm spinners Inoka Ranaweera and Sugandika Kumari, as well as all-round options in the form of Athapaththu, Dilhari and Ranasinghe. There is also Rashmi Silva, an exciting 21-year-old right-arm leg spinner, who is in line to make her T20I debut during the tour.The Women’s T20 Asia Cup will take place from October 1 to 15 in Bangladesh, with Sri Lanka set to take on India on the opening day.Sri Lanka squad: Chamari Athapaththu (captain), Hasini Perera, Harshitha Samarawickrama, Kaveesha Dilhari, Nilakshi de Silva, Anushka Sanjeewani (wk), Kaushani Nuthyangana, Oshadi Ranasinghe, Malsha Shehani, Madushika Meththananda, Inoka Ranaweera, Rashmi Silva, Sugandika Kumari, Achini Kulasuriya, Tharika Sewwandi.

Both boards are in talks to play a Test as well, which Zimbabwe Cricket would prefer taking place after the World Cup qualifiers in March

ESPNcricinfo staff16-Nov-2017Zimbabwe and Afghanistan have agreed to play five ODIs and two T20Is against each other in Sharjah in February 2018. The tour begins with back to back 20-over games on February 5 and 6 before moving onto the 50-over leg scheduled to take place between February 9 to 19.

Tour schedule

Feb 5 – first T20I, Sharjah
Feb 6 – Second T20I, Sharjah
Feb 9 – First ODI, Sharjah
Feb 11 – Second ODI, Sharjah
Feb 13 – Third ODI, Sharjah
Feb 16 – Fourth ODI, Sharjah
Feb 19 – Fifth ODI, Sharjah

Afghanistan were in talks to play their maiden Test against Zimbabwe around the same time as well. The original plan was for both teams to compete against each other across all three formats in Sharjah before Zimbabwe would travel Bangladesh for an ODI tri-series in January-February. But with the World Cup qualifiers due in March, Zimbabwe Cricket suggested to the Afghanistan Cricket Board that it might be better for the players to concentrate on limited-overs cricket.”We are still discussing the proposed Test and looking at playing it after the ICC Cricket World Cup Qualifier,” a ZC official said. With Zimbabwe suffering a cash crunch, they may also prefer to play their Test matches away from home.Afghanistan have also announced a three match ODI series against Ireland to take place in Sharjah on December 5, 7 and 10.The ACB chairman Atif Mashal appeared happy that the team was getting good exposure at a time they will need it. “The two T20Is and five-match ODI series at Sharjah Cricket Stadium will give both sides [Afghanistan and Zimbabwe] a valuable opportunity to face each other for competitive cricket ahead of the ICC World Cup Qualifiers in March.”The tournament features 10 teams, including West Indies and Ireland, but only the top two will get to go to England for the 2019 World Cup.

Wicketkeeper hits 146, allrounder unbeaten on 83 after coming together at 98 for 5

Karthik Krishnaswamy01-Jul-20223:11

Can we compare Pant to Gilchrist in Test cricket already?

Daryl Mitchell and Tom Blundell may have left the UK, but the narrative arc they established during New Zealand’s just-concluded Test tour continues to define the 2022 English summer. From the despair of 98 for 5, India roared back through the sixth-wicket heroics of Rishabh Pant and Ravindra Jadeja, who put on 222 off just 239 balls.On a rain-interrupted day in which only 73 overs were possible, India galloped to 338 for 7 at the rate of 4.63 per over. Bazball? Well, Rishabh Pant was doing it long before the term was coined, and he moves to no one else’s rhythm but his own. He scored his fifth Test hundred and his second in England, a breathtaking 146 off just 111 balls.Jadeja, meanwhile, began his innings with India in considerable strife and calmed the dressing room down with an innings of crisp driving and discipline outside off stump. At close of play, he was still batting on 83.Seven overs remain before the second new ball is due, and while India’s first-innings total is already well within the realms of respectability, it is by no means a safe one. Their hopes of getting to 375 or beyond rest with Jadeja, and how much support he can get from their brittle bottom three.All through this summer, the Dukes ball has softened after the 30-over mark or thereabouts and become far less of a threat to batters. This was certainly a contributor to India’s fightback, but another possible factor – and a far more worrying one for the home team – may have been England’s lack of bowling depth, and their over-reliance on the ageless and peerless James Anderson.With a two-hour rain break – which included the 40 minutes of an early lunch – allowing him to rest his legs when the ball was still new, Anderson bowled 15 of the first 35 overs of the day. But he only bowled four of the last 38 overs, a time when England could have done with their other bowlers stepping up.2:15

Giles on Anderson: ‘He’s a genius, still a pleasure to watch him operate’

Instead, England’s third and fourth specialist bowlers conceded 156 runs in just 26 overs. While Matthew Potts’ day unraveled after an encouraging start – he took the wickets of Hanuma Vihari and Virat Kohli – Jack Leach had an entirely forgettable time of it, as Pant – by no means for the first time – toyed mercilessly with him.Pant took 59 runs off Leach, off just 32 balls, and 46 of these runs came through the leg side despite the left-arm spinner bowling with six fielders on that side of the wicket, including three protecting the boundary. He launched the ball thrillingly down the ground, as you might expect, but the highlight of Pant’s takedown of Leach was probably the way he manipulated his quicker, flatter change-ups by sinking halfway onto his back knee and sweeping, swiping or swatting him either side of deep backward square leg. He was quite likely lbw if he missed, but at no time did he seem remotely likely to miss.Pant got through almost his entire repertoire of shots against both spin and pace – there was a not-quite-middled repeat of his reverse-scoop over the slips off Anderson, for instance, and a straight hit off Leach that ended with batter lying flat on his back – but the most brilliant bits of his strokeplay were from the more textbook end of the spectrum, none better than a pair of scorching back-foot punches off Potts.These two shots came during a passage of play immediately after tea when India wrested the momentum entirely away from England, with Potts conceding 37 runs in a five-over spell, only to give way to the even more expensive Leach, who eventually ended the day nursing figures of 9-0-71-0. At the other end, Anderson and then Stuart Broad could only apply so much salve.Rishabh Pant and Ravindra Jadeja embrace after the former reached his fifth Test ton•Getty Images

Eventually it was Joe Root who dismissed Pant, finding the edge with a clever change of pace immediately after being hit for a straight six. Ben Stokes dismissed Shardul Thakur soon after with a sharp bouncer, giving England a welcome sight of India’s tail after being under the pump for so long.England couldn’t have envisaged the day ending in that manner given how it had begun. Overhead conditions – and the afterglow of their back-to-back-to-back successful run-chases against New Zealand – prompted Stokes to bowl first, and Anderson justified that choice by dismissing both openers.Shubman Gill got going with three sweetly timed early boundaries, but always seemed a little vulnerable to feeling for the ball outside off stump. He survived two edges that fell short of the cordon, but had no such luck on 17, when he pushed away from his body at a ball from Anderson that straightened from just short of a length.Cheteshwar Pujara, back in the Test XI but opening rather than batting at No. 3, made a typically solid start against testing bowling, but having seen off 45 balls, he got a peach from Anderson that he could do little about: an outswinger angling into the stumps initially before curving away late with extra bounce. At second slip, Zak Crawley, who had just put down Vihari off Potts, held on to this far simpler chance that came straight to him off the shoulder of Pujara’s bat.Then, after the two-hour weather interruption, Potts got two wickets in two overs, trapping Vihari plumb with a nip-backer before having Kohli bowled off his inside edge when he was caught in two minds between playing and leaving.India were in intense strife at 71 for 4, and it only deepened after a short, stroke-filled and ultimately unconvincing innings from Shreyas Iyer, when Anderson aimed at his ribcage and got him to glove down the leg side. The efforts of Mitchell and Blundell may have cautioned England against celebrating too much at this point, but surely even they couldn’t see the same thing happening all over again?

He will join the squad in time to be available for selection for their final Group A clash against Zimbabwe on Thursday

Peter Della Penna13-Jul-2022D Siva Kumar, who was part of India’s Under-19 World
Cup-winning squad in Malaysia in 2008, has been drafted into the USA squad to replace the injured Ali Khan at ongoing T20 World Cup Qualifier in Zimbabwe. Ali was ruled out of the rest of the tournament after he suffered a broken forearm on the opening day of the tournament.Siva Kumar, 32, recently became eligible to represent his adopted home country under the ICC’s residency guidelines. which require a player to be a resident for a minimum of three years in order to qualify for selection. His last List A match for Andhra Pradesh in Indian domestic cricket came in October 2018.Related

• Ali Khan out of T20 World Cup Qualifier with a fractured forearm

• USA Cricket stepping up foreign recruitment to live up to ODI status

The medium-pace allrounder has been representing the Morrisville, North Carolina franchise for the last two seasons in USA’s Minor League Cricket T20 franchise tournament, which is serving as the precursor to Major League Cricket that is due to launch in 2023. He took 15 wickets at an average of 16.13 and an economy rate of 5.76 in the 2021 regular season and scored scored 93 runs in eight innings at an average of 13.29. In the 2022 campaign, he has four wickets in two matches.According to a press release from USA cricket, he is due to arrive in Zimbabwe on Wednesday night and will join the squad in time to be available for selection for their final Group A clash against Zimbabwe on Thursday. Both teams have already clinched semi-final berths but the winner will have the top seed heading into the crossover playoff matches with the Group B set on Friday.

The current high temperatures across England was the chief reason for India’s team management asking to shorten the warm-up match by one day

Nagraj Gollapudi in Chelmsford24-Jul-20181:12

Bumrah returns to training as India prepare for Essex

Virat Kohli stood in his position. Hunched over. Hands relaxed. He was practising slip-catching to a right-hand batsman. R Sridhar, the India fielding coach, nicked one off the outside edge. The ball zipped low to Kohli’s left. Kohli leaned to his left before picking a one-handed catch. It was a beauty.Ajinkya Rahane, India’s vice-captain, standing about 20 yards behind Kohli, acknowledged the captain’s attempt. “Catch,” exclaimed Rahane. Sridhar squealed in delight, loud enough to ring across the ground at Chelmsford, where Indian will play their one-off practice match against Essex from Wednesday.Originally, the match was meant to be a four-day game, and some even suspected it could be a first-class match. However, India’s think-tank opted to play the match plainly as a warm-up and reduced it to a three-day game.The current heat wave across England was one of the chief reasons for the team management to shorten the match to three days. Temperatures in London this week are forecast to be minimum 30C. Under the prevailing scorching conditions, the management decided that a three-day game was appropriate to trigger the intensity levels of the players going into a long five-match series.The extra day gained could then be utilised for training at Edgbaston, where the first Test of the five-match series against England begins on August 1. Originally, India would have reached Birmingham on July 29 (accounting for a four-day finish against Essex) but now they will arrive a day earlier and are likely to have three days of nets before the Test.The Essex website had listed tickets for a four-day match as recent as Monday, but discussions with India and the ECB resulted in the change. Tom Harrison, the ECB chief executive, was spotted at the ground, speaking with India coach Ravi Shastri.Once the India squad had left, Essex confirmed the development through a media release, saying that the current “high temperatures” was the main factor. “Essex Cricket and the England & Wales Cricket Board have today agreed, at the request of the BCCI Management Team, that the scheduled Tourist match between Essex and India will now be played over three days.” People who have bought the tickets for the fourth day will now receive a full refund.Virat Kohli with coach Ravi Shastri and bowling coach Bharat Arun•AFP

The last-minute change did not have any impact on the intensity levels of the India players on Tuesday, the first day of training for the Test-match leg as the squad assembled to train for the first time. All the 18 players named were on the field, including Jasprit Bumrah who injured his left thumb in India’s first match of the UK tour against Ireland in June. Bumrah, who will be available for selection from the second Test (at Lord’s), only bowled off a couple of paces on a practice pitch and had his left thumb still protected in a blue brace.Otherwise, the rest of the squad trained assiduously during the session, which lasted for close to four hours. Although the match has been shortened, a few hints emerged about the kind of batting and bowling attack India will aim to field at Edgbaston.Murali Vijay, Shikhar Dhawan and KL Rahul are likely to comprise the top order followed by the engine room of India’s Test batting in Kohli and Rahane. Dinesh Karthik and Hardik Pandya will bolster the lower order.Despite the hot conditions, the pitch wore a greenish cover and is likely to be on the harder side. Regardless of the nature of the pitch, India will want to see how Kuldeep Yadav fares with the red Dukes ball. This is Kuldeep’s first tour of the UK and so far he has shown impressive form with the white ball, taking two five-fors. However, the England batsmen threw back the challenge at Kuldeep after finally starting to read his left-arm unorthodox spin from the hand in the final two matches of the ODI series, which India lost 2-1.Kuldeep bowled on one of the practice pitches which was totally green, in the company of the senior spin twins, R Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja. Although they could not impart much spin off the pitch, all three spinners focused on varying the flight and pace to get an upper hand over the batsmen. Of the three men, Ashwin got the best results and even embarrassed Pandya more than once as the batsman charged him.With no cap on the number of players, India are likely to field all their fast bowlers – Ishant Sharma, Umesh Yadav, Mohammed Shami and Shardul Thakur – in the practice game. Essex meanwhile named a squad featuring several first-team regulars, including Tom Westley, capped in the Test team last year, as captain.

First century of season begins post-Ashes fightback as Afridi’s absence dents table-toppers

Matt Roller12-May-2022Eoin Morgan’s position as the most powerful man in English cricket was further reinforced on Thursday with confirmation that Rob Key’s has decided to appoint Brendon McCullum as the new coach of the men’s Test team.McCullum was the inspiration for England’s white-ball revolution, master of ceremonies at Morgan’s wedding and his coach when he captained KKR to the IPL final last year; they share passions for red wine, horse racing and gambling and while Morgan is not directly involved in the Test side, the influence he has had on English cricket will be clear throughout the Ben Stokes-McCullum era.So it was fitting that on the day McCullum’s appointment was ratified and confirmed publicly, Morgan was back at Lord’s – supposedly for a gym session, though he was seen in conversation with Stuart Broad pre-match and later on the Middlesex balcony catching up with team-mates with the start of the T20 Blast two weeks away.Morgan’s presence meant this was a chance for Nottinghamshire’s batters to make an impression. When Haseeb Hameed threw his head back and raised his bat after clipping Tim Murtagh’s first ball after tea off his pads for four to reach a first hundred of the season, he could feel confident that he had done so.Hameed’s first seven innings of the season had brought a solitary half-century, with several starts but an average of 26.83. His first-innings dismissal against Glamorgan last month appeared to confirm that luck had deserted him: he was run out at the non-striker’s end when James Weighell deflected Ben Slater’s straight drive into the stumps via his boot, sticking out a hopeful left leg as he slid over in his follow-through. This, then, was a welcome return to form at a ground where he made the final hundred of his Lancashire career three years ago.It was not a faultless innings: he played uncharacteristically aggressively early on – perhaps subconsciously changing his method after reading reports of McCullum’s impending appointment – and survived some awkward flirts in the off-stump channel. But his 112 set the game up for Notts against the early pace-setters in Division Two after they had been asked to bat first, reinforcing their well-founded belief that they are the best side outside of the top flight this year. He was well supported by Steven Mullaney, the club captain and one of the more reliable middle-order batters on the circuit, who targeted the short boundary towards the Grand Stand to good effect in his 91 not out.Hameed told ESPNcricinfo in a pre-season interview that he thinks finding a way to “get back up from rock bottom” has been a strength throughout his young career and after a gruelling Ashes tour he needed to do so once again.Eoin Morgan watches on from the Middlesex balcony•Alex Davidson/Getty Images

“It was just a case of trying to keep things simple,” Hameed said of his innings. “I felt like if I continued playing the way I was there would be a big score around the corner. I just had to keep that belief and thankfully I was able to get a decent one on the board today.”The pitch was a little on the slow side but there were a number of play-and-misses throughout the day and a lot of the dismissals were genuine nick-offs, even with an older ball at times like mine. I feel like there’s enough in there for us to take 20 wickets.”Hameed is, at best, an outside bet to play in the first Test of McCullum era, against New Zealand at this ground in three weeks’ time, and was keen to avoid the question of a recall. “I saw there was a decent chance he’d be made coach,” he said. “I know Broady was pretty excited about that appointment but honestly, there hasn’t been too much chat about it. I’m not even looking that far: for me, it’s always been important to keep things very short-term and very simple. That hasn’t changed.”Perhaps the day’s most intriguing innings came from Ben Duckett, who edged Ethan Bamber behind shortly after lunch for 42. He was handed an early life on 4 when Peter Handscomb put down a straightforward chance at first slip off Murtagh, but played brightly, driving confidently through extra cover and working through midwicket off his pads.Duckett is among a number of batters who could fill England’s vacancy at No. 3 and his unshackled approach in first-class cricket – his strike rate this season, 65.42, reflects a calculation that attack is the best option on seam-friendly Trent Bridge pitches – is in sync with McCullum’s preference for positivity. If he misses out on a Test recall, Morgan may well take a look at him in June’s ODI series in the Netherlands.Middlesex were unable to call on their star overseas signing Shaheen Shah Afridi, who has returned home to Pakistan to “rest and spend time with family and friends” before an ODI series against West Indies in a month’s time. He is due to return for the back end of the Blast’s group stages and Middlesex have plenty of fast-bowling depth but his absence is clearly a blow – as it would be to any team in the world.With the notable exception of Toby Roland-Jones, their seamers struggled to keep the scoring rate in check though Bamber, Murtagh and Martin Andersson all threatened at times. But it has been their batting that has been the major point of improvement this season: an attack of Broad, Luke Fletcher and a well-rested James Pattinson will offer a test of their progress at some stage on Friday.

Sri Lanka have lost each of their last five T20Is, but they are up against an Indian side without Virat Kohli, Shikhar Dhawan and Bhuvneshwar Kumar

The Preview by Karthik Krishnaswamy19-Dec-20172:37

Dasgupta: Good time for India to test youngsters

Big Picture

India haven’t lost a bilateral series in any format in 2017, but that’s only if you discount the one-off T20I against West Indies in Kingston, where an Evin Lewis century blew them away. A 6-4 T20 record this year would suggest this Indian side is at its most vulnerable in the shortest format. Sri Lanka, having let slip a few chances to push India harder than they did in the ODIs, should therefore allow themselves to feel just a bit more hopeful than they otherwise might when they line up for the first T20I in Cuttack.This, moreover, is an Indian T20 side without Virat Kohli, Shikhar Dhawan or Bhuvneshwar Kumar, and with a long list of unproven names. Between them, Basil Thampi, Deepak Hooda, Washington Sundar and Mohammed Siraj have played a total of two international games, while Shreyas Iyer only made his India debut in November, and Jaydev Unadkat has played nine games across formats since his debut in December 2010.Sri Lanka will look at those names and tell themselves they have a more-than-realistic chance of winning this series. There’s just one hurdle they’ll have to cross if they are to do so, however; they have lost each of their last five T20 games.

Form guide

India WLWLW (last five completed matches, most recent first)
Sri Lanka LLLLL

In the spotlight

After a low score in seaming conditions in Dharamsala, Shreyas Iyer scored breezy, innovative half-centuries in the second and third ODIs, and didn’t look anything like a batsman playing his debut series in the format. If he transfers that confidence and that ability to manipulate the opposition’s fields into the T20 format as well, India might be closer than ever to solving their long-term middle-order issues in limited-overs cricket.During the ODI series, it was hard to tell if Danushka Gunathilaka was in form or not. He scored 1, 16 and 13, and was out all three times to Jasprit Bumrah, twice while attempting over-ambitious shots. He might need to temper his approach in the 50-overs game, but it might serve him well if he continues to go for his shots in the T20I series.

Team news

Having missed out on ODI selection, KL Rahul returns for the T20Is, and should return in his natural role at the top of the order, alongside Rohit Sharma. With Bhuvneshwar Kumar rested, India will have to choose between Thampi, Siraj and Unadkat to partner Jasprit Bumrah in the seam attack.India (probable): 1 Rohit Sharma (capt), 2 KL Rahul, 3 Shreyas Iyer, 4 Dinesh Karthik, 5 Manish Pandey, 6 MS Dhoni (wk), 7 Hardik Pandya, 8 Kuldeep Yadav, 9 Jaydev Unadkat/Mohammed Siraj/Basil Thampi, 10 Jasprit Bumrah, 11 Yuzvendra Chahal.A number of senior players have returned to Sri Lanka’s squad after sitting out the T20Is against Pakistan. Their line-up should closely resemble the one that played the ODIs, by and large, but without Suranga Lakmal, they will have to choose between the pace and bounce of Dushmantha Chameera and the left-arm swing of Vishwa Fernando to partner Nuwan Pradeep with the new ball.Sri Lanka (probable): 1 Danushka Gunathilaka, 2 Upul Tharanga, 3 Sadeera Samarawickrama/Kusal Perera, 4 Angelo Mathews, 5 Niroshan Dickwella (wk), 6 Asela Gunaratne, 7 Thisara Perera (capt), 8 Sachith Pathirana, 9 Akila Dananjaya, 10 Dushmantha Chameera, 11 Nuwan Pradeep.

Pitch and conditions

Cuttack has only hosted one T20I, in which South Africa bowled India out for 92 before strolling to a six-wicket win, amid crowd trouble, in 2015. It was an atypically bowler-dominated game at the venue. Either side of it, India have made 350-plus scores in ODI victories over Sri Lanka and England.

Stats and trivia

• After 63 T20Is, Thisara Perera has taken 45 wickets while conceding 8.95 runs per over. Among bowlers who have bowled in a minimum of 20 T20I innings, only two – Elton Chigumbura and Andre Russell – have a worse economy rate.
• AB de Villiers has 72 dismissals (7 stumpings, 21 catches as wicketkeeper, 44 catches as fielder) in T20Is, the most dismissals in the field by any keeper or fielder. MS Dhoni, however, could soon go past him. He is currently on 70 (45 catches as wicketkeeper, 25 stumpings).
• Sri Lanka won four of their first seven T20Is against India, but have lost four out of four since then.

Quotes

“As senior players, we try and help these young guys as much as possible, but all the young guys who’ve come in have come in with a lot of IPL games behind them. Some have played 20, some have played 30 games, so they’re not as perturbed as they used to be in earlier days.”

A sixth half-century in the series from KL Rahul and a touch of aggression from Ajinkya Rahane finally snuffed out the last of Australia’s fight, sealing the series 2-1 for India

The Report by Daniel Brettig28-Mar-2017
Scorecard and ball-by-ball details2:03