Debutant left-arm spinner Praveen Jayawickrama played a crucial role in Sri Lanka’s Test and series win against Bangladesh, especially as the first Test was played on a batting paradise.
Pathum Nissanka became the fourth Sri Lankan player to score a century on debut.
Here is a list of all Sri Lankan players to have scored a 50 or more on Test debut.
Note that several members of the current Sri Lankan team are in this list. Chandimal and Kusal (MDKJ) Perera had scored two fifties on debut, along with Hasuranga (PWH) de Silva, Karunaratne, Dickwella and Dilruwan (MDK) Perera.
So England ultimately won the series against Sri Lanka 2-0, but there were some periods in both Tests where it seemed that the hosts had a chance of winning.
In the second Test, Lasith Embuldeniya took 7 wickets in the first innings and went on to take his first “tenner” in the match. It may have escaped notice that Lahiru Thirimanne took 5 catches as a fielder in the first innings, all of them off Lasith’s bowling.
There are several instances of non-keepers taking 5 catches in an innings:
However, Lahiru Thirimanne is the only one who took all 5 catches off the same bowler.
There are a few instances of a fielder taking 4 catches off the same bowler, as that of J Blackwood doing so against Sri Lanka off the bowling of KC Brathwaite. (That was a fluke instance as he never took 4 wickets in an innings in any other Test).
There is at least one instance for India. AL Wadekar took 4 catches off BS Bedi in an innings at Christchurch in 1967-68.
While Lasith took a further 3 wickets in England’s second innings, Thirimanne failed to take another catch. However, his 5 catches off the same bowler may also be a match record in all Tests.
Since then, Pakistan has played Tests only away or at neutral venues (mainly in UAE, also 2 in England). There have been a small number of T20Is and ODIs played in Pakistan in the past few years:
T20Is in Pakistan since March 2009:
ODIs in Pakistan since March 2009:
It is also apparent that any Pakistani player who made his Test debut since 3 March 2009 would never have played at home until now. They are:
It can be seen that these 46 players include the present captain (Azhar Ali) and the previous captain (Sarfaraz Ahmed) who made their debuts in 2010, besides key players such as Asad Shafiq and Shan Masood. There is also Fawad Alam who made his debut in Sri Lanka in 2009 but has not played any Test since that series, but may well play in the forthcoming series.
And there are others such as Saeed Ajmal and Mohammad Amir who came and went without ever playing in a home Test.
You can see a review of past Tests between Pakistan and Sri Lanka here:
Note that their last meeting was in the UAE in late 2017, when Sri Lanka won 2-0. They were among the very few teams to beat Pakistan in a series in the UAE.
Muralitharan is far ahead of the others, while Steyn leads current players with Philander close behind.
Muralitharan has the most 10-wicket hauls (4) while no one else has more than 1. He also has the most 5-fors with 11, when no one else has more than 3.
Best innings bowling (6wi and above):
Maharaj has the best analysis which came in the last series between these teams. There is nothing from the current series.
Best match bowling (8wm and above):
While there are a few performances from the 2018 series here, there are none from this series.
Best bowling averages (Minimum 2000 balls, all instances):
Expectedly it is headed by Muralitharan. The best economy rate is also by him, while Steyn has the best strike rate.
Now for fielding:
Most dismissals (10 and above):
Boucher heads this list by a large margin. He has the most stumpings and catches by a keeper. Kallis has the most catches by a non-keeper.
Most innings dismissals (4 and above):
Boucher heads this again, while Kallis has the most by a non-keeper.
Most match dismissals (6 and above):
de Kock heads this list, while Kallis again has the best by a non-keeper. de Kock is also the only current player here.
Best dismissal rate (Minimum 20 innings and 0.400):
Headed by Boucher and Kallis. Amla is the only current player here.
All-round performance:
Overall (see criteria in table):
Only SM Pollock makes the cut.
Match performance:
No one has a fifty and five-for in the same match. However, we can find some who have made 50 runs and taken 5 wickets in a match:
Pollock and Kallis would have the best performances here.
Sri Lanka won the series 2-0 and thus became the first Asian country to win a Test series there. Neither have New Zealand or the West Indies won there yet.
Here is the summary of Tests between these teams:
Until now, Sri Lanka had won only one Test in SA, which was at Durban in December 2011. That was part of a 2-1 series loss.
This time, Sri Lanka won the first Test at Durban by one wicket and the second at Port Elizabeth by the more respectable margin of 8 wickets.
Sri Lanka also leads 6-3 for Tests at home.
We now move to individual performances, starting with batting:
Most runs (500 runs and above):
The old firm of Jayawardene and Sangakkara at the top. Amla heads the current players including Karunaratne, the only one from SL.
Jayawardene (6) has the most centuries followed by Cullinan with 5.
Sangakkara (10) has the most scores of 50+ followed by Cullinan and Sangakkara with 8.
Highest scores (110 and above):
The same old firm monopolizes the first four positions. MDKJ Perera’s match-winning 153* is now the best for SL in SA, surpassing TT Samaraweera’s 115* in 2012. Note Cullinan’s three centuries at the bottom.
Highest batting averages (Minimum 20 innings, all instances):
Almost inevitably it is the same pair at the top. Amla is the only current player here.
Highest strike rate (Minimum 1000 balls faced, all instances):
Here we have Jayasuriya leading with ABD in second place. Karunaratne leads the current players.
Keshav Maharaj’s 9-129 and match figures of 12-283 (along with Theunis de Bruyn’s maiden century) were South Africa’s only saving grace in their loss in the second Test at Colombo (SSC). We now look at the best bowling figures by losing teams in Tests.
Best innings bowling in defeats (including all instances of 8wi and above):
Maharaj’s 9-129 is the fourth-best performance here in a list headed by Kapil Dev’s 9-69. It may be recalled that Noreiga’s 9-95 is the best for WI in all Tests, and that it came in India’s first Test win over the West Indies.
The previous best for South Africa was Hugh Tayfield’s 7-23 in 1950, which can also be seen above.
Valentine and Krejza were making their debuts. Krezja played only in one more Test. Valentine made his debut with Ramadhin, and the two ensured that England lost the remaining 3 Tests of the series.
Best match bowling in defeats (including all instances of 11wm and above):
Here Maharaj’s 12-283 is somewhat down the list which is headed by Srinath’s 13-132 in 1999. The previous best for South Africa was AE Hall’s 11-112 in 1923, which can also be seen above.
Krejza, Hall, Burke and Valentine were making their debuts. Only Valentine got an extended run.
Here we look at the Sri Lankan connection in more detail.
There is a fleeting reference to Jayananda Warnaweera, who played in Tests with some success as an off-spinner. He was the curator at Galle and was facing queries from the ICC as to some oddities in pitch behaviour. As the ICC and Sri Lankan authorities felt he was being non-cooperative, he was suspended for 3 years in early 2016:
Anyway he was out of the way by the time this report got under way. His successors (who appeared in the Al-Jazeera report along with Robin Morris) did talk about fixing the Galle Test against Australia in August 2016. This was the second Test of the series which Sri Lanka won 3-0.
In this case, the pitch was deliberately prepared to be bowler-friendly. The betting was probably on low scores and an early finish. The fixers had done their job well: the match got over early on the third day, in one of the shortest Tests in recent times. The scorecard:
In contrast, there was another Test at Galle against India in July 2017. This time they made the pitch more batsman-friendly. Indeed, India batted first and made 600. Sri Lanka collapsed abjectly and went on to lose the series 3-0. The betting was probably on a good score being made in the first innings. But no players were involved in fixing in these two Tests.
Now let us look at the dramatis personae from Sri Lanka:
Hasan Raza is the only name which most of us would recognize. All other former cricketers lesser known but are duly recorded in Cricinfo and other websites:
Anyone who follows cricket (even the Test purists) should watch the report. Numerous bits and pieces can be seen on Youtube and directly on various news sites. But to get a full idea of the extent of the match-fixing industry it is well worth watching the hour-long report:
Some of the key takeaways:
How is it that a key man of the D company is freely functioning in Mumbai apparently without interference from the Mumbai police or anyone else? (One is struck with his quiet confidence and thorough knowledge of the “business”).
A relatively minor domestic player like Robin Morris seems to have made a lot more money from fixing than in his regular cricket career. Even if he had somehow got into IPL he would not have earned much. And he seems to have a particularly dumb sidekick who, unlike him, did play in a few Tests and ODIs.
Then there is the Morris – Rajkumar plan to organize T20 tournaments all over the world-whose only purpose is to make money through fixing. Almost like a never-ending Ponzi scheme or perpetual motion machine.
Although Al-Jazeera did not mention this, someone has already made a start in a “fraudulent” tournament in the UAE earlier this year. This was so blatantly a fixed tournament that the UAE authorities had to throw them out. A sample report:
Other reports from that period can be found through Google. Not sure what ultimately happened there. But it sounds quite similar to what Morris (mainly) and Rajkumar were talking about. Clearly the players in this tournament had not been “trained” properly.
The allegations regarding Test matches pertain to
1) India vs England at Chennai in Dec 2016, the 5th Test which India won by an innings to take the 5-Test series 4-0: three English players (presumably specialist batsmen) are alleged to have manipulated the scoring rate. They have denied the charges. (Any guesses?) Here is the scorecard:
Those who followed the match closely on TV or the net may be able to figure out who the guilty trio are. I am not hazarding any guess, except that they would probably be 1-7 in the batting order.
Afterthought: Was even the bowling fixed? Did that allow Karun Nair to make a triple hundred (which is still the ONLY score he has made above 50 in a Test)?
2) India vs Australia at Ranchi in March 2017. This was the third of 4 Tests, the only drawn Test of the series. India won 2-1. Here two Australian players (presumably specialist batsmen) similarly manipulated the scoring rate. Al-Jazeera said that there was no reply from them so far. Here, too we can try to guess who they may be, batting at 1 to 7. Here is the scorecard:
3) Sri Lanka vs India at Galle in July 2017. This was the first Test of the series, in which India won all three Tests by heavy margins. This time no players were involved, but merely manipulation of the pitch by the curator (?) and others. (But what was the bet? Merely that the match would be high-scoring). It was, in the sense that India made 600 batting first. But the Sri Lankan batsmen did so badly that they lost by over 300 runs in what was effectively an innings defeat, as India would have won by an innings if they had imposed the follow-on.
Galle has a history of pitch manipulation. The former curator, Test bowler J. Warnaweera, was suspended for 3 years by the ICC in early 2016 for non-cooperation with ICC investigators. This is with reference to earlier matches at Galle.
This tournament is an one-off. There was another Nidahas Trophy in 1998 to mark the 50th anniversary of independence. That was also a triangular series but with 50-over matches. T20Is were still in the future.
This tournament was contested by Sri Lanka, India and New Zealand. Though the league matches were badly affected by rain, there was still a narrow 6-run win for India as Sri Lanka came close to chasing down a 300+ total in the final. Such things rarely happened in those days. See the scorecard:
At least the host got to the final then, unlike on this occasion. This time it was Dinesh Karthik who won the match with one of the most famous last-ball sixes in limited-overs cricket history. But Javed Miandad may have something to say about that.
Here is a statistical summary of the 2018 edition. The sample size is too small to have meaningful figures for averages, strike rates and the like.
Most runs (90 and above):
Kusal Perera made 3 fifties, while three others made two apiece.
Highest innings (40 and above):
Dhawan and RG Sharma have the highest scores.
During the SL v BD match on 16 Mar, there was a wisecrack that Mr Perera had scored 119 runs and took 5 catches.
Most wickets (4 and above):
India’s junior spinners lead here, with a number of highly experienced bowlers following.
Best innings bowling (including all 3wi and above):
The 4 top positions are by Indian bowlers.
Most dismissals (3 or more):
Thissara Perera and Sabbir have the most (6) by non-keepers while Karthik (5) the most by keepers.
Most innings dismissals (2 or more):
Sabbir and Kusal Perera lead the non-keepers and keepers respectively.
All round performances (20+ runs and 2+ wickets in a match):
Continuing our review of all Tests between these teams until now.
Fielding:
8 or more dismissals:
The lesser-known P Jayawardene has the most dismissals, most catches by a keeper and most stumpings. The better-known M Jayawardene has the most catches by a fielder. Mushfiqur is catching up.
Innings fielding (4 or more dismissals):
Dickwella equalled the record of 5 during this series. Sangakkara and Soumya have 4 catches as fielders.
Match fielding (5 or more dismissals):
P Jayawardene has the record of 7, while M Jayawardene and Soumya have 5 catches as fielders. Dickwella has the best figures from the current series.
Dismissal rate (minimum 20 innings fielded, all cases):
Sangakkara has the highest here, as P Jayawardene did not play enough matches here. Mushfiqur has done almost as well as Sangakkara. Among non-keepers the highest rate is inevitably by M Jayawardene.
All-round performances
Overall-see criteria in table:
Shakib is the only all-rounder with respectable figures. Vaas did not play enough in these matches.
Match performances (50 and 5wi):
The one-man army Shakib Al Hasan again. His absence in this series must have hurt Bangladesh a lot.
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