Bipin Dani, at https://www.bdcrictime.com/sl-coach-mickey-arthur-happy-with-team-performance/
According to the highly placed sources in Zimbabwe, the team management is considering to persist with the same eleven for the second Test commencing at the same venue on Monday.
“Though the second Test is to be played on a different wicket, we are “most likely” to retain the same eleven”, a member of the support staff said.
Andrew Fidel Fernando in ESPNcricinfo, https://www.espncricinfo.com/story/_/id/28481452/lakmal-returns-kusal-perera-dropped-sri-lanka-test-squad
Suranga Lakmal returned to Sri Lanka’s Test squad after missing the tour of Pakistan due to dengue fever, while Kusal Perera has been dropped.
Suranga Lakmal of Sri Lanka celebrates after taking the wicket of Travis Head of Australia during day two of the First Test match between Australia and Sri Lanka at The Gabba on January 25, 2019 in Brisbane, Australia. (Photo by Ryan Pierse/Getty Images)
Filed under cricket and life, performance, player selections, Sri Lanka Cricket
Rex Clementine in Island, 4 January 2020, where the title is “Mathews Ready for Reversed Role”
When Angelo Mathews limped off the field in Indore with a hamstring injury during Sri Lanka’s tour of India in 2017, the recovery took months. At that point, the selectors made a call that in a bid to prolong his career, Mathews will only play as a batsman. But 18 months later, the decision has been reversed. Mathews was dropped from the T-20 squad in August 2018 and was told to get back to bowling in order to regain his place. Having fulfilled the requirement, the 32-year-old is back in India, the country where he won the admiration of adoring fans a decade ago.
Rex Clementine in Island, 3 January 2020,
The national cricket team has got a hectic schedule in 2020 where they will play nine Test matches, 12 ODIs and at least 16 T-20s. They will be playing more T-20s than the other two formats for the obvious reason that this year the World T-20 will be staged in Australia in late October. This is apart form the Asia Cup, also a T-20 tournament to be played in Pakistan.
Though Lasith Malinga, who picked up four wickets in four balls, has been immortalized in the annals of cricket, another Sri Lankan bowler who picked up six wickets in six balls continues to be in oblivion. Even though this rare feat was achieved in a club game in England, Holsinger’s accomplishment merits a lot of recognition since not often do bowlers produce such an unusual phenomenon.
Andrew Fidel Fernando, in ESPNcricinfo, 20 December 2019, where the title runs thus: “Dinesh Chandimal condenses rollercoaster career into one innings”
Dinesh Chandimal plays a shot during the second day of the second Test cricket match between Pakistan and Sri Lanka –Photo by Asif HASSAN /AFP via Getty Images)
There is almost a novel here. A talented wicketkeeper from the southwest gets spotted by a big Colombo school in his teens. Goes on to lead that school to their best season ever. He quickly gets picked up by the national squad, and at first glimpse of this guy, the public is enchanted. He’s organised, but there’s also that manic fun of a schoolboy. He swings so hard at the ball his limbs could go flying off. By 23, he is Sri Lanka’s T20I captain – their youngest ever.
ONE = Shenai Anushka, in Sunday Times, 8 December 2019, where the title reads thus – “Sri Lanka’s gruelling test in ‘unknown’ Pakistan’
Sri Lanka’s full-strength Test team will embark on a significant tour of Pakistan today to play two matches as part of the ICC World Test Championship. Pakistan has not hosted Test cricket since the 2009 Lahore attack on the Sri Lanka team that wounded several players, staff members and killed a few security officers. The series was initially scheduled to be played in October with the most likely venue to be the UAE. However after successfully hosting the second-string Sri Lanka team in the limited-overs leg in August and September, they forced Sri Lanka Cricket to play the Test series in Pakistan.
Geoff Lemon, in Daily News, 7 December 2019, with this title “Like those of greats before him, David Warner’s triple century was a giant feat in a dull game”
When David Warner made his unbeaten 335 in Adelaide, a fair few people felt inclined to present some caveats. The pitch was flat, the bowlers were no good, the ball didn’t swing, Mercury was in retrograde. Those opinions would hardly have been muffled when the Pakistan tail-ender Yasir Shah made his first Test ton in reply, having never previously passed 50.
News Item, 31 October 2019, ….. https://www.lords.org/lords/news-stories/mcc-champion-county-match-to-be-held-in-sri-lanka
The traditional curtain-raiser to the new English domestic season, which dates back to 1970 in its current guise, will be played at the Galle International Stadium between 24th and 27th March 2020. The Champion County match, which sees MCC play the winners of the Specsavers County Championship in a four-day first-class match, was played at Lord’s until 2010 when the match first moved abroad.
