Category Archives: T20 Cricket

January 3, 2018 · 3:20 pm

Munro creates T20 Record as Kiwis murder Windies

Varun Shetty, courtesy of ESPNcricinfo, 3 Janauuary 2018, where the title is Munro century headlines New Zealand’s drubbing of WI

**New Zealand’s Colin Munro scored a powerful 104 off 53 balls in his side’s comfortable 119-run win over West Indies**

New Zealand 243 for 5 (Munro 104, Guptill 63) beat West Indies 124 (Fletcher 46, Southee 3-21, Sodhi 2-25, Boult 2-29) by 119 runs
Scorecard and ball-by-ball details

Colin Munro became the first batsman to make three centuries in T20 internationals as he laid the foundation for New Zealand’s battering of West Indies by 119 runs in their final match of the tour at Mount Maunganui. The left-handed opener followed up his two fifties from the previous games with a 53-ball 104 as the hosts swept the series 3-0. West Indies failed to register a single win on a New Zealand tour for the first time since 1999-00.

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Filed under cricketing records, performance, T20 Cricket, West Indian Cricket

December 23, 2017 · 12:31 pm

Hurricane Hitting; fastest T20 Centuries … Rohit mauls Sri Lanka

Bharath Seervi, in ESPN

35 – Number of balls taken by Rohit Sharma to score his century, which is the joint-fastest in T20Is. He equalled David Miller’s record – he had done the same against Bangladesh in October. The previous fastest T20I century among India batsmen was 46 balls by KL Rahul, against West Indies in Lauderhill last year.

Rohit smashed the joint fastest T20I century ESPNcricinfo Ltd

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Filed under cricketing icons, cricketing records, Indian cricket, Sri Lanka Cricket, T20 Cricket

December 23, 2017 · 2:28 am

Rashid Khan strikes for Strikers …. about Khan’s Advent

Alex Malcolm, courtesy of ESPNcricinfo, where the title is “”Carey and bowlers trample Sydney Thunder

The new-look Adelaide Strikers were a bit of mystery coming into this year’s tournament. But their rejuvenated line-up, with the help of mystery legspinner Rashid Khan, delivered a dominant win over the Sydney Thunder to get their campaign off to the perfect start.

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Filed under Australian cricket, Big Bash League cricket, performance, T20 Cricket

October 30, 2017 · 10:40 am

Huge Welcome and Massive Security swamps Sri Lankan Team in Lahore

Rex Clementine reporting from Lahore, Island, 29 October 2017, with title “Huge welcome and massive security awaits Sri Lankan team”

When Thisara Perera lands in Lahore, he will be stunned at the hospitality awaiting him. He is a star here. His billboards are all over Lahore. Posters of his players also are seen all over the road with Punjab Government in Lahore set to put up a great show as the Sri Lankan cricket team brings international cricket back to the country. Continue reading →

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Filed under cricket and life, cricket governance, cricket tamashas, patriotic excess, politics and cricket, Rex Clementine, Sri Lanka Cricket, T20 Cricket, terrorist intrusions, unusual people

August 6, 2017 · 3:28 pm

Sidath vs Sanath: Selectors Castigated by Sunday Times

S. R. Pathiravithana, Sunday Times, 6 August 2017, where the title reads “No Plan”

As I was saying before; keeping my ear to the ground, I presume it is a part of my job. It gives you vibes without prejudice or even second thoughts; it just surfaces from the ground within – where it began. The other day I was chatting to my grocery man Seneviratne, an ardent cricket fan. You must see how his face lights up when Sri Lanka wins. It’s so pleasing to see a face so bright. The vibes that emanate from his even make our daily drudges look good. Yet, just before the second Test against the Indians, Seneviratne was down, way below his usual self. When I asked him why, he just mumbled “Oka Hariyanne nehe, Mama cricket balana eka athheriya. (Things will not come right for us, so I quit watching cricket)”.

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Filed under Angelo Mathews, Aravinda de Silva, cricket and life, cricket governance, cricketer politicians, cricketing icons, performance, player selections, politics and cricket, sanath jayasuriya, Sangakkara, Sri Lanka Cricket, T20 Cricket

June 23, 2017 · 3:23 am

Sri Lanka Cricket in Humpty-Dumpty Situation

Suresh Murugaser, an original essay entitled “What ails Sri Lanka Cricket!” … with highlighting emphasis in the text being an imposition by The Editor, Cricketique

Let’s face it. All is not well with Sri Lanka Cricket – both the organisation and the game itself. I’m simply making a few observations in the hope that the powers- that-be take notice, and make calculated efforts to put things right.

School Cricket

This is the cradle and nursery of our cricket culture, and it even produced cricketers who were able to walk into the Sri Lanka side. What’s happened is that, under the Schools Cricket Association (which, till very recently operated independently of Sri Lanka Cricket), which was under the purview of school Principals and Masters-in-Charge, has become a law unto itself. Continue reading →

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Filed under Angelo Mathews, cricket and life, cricket governance, cricketer politicians, politics and cricket, SL Premier League, Sri Lanka Cricket, T20 Cricket

April 8, 2017 · 2:15 pm

The Power of Motivation: Problems of Assessment

Michael Roberts

Though Sri Lanka had defeated Bangladesh in their first t20 encounter at Premadasa Stadium with a measure of comfort, well before the match I felt that Bangladesh would win the second. My reasoning was based on the news that this would be captain Mashrafe Mortaza’s last game under this format. It followed that Chandika Hathurasinghe and the coaching team would deploy this impending departure as a incentive for the players to perform out of their skin.

A reasonable surmise, Yes. but how does one measure the impact of t such a factor over the course of a match? and provide proof to sceptics? There is no easy answer. Even the eleven players of the Bangla team would be ahard-pressed to supply concrete proof.

After all, winning a match is usually based on a combination of factors and to weight the determination of all XI players to do their best as a decisive force that stands on the top of the list is a tall order.

Mortaza himself was out for a duck as one element in Lasith Malinga’s hat trick of wickets; while his bowling spell was as follows

Mashrafe Mortaza

7.50

So his personal contribution was largely as skipper ringing the bowling changes and geeing up his side as they fielded. Not unimportant that dimension, but how important? Victory in cricket is often a combined team effort …and in this match the key contributions were (A) the cracking opening partnership of 71 runs between Imrul Kayes and Soumya Sarkar, the performance with both bat and ball by Shakib al Hasan and the excellent bowling of Mustafizur Rahman.

Rahman celebrates a wicket ... as does Shakib al Hasan

Bangladesh in Sri Lanka T20I Series – 2nd T20I

Sri Lanka v Bangladesh

Bangladesh won by 45 runs

T20I no. 607 | 2016/17 season

Played at R Premadasa Stadium, Colombo

06 April 2017 – night match (20-over match)

Bangladesh innings (20 overs maximum)		R	B	4s	6s	SR
Imrul Kayes	run out (Tharanga/†MDKJ Perera)	36	25	4	1	144.00
Soumya Sarkar	c & b Gunaratne	34	17	4	2	200.00
Sabbir Rahman	b Sanjaya	19	18	0	1	105.55
Shakib Al Hasan	b Kulasekara	38	31	4	0	122.58
Mosaddek Hossain	b NLTC Perera	17	11	1	1	154.54
Mahmudullah	not out	4	5	0	0	80.00
Mushfiqur Rahim†	b Malinga	15	6	1	1	250.00
Mashrafe Mortaza*	b Malinga	0	1	0	0	0.00
Mehedi Hasan Miraz	lbw b Malinga	0	1	0	0	0.00
Mohammad Saifuddin	run out (Kulasekara)	6	5	1	0	120.00
Extras	(lb 2, w 5)	7
Total	(9 wickets; 20 overs)	176	(8.80 runs per over)

Did not batMustafizur Rahman

Fall of wickets 1-71 (Soumya Sarkar, 6.3 ov), 2-78 (Imrul Kayes, 7.5 ov), 3-124 (Sabbir Rahman, 13.1 ov), 4-139 (Shakib Al Hasan, 15.6 ov), 5-152 (Mosaddek Hossain, 17.1 ov), 6-169 (Mushfiqur Rahim, 18.3 ov), 7-169 (Mashrafe Mortaza, 18.4 ov), 8-169 (Mehedi Hasan Miraz, 18.5 ov), 9-176 (Mohammad Saifuddin, 19.6 ov)

Bowling	O	R	W	Econ	0s	4s	6s
SL Malinga	4	34	3	8.50	10	4	1	(1w)
KMDN Kulasekara	4	30	1	7.50	9	5	0
EMDY Munaweera	2	22	0	11.00	4	2	1	(3w)
JRMVB Sanjaya	3	32	1	10.66	4	1	2	(1w)
DAS Gunaratne	2	15	1	7.50	3	0	1
S Prasanna	2	17	0	8.50	2	2	0
NLTC Perera	3	24	1	8.00	5	1	1

Sri Lanka innings (target: 177 runs from 20 overs)		R	B	4s	6s	SR
MDKJ Perera†	b Shakib Al Hasan	4	2	1	0	200.00
EMDY Munaweera	c Mahmudullah b Shakib Al Hasan	4	3	1	0	133.33
WU Tharanga*	c Mehedi Hasan Miraz b Mahmudullah	23	21	3	0	109.52
CK Kapugedera	c Mehedi Hasan Miraz b Mustafizur Rahman	50	35	5	1	142.85
DAS Gunaratne	c Mosaddek Hossain b Mustafizur Rahman	0	1	0	0	0.00
TAM Siriwardana	c Soumya Sarkar b Mustafizur Rahman	0	1	0	0	0.00
NLTC Perera	st †Mushfiqur Rahim b Shakib Al Hasan	27	23	3	0	117.39
S Prasanna	b Mashrafe Mortaza	11	11	0	0	100.00
KMDN Kulasekara	not out	2	5	0	0	40.00
SL Malinga	b Mustafizur Rahman	0	3	0	0	0.00
JRMVB Sanjaya	c Mahmudullah b Mohammad Saifuddin	6	3	1	0	200.00
Extras	(lb 2, w 2)	4
Total	(all out; 18 overs)	131	(7.27 runs per over)

Fall of wickets 1-4 (MDKJ Perera, 0.2 ov), 2-19 (Munaweera, 2.3 ov), 3-40 (Tharanga, 4.5 ov), 4-40 (Gunaratne, 5.1 ov), 5-40 (Siriwardana, 5.2 ov), 6-98 (NLTC Perera, 12.5 ov), 7-119 (Prasanna, 15.5 ov), 8-123 (Kapugedera, 16.2 ov), 9-124 (Malinga, 16.6 ov), 10-131 (Sanjaya, 17.6 ov)

Bowling	O	R	W	Econ	0s	4s	6s
Shakib Al Hasan	4	24	3	6.00	9	2	0	(1w)
Mashrafe Mortaza	4	30	1	7.50	8	3	0
Mehedi Hasan Miraz	2	15	0	7.50	4	2	0
Mahmudullah	2	15	1	7.50	6	1	1
Mustafizur Rahman	3	21	4	7.00	9	3	0	(1w)
Mohammad Saifuddin	3	24	1	8.00	5	3	0

MATCH DETAILS

Toss – Bangladesh
Series – 2-match series drawn 1-1

T20I debut – Mehedi Hasan Miraz (Bangladesh)
Player of the match – Shakib Al Hasan (Bangladesh)
Player of the series – SL Malinga (Sri Lanka)

Umpires – REJ Martinesz and RSA Palliyaguruge
TV umpire – RR Wimalasiri
Match referee – AJ Pycroft (Zimbabwe)
Reserve umpire – WN de Silva

MATCH NOTES

Bangladesh innings
Powerplay: Overs 0.1 – 6.0 (Mandatory – 68 runs, 0 wicket)
Bangladesh: 50 runs in 4.5 overs (29 balls), Extras 4
1st Wicket: 50 runs in 29 balls (Imrul Kayes 28, Soumya Sarkar 18, Ex 4)
Bangladesh: 100 runs in 9.5 overs (59 balls), Extras 6
Bangladesh: 150 runs in 16.5 overs (101 balls), Extras 7
SL Malinga took a hat-trick with the wickets of Mushfiqur Rahim, Mashrafe Mortaza, Mehedi Hasan Miraz.
Innings Break: Bangladesh – 176/9 in 20.0 overs (Mahmudullah 4)

Sri Lanka innings
Powerplay: Overs 0.1 – 6.0 (Mandatory – 47 runs, 5 wickets)
Sri Lanka: 50 runs in 6.5 overs (41 balls), Extras 3
6th Wicket: 50 runs in 39 balls (CK Kapugedera 28, NLTC Perera 24, Ex 1)
Sri Lanka: 100 runs in 13.2 overs (80 balls), Extras 3
CK Kapugedera: 50 off 34 balls (5 x 4, 1 x 6)

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February 21, 2017 · 2:42 am

Melbourne Lankans felicitate SL Cricket Team

Quintus de Zylva

Thilanga and Samadara Sumathipala have been the strength behind Sri Lanka’s emergence as a T20 force to be reckoned with. The manner in which they humbled Australia at the MCG and in Geelong must surely have sent shivers up Cricket Australia.

Thilanga and Samadara nursed Lasith back in to a state in which he could believe in himself and provide the backbone to the team for inspiring successes in T20 cricket. His toe-crushing yorkers will be spoken about for many a year to come.

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Filed under cricket and life, cricket governance, cricket tamashas, cricketing icons, Lasith Malinga, Sri Lanka Cricket, T20 Cricket

February 19, 2017 · 11:55 pm

ASELA fades away from Mark Nicholas

For Asela, Henriques, Cummins, Rabada, Chris Morris et al are not a major concern, But Mark Nicholas is! He has a microphone and words of praise!

Yuk! Fearsome! Terrible?

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February 19, 2017 · 11:42 pm

Asela the Slayer

ASELA in Sinhala is pronounced “A-Say-La” … and living up to the implications of his name in English, he flayed and slayed the Aussies and Moises Henriques (that is “Hawnreeks” or something like that in Portuguese speech) for three sicxes in one over — doing a Dunkn really (that is, emulating Ben Dunk who dunked three sixes off a Munaweera over earlier in the day).