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Allan Donald, who has been elevated from bowling coach to head coach for Pune Warriors this year, has spelled out his expectations from the players in no uncertain terms

Amol Karhadkar31-Mar-2013Despite being around for two years in the Indian Premier League, Pune Warriors – the most expensive franchise in the event – seem to be struggling to find their feet. In both the editions they have featured in, they have finished near or at the bottom.No wonder then that their third successive season will see a new captain and coach going into the tournament. While both their previous coaches – Geoff Marsh in 2011 and Sourav Ganguly as captain-cum-mentor last year, when they participated without a head coach – were diplomatic ahead of they stints, Allan Donald, who has been elevated from bowling coach to head coach this year, spelled out his expectations from the players in no uncertain terms.Referring to his new role as “intimidating” in a tournament that moves “at a million miles per hour”, Donald, the former South Africa pace spearhead, urged the players to “care” for one another.”I am going to have a meeting with our overseas players on their own to explain their commitment to our cause for the next two months. Every one of those players wants to play. I would be disappointed if I wasn’t picked. But what is important for Pune Warriors is for everyone to be swimming up one stream, [and] not every way and direction like it went last year,” Donald said, referring to a disgruntled unit in the latter half of last year’s IPL.”And negativity spreads cancer. It does because it gets people talking, players talk among each other. And my message to the team is [to] be up front and honest. [This] is going to be the key. I am not here to make anyone promises.”That’s what this format requires. You just can’t be pleasing cricketers for the sake of it. I just want guys to be part of the team and helping each other out. The care factor for me is huge. I want guys to look after each other. That creates that relaxed environment that I talk about. That’s pretty much what I look for. How we gel as a team, how we grow as a team and how we care as a team is going to be the key for us.”In a season in which Pune Warriors tried out 23 players during the season, not many players were given a long rope. It led to team harmony going for a toss as the tournament progressed, and affected the team both on and off the field. Donald seems to have learned the lessons from the disappointing previous outing: “[I] don’t think last year was a great example for me. That was my first year, and I felt that at times, we were a bit gung-ho with our selection.”At times, [we tried] quick fixes, which didn’t work. I see that the teams that have been successful in the IPL have stuck with a certain group of players for a long period of time. And that’s what I intend to do.”Why fix [something] if it’s not broken? All coaches and teams are looking for early momentum and confidence, and we have to earn the right to do that first of all. The hard part about this competition is to get your nose in front. I am not looking far ahead. I am not looking at the semi-finals or anything like that. I just want to concentrate on every game, and on what we do in every game. If it doesn’t work and we go down fighting, so be it. To try and stick to certain processes is the key.”

Michael Carberry quietened lurking doubts about his fitness when he no longer needed the runner he had summoned the previous day

28-Apr-2012
ScorecardMichael Carberry, recalled to the England Lions squad for the match against the West Indies at Northampton next month, quietened any lurking doubts about his fitness when he no longer needed the runner he had summoned on the previous day because of the dual effects of cramp and a groin injury.Carberry took his overnight 73 not out to 84 as rain and bad light meant only 10 overs were bowled on the third day of Hampshire’s second division match with Leicestershire.With only one day remaining the match is heading for a draw. Hampshire are 217 for 4 from 55 overs, still 17 behind the Leicestershire first-innings total of 234 all out made on the first day and some of the second.

It’s hardly the most flamboyant clash given the two basement dwellers are pitted against each other, but this is an opportunity for the teams to get their campaign on track

The Preview by Jamie Alter23-Mar-2010

Match facts

Wednesday, March 24
Start time 2000 (1430 GMT)Yusuf Pathan hasn’t performed since his century, Shane Warne hasn’t performed at all•Associated Press

Big picture

It’s hardly the most flamboyant clash given the two basement dwellers are pitted against each other, but this is an opportunity for the teams to get their campaign on track. Kings XI Punjab are tied with Rajasthan Royals on two points, separated only by a minor difference in net run rate, with both picking up their maiden wins after three defeats. Rajasthan earned their first points with a disciplined fielding and bowling effort against an insipid Kolkata Knight Riders, and Punjab held their nerve to force a tie against Chennai Super Kings and then clinched the Super Over.Punjab’s IPL campaign has been hampered by the absence of their Australian players, either injured or unavailable, and the poor form of captains former and present, Yuvraj Singh and Kumar Sangakkara. The batting has not been imposing, the bowling toothless. But on a steamy Chennai night that turned from deplorable to delirious, their bowlers managed to convert a modest total into a mountain and procure a tense win in the Super Over. Now, with the arrivals of Brett Lee and Shaun Marsh, Punjab have another reason to believe they’ve turned the corner. Critics will argue that one win won’t cure Punjab’s frailties but it has given them a much-needed shot of enthusiasm, which Sangakkara and Yuvraj hoped would mark a change in their fortunes.Rajasthan have also been hurt by the absence of Shane Watson and injuries that ruled out Graeme Smith and Dimitri Mascarenhas. As a result, their batting has been poor and the bowling lacks the zing that a player of Watson’s ability brings, especially since Shaun Tait’s radar needs drastic fine-tuning. Worse, the middle order has not responded as a unit; their only win was put into motion by Abhishek Jhunjhunwala’s 45 and a debut innings from Adam Voges. Shane Warne has been an utter flop with the ball and his tinkering with the bowling attack – he’s opened with five different bowlers in four games – hasn’t yielded desired results. Warne has vocally and tactically shown a lot of faith in Yusuf Pathan, opening with his offspin successfully in the win over Kolkata, but the time has come for the likes of Michael Lumb, Tait, Munaf Patel and Naman Ojha to perform.

Team talk

The arrival of Lee and Marsh is immense for Punjab. As a precaution Punjab tested Lee in a practice match today and a final call on him and Marsh, who has also been sidelined by injury, will be taken before the game. If they are passed fit, expect the Aussie pair to slot right in at the top of the batting and bowling line-ups.Rajasthan might not want to tinker with the unit that secured a maiden victory, despite how disappointing Hampshire’s Lumb has been. He scored a duck in the last game but should continue at the top of the order in place of the absent Smith, until Watson arrives next month.

Previously…

Rajasthan won the first game played between these two sides in 2008, by six wickets, before Punjab hit back with a 41-run win. When they came up against each other in South Africa, Punjab beat Rajasthan by 27 runs before losing the second game by 78 runs.

In the spotlight

Yusuf Pathan: Yusuf has failed to get going since that 37-ball century in the first match. He can’t obviously be expected to score centuries each time he walks to the middle but, being Rajasthan’s main match-winner, he’s got to take stock of where his batting’s at. Yusuf has been exposed by the short ball in his last three innings.Piyush Chawla: The man – yes, he really is, so can the TV commentators stop referring to him as a youngster? – singled out by Sangakkara as “outstanding” needs to do something, anything. Chawla has taken two wickets in four games at an average of 52.00 and an economy-rate of 7.42. His variations have been limited, the batsmen haven’t been kept guessing, and the legbreak isn’t being crafted well enough.

Prime numbers

• Punjab have been the most successful batting side in the last five overs of a game. In four macthes they have scored 203 runs off 120 balls, losing 11 wickets. In that same period, Rajasthan have scored 173 while losing more wickets than any other team, 14.
• Rajasthan have conceded the least number of sixes in the last five overs, just three in four games.
• In six innings played by Swapnil Asnodkar, Naman Ojha and Paras Dogra – three of Rajasthan’s young Indian talents – they have scored a combined total of 157 runs at an average of 26.16.

The chatter

“Why would he return if he’s not fit? He’s raring to go. Good days are back.”
“The IPL is a bit [more] relaxed than ODIs or Tests and it will be easy for me after the injury.”

South Africa needed a little over two sessions to bundle Zimbabwe out and win by an innings

Himanshu Agrawal08-Jul-2025A complete mismatch of a Test in Bulawayo ended within two sessions on the third day, as Wiaan Mulder alone scored only 23 runs lesser than what Zimbabwe’s entire line-up managed across two innings. But even that happened when, at nine wickets down after being asked to follow-on, an outside edge off Wellington Masakadza dribbled away for four wide of the slips.The tenth-wicket stand between Masakadza and Tanaka Chivanga frustrated South Africa for nearly nine overs, but couldn’t prevent an innings defeat. South Africa comprehensively won by an innings and 236 runs to wrap the series 2-0 after confining Zimbabwe to their heaviest defeat by runs in the first Test of the series. It was South Africa’s tenth Test win on the trot, including their victory over Australia in the WTC 2025 final last month.Related

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• Mulder makes 367*, the fifth-highest individual Test score of all time

Zimbabwe started day three of the Bulawayo Test trailing by a massive 405 runs, with nine wickets in hand. While an innings defeat was inevitable given the deficit and the time remaining in the Test, a middle- and lower-order collapse of 6 for 31 after lunch hastened the eventual result.But before that, overnight batters Takudzwanashe Kaitano and Nick Welch negotiated the seven overs from Codi Yusuf and Corbin Bosch to start play by mostly blocking and leaving the deliveries. The first over of spin, though, got South Africa the breakthrough. Off his second ball, Senuran Muthusamy had Kaitano chipping to cover for 40 in the 24th over.Welch, at the other end, struggled to tick along. His first 45 balls fetched him only 14 runs, and one of his two boundaries came earlier in the day when he outside-edged Yusuf between third slip and gully. In the 26th over, however, Welch swung Muthusamy for a huge six down the ground. Next ball, he went for a hoick across the line, and the ball missed both the bat and the leg stump.But that didn’t prevent Welch from keeping his counterattack going. He punched Mulder wide of gully for four, had a difficult chance dropped by David Bedingham at backward point off Muthusamy, was beaten and nearly stumped next ball, and repeated his massive hit for six off Muthusamy – all these in the space of facing nine balls.It was Mulder’s Test, though, and come the 29th over, his heel was just within permissible limits as he cleaned Sean Williams up for 11. Welch slowed down after that wicket, looking content to push for singles and bat time. He raised his fifty just before lunch when he flicked Prenelan Subrayen for two to fine leg , before both Welch and Craig Ervine went unbeaten at the interval. At the time, Zimbabwe were still another 313 runs behind South Africa.However, Welch and Ervine didn’t last long enough. Muthusamy got a leading edge from Welch, who was caught by Mulder at slip for 55 in the third over after lunch. That began the slide, as 153 for 3 soon turned out to be 184 for 9. Yusuf got among the wickets when he trapped Wessly Madhevere in front for 5 in the 53rd over. Ervine and Tafadzwa Tsiga strung together plenty of dots as the scoring stalled, before Yusuf had Tsiga chipping to short midwicket to end his stay on 1 off 20 balls.At six down, Masakadza joined Ervine, and kept South Africa waiting for more. Masakadza edged one just short of second slip off his first ball, and had a tight stumping decision go his way. It was Bosch who ended the five-run union in almost six overs when he had Ervine edging behind for 49 to start the 65th over. Three balls later, Bosch bowled Kundai Matigimu for a duck to bag his third wicket. In the 69th, Bosch had Blessing Muzarabani edging to third slip without scoring, with Zimbabwe trailing by 272 runs.It was a matter of time before South Africa wrapped up victory, but while last man Tanaka Chivanga had some fun, Masakadza too hung around to annoy South Africa. Chivanga scored 22 off 26 balls, with three boundaries and a six, but was the last man to fall when Muthusamy had him top-edging to slip. Fittingly, it was Mulder who took the winning catch, having stood in as captain for this Test, and being named Player of the Match for his marathon 367* and Player of the Series for scoring 531 runs overall and bagging seven wickets.

Shreyanka has fractured the fourth finger on her left hand

ESPNcricinfo staff21-Jul-2024Shreyanka Patil has been ruled out of the women’s Asia Cup after picking up an injury to her left hand. A press release from the Asian Cricket Council on Saturday said the 21-year old India offspinner “sustained a fracture to the fourth finger of her left hand.”Shreyanka took a full part in the team’s only game of the tournament so far, against Pakistan on Friday, bowling 3.2 overs and picking up 2 for 14. She was not needed to bat with India wrapping up the win in 14.2 overs and with seven wickets to spare. Tanuja Kanwar, the uncapped 26-year-old left-arm spinner who plays for Gujarat Giants in the WPL and Railways in domestic cricket, has been called up as replacement.Shreyanka made her debut for India in December 2023 on the back of impressive performances in the WPL. This year, she went on to become champion with Royal Challengers Bengaluru in a season where she took 13 wickets – the most by any bowler – at an average of 12.07 and an economy rate of 7.30. Shreyanka has played 12 T20Is for India and has gone wicketless in only two of those games. She’s also represented her country in three ODIs.Kanwar, born in Himachal Pradesh, also made a big splash in the WPL. She was bought by the Giants in 2023 for INR 50 lakh. A week before that auction she had starred with 3 for 26 for Railways in the One Day Trophy final to finish the tournament with 18 wickets while averaging 11.16 and conceding just 2.43 runs an over. Kanwar finished the 2024 WPL season with 10 wickets from eight matches at an average of 20.70 and an economy rate of 7.13. She is known for a variation where she bowls her left-arm spin from well behind the popping crease.India’s next match at the women’s Asia Cup is on Sunday against the UAE in Dambulla.

Duckett, Crawley reach fifties as England close in on Ireland’s modest first-innings total

Valkerie Baynes01-Jun-2023 is a TV quiz show in which contestants must guess the most obscure answer to each question, an answer that’s right but which no member of the public surveyed by the show has thought of. But it was Stuart Broad who provided the most obvious solution of all amid the murmurings that there was little point to this Test – as evidenced by Ireland’s undeniable focus on World Cup qualification and England’s understandable caution with their thinning seam-bowling stocks and eagerness to experiment in that department.It would be impossible to argue to Broad that a third five-wicket haul at Lord’s – his first at this ground in a decade – carries zero meaning, just as it would be to tell England that any kind of rehearsal for their upcoming Ashes campaign is pointless. In the same way, it would be futile to tell Ireland that if they are to boost their Test experience – still only seven matches old – that there’s no point turning up. The international season has to start somewhere, so it might as well be here and now, right?Broad’s 5 for 51 restricted Ireland to 172 after they were sent in to bat under overcast skies by a side that loves to chase. The total fell short of Ireland’s first innings the last time these sides met at Lord’s, four summers ago, when they then bowled England out for 85 in their reply before capitulating for just 38 in the fourth innings and the hosts won by 143 runs.Related

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By stumps on the opening day, after the cloud cover had given way to baking sunshine by lunchtime, England had closed the gap to just 20 runs in assertive fashion with nine wickets in hand. Zak Crawley reached fifty off just 39 balls before he perished to a juggled return catch by Fionn Hand, on debut as Ireland’s third seamer, Crawley’s 11 fours comprising some exquisite cover drives interspersed by some streaky inside edges. Ben Duckett reached his own half-century off 53 balls and remained unbeaten on 60 at the close, joined by Ollie Pope on 29.Broad took a flurry of three wickets in the space of eight balls to leave Ireland floundering at 19 for 3 early in the morning session and claimed two more, shortly after lunch and early in the evening session, as James McCollum, Curtis Campher and Paul Stirling all made it into the 30s but failed to press on. McCollum was patient, Campher spirited and Stirling enterprising but the task was too big, and arguably made even bigger by the well-publicised absence of Josh Little, their best bowler who is resting after the IPL and before next month’s 50-over World Cup Qualifier in Zimbabwe as well as the European T20 World Cup Qualifier in Scotland a month later.With his usual new-ball partner James Anderson sitting out to manage his return from a groin problem ahead of the Ashes, Broad opened the bowling with Matthew Potts and while the latter probed impressively, it was Broad broke through with the second ball of his third over, a fuller one which pitched a fraction outside off stump then angled back beautifully as PJ Moor walked across his stumps and was struck halfway up his front pad in line with middle and leg.Crawley pulled off an excellent dive from second slip to snaffle Andy Balbirnie’s outside edge as the Ireland captain departed for a five-ball duck and Broad claimed his second. Harry Tector followed two balls later, advancing to Broad and tucking the ball straight to Potts at leg slip.Broad thought he had a fourth wicket immediately, as did umpire Paul Wilson, when he struck Stirling flush on the front pad as he played across the line, but Stirling survived on review when ball-tracking showed it to be missing leg stump by a whisker.Debutant Josh Tongue, the Worcestershire seamer originally drafted as injury cover for Anderson and Ollie Robinson, who is also being kept on ice after hurting his ankle playing for Sussex, replaced Broad from the Pavilion End in the 11th over and tested McCollum immediately, sending down twin maidens to begin with. He conceded 40 runs off 13 wicketless overs but he bowled excellent line and length while finding extra bounce and carry.Stuart Broad leads England off the field•Gareth Copley/Getty Images

McCollum survived an England review for caught behind off a Tongue short ball which beat his inside edge, nipped back sharply and just evaded the bat as it sailed over the stumps, brushing his thigh pad instead. By lunch, he had faced 93 deliveries for his 29 not out, whereas Stirling reached 30 off 35 balls, including back-to-back fours off Tongue among his five boundaries, before he shaped to sweep Jack Leach and the ball looped off his glove to a waiting Jonny Bairstow, back behind the stumps after nine months out of international cricket with a broken leg.Broad struck again in the fifth over after lunch as McCollum edged to Joe Root at slip and he bowled Mark Adair with an excellent inswinger that clipped the top of off stump as Ireland lurched to 169 for 8 shortly after tea.Campher fell advancing on Leach and missing as the ball rattled his stumps to give the England spinner his third and Potts claimed his second wicket, having broken a 38-run stand between Campher and Andy McBrine, when he had Hand caught behind to wrap up the innings.

Steps down to allow independent investigation into alleged anti-semitic social media posts

ESPNcricinfo staff03-Dec-2022Azeem Akhtar, the new chair of Essex, has stepped down after just three days in the role, ahead of an independent review into his social media activity.The appointment of Akhtar, Essex’s first minority-ethnic chair, was this week hailed by the club as a “new beginning”, 12 months on from the controversial departure of the former chair, John Faragher, who continues to deny that he used racist language in a board meeting in 2017.Instead, however, the club has been plunged back into turmoil, following revelations in the Jewish Chronicle that Akhtar had ‘liked’ anti-Semitic posts on Twitter, including one that compared Israel to Nazi Germany.He had been due to take over from John Stephenson, the chief executive who has been interim chair since Faragher’s departure last November. However, Sir Stephen O’Brien, Akhtar’s deputy, will now stand in as interim.”I have taken the decision today to voluntarily step aside as chair of Essex County Cricket Club while an independent review takes place into recent matters that have been raised,” Akhtar said in a club statement.”I have made the decision to initiate this review because it is important that I as Chair and Essex County Cricket Club more widely hold ourselves to the highest standards of governance and accountability. By stepping aside, I want to show leadership and ensure the club can focus on the ongoing challenges it is tackling.”I am resolutely committed to ensuring that Essex County Cricket Club is an inclusive and welcoming environment for people of all backgrounds.”It’s a further embarrassment for Essex, who were fined £50,000 by the Cricket Discipline Commission last summer following Faragher’s departure, and were further found to have fallen “significantly short” of the diversity targets set by the ECB, which stipulated that county boards needed to feature 30% female representation and “locally representative ethnicity” by the end of April 2022. Akhtar’s departure exacerbates that shortfall.In the wake of Azeem Rafiq’s whistleblowing testimony about his treatment at Yorkshire, Essex had also been implicated in separate racism allegations, with former players Maurice Chambers, Zoheb Sharif and Jahid Ahmed all stating that they were victims of abuse during their playing days. A report on those claims is expected after the club appointed an independent QC to investigate.

Parthiv Patel, Vinay Kumar and James Franklin are part of the coaching staff too, while Robin Singh is the general manager – cricket

ESPNcricinfo staff17-Sep-2022Shane Bond, the bowling coach at Mumbai Indians in the IPL since 2015 – a job he will continue to do – has been named head coach of MI Emirates, the Mumbai Indians-owned team in UAE’s ILT20. The staff also has Parthiv Patel [batting coach] and Vinay Kumar [bowling coach] making their debuts as coaches, and James Franklin will be the fielding coach. Additionally, Robin Singh will be the general manager of cricket.While the fixtures for the ILT20 are not out yet, the tournament will be played in the same January-February 2023 window as the SA20 league in South Africa. That required the Mumbai Indians group to appoint multiple coaching teams, since they have teams in both the competitions.With the latest round of appointments, that exercise is complete.Related

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Mark Boucher, who will step down from his position as the head coach of the South Africa men’s national team at the end of the team’s campaign at the upcoming T20 World Cup in Australia, has been signed up to be the head coach at Mumbai Indians in the IPL.That position opened up after Mahela Jayawardene, the Mumbai Indians head coach since 2017, was elevated to a more global role within the Mumbai Indians group. Jayawardene has been made the group’s global head of performance. He will be overseeing the scouting and coaching of all three teams that the owners have – at the IPL, the ILT20, and the SA20. And Zaheer Khan, earlier the director of cricket operations, has been made the global head of cricket development for the three teams.Simon Katich, meanwhile, has been made the head coach of MI Cape Town, the SA20 team. Katich will be assisted by Hashim Amla as the batting coach, while Robin Peterson will be the team’s general manager. James Pamment will take charge as fielding coach [and continue in the same role with Mumbai Indians at the IPL too].MI Emirates have Kieron Pollard, Trent Boult and Dwayne Bravo, among others, in their roster of non-UAE [overseas] players already.”Having been an integral part of MI for various periods of time, the coaching team is exceptionally well-versed in the values that make MI what it is,” Akash Ambani, chairman of Reliance Jio Infocomm, which owns the three teams, said in a statement.For his part, Bond said, “It’s always exciting to build a new team and I’m looking forward to furthering the MI legacy and inspiring our players to take the game to new heights.”Bond, the former New Zealand quick, has been a part of the coaching set-up of a number of teams in the past. Apart from being the New Zealand bowling coach and part of the team’s backroom staff at various stages, he has also been the head coach at Sydney Thunder in the BBL, a position he held between 2018 and 2021. He has also been part of the England team as a bowling consultant in the past.

Both teams were also fined 40% of their match fee by match referee Chris Broad

ESPNcricinfo staff11-Aug-2021England and India have been fined two World Test Championship points each for their slow over-rates during the first Test in Nottingham, which ended as a rain-affected draw on Sunday. Both teams were also fined 40% of their match fee by match referee Chris Broad.The teams now take two points each out of the Test match, instead of the four they would normally get for a draw under the new points system for the 2021-23 WTC cycle.Related

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“As a team we were not pleased we lost two points because of factors that were definitely in our control,” India captain Virat Kohli said on Wednesday. “We were short by two overs, but we made up quite a few overs in that second innings. we basically have to keep up to speed with the pace of the game – small little things where we can save 10-15 seconds, that really matters, we practised that in the second innings and we were able to cover up three to four overs. You don’t want to be that far behind in the game that you are not able then to not to catch up and cover your overs in time, as the points are very, very crucial.”A major factor behind the slow over rates was both teams opting for pace-heavy attacks owing to the seam-and-swing-friendly pitch and overhead conditions at Trent Bridge. England picked four fast bowlers and no spinners, and India four fast bowlers and one spinner, Ravindra Jadeja. In the end, the quicks sent down all but 16 of the 250.2 overs bowled during the Test match.The match was also beset by frequent rain interruptions, while the completion of overs was also delayed by batters not being ready to face. As light worsened on the second afternoon, KL Rahul took his time to get into his position against James Anderson. England’s batters, meanwhile, also made Mohammed Siraj wait on more than one occasion.Over-rate-related points deductions could prove costly to teams during the WTC. In the inaugural 2019-21 cycle, Australia were docked four points for their slow over rate during the 2020 Boxing Day Test against India in Melbourne. It ultimately cost them a place in the final, which instead went to eventual champions New Zealand.

The series may be over, but West Indies will be hoping to score their first ODI win in Sri Lanka since 2005

The Preview by Andrew Fidel Fernando29-Feb-2020

Big Picture

For both these teams, ODIs are perhaps their weakest format. Neither gave themselves a great chance of making the semi-finals in last year’s World Cup, and both have poor bilateral form, winning only two of their 10 previous series. As Sri Lanka move to the dead rubber at Pallekele after winning the series in Hambantota, however, they may feel they are the more resurgent outfit.The second ODI was almost the perfect game – one of their openers hit a hundred, and a middle-order man joined him for a record-breaking partnership that came at better than a run-a-ball. Both those batsmen are relatively young – 25 and 21. Then the spinners did what Sri Lanka’s coaches hoped they would – take wickets through the middle overs, after the seamers had produced an opening earlier on.West Indies, meanwhile, had an outing captain Kieron Pollard later described as “pretty, pretty poor”. Although their quicks have at times seemed penetrative through the course of the series, both bowling efforts so far have been plagued with indiscpline. At Sooriyawewa, West Indies bowled 10 wides and two no-balls. At the SSC a few days before that, they had delivered 14 wides and one no ball. Beyond just the extra runs and deliveries, these stats are indications that even when West Indies are not conceding extras, their bowlers may not have quite found their lines. In the second ODI especially, there were easy runs into the legside for almost the entirety of Sri Lanka’s innings.Pallekele, though, generally offers the most seam-friendly ODI surface in the country. Perhaps West Indies’ phalanx of fast bowlers will be more effective there. But that’s only if they put enough balls in testing areas.

Form guide

West Indies LLWWW (completed matches, most recent first)
Sri Lanka WWLLW

In the spotlight

Wanindu Hasaranga had a good finish to 2019, but he has been outstanding across disciplines in the first two ODIs of 2020. Having won the match with the bat on Sunday, he was lethal with his googly on Wednesday, taking 3 for 30. Having hunted so long for a reliably penetrative middle-overs spinner, Sri Lanka finally have a long-term prospect on their hands. Unlike spin-prospects that came before him, Hasaranga should have no issues with his action.West Indies’ spin options, meanwhile, have been less impressive. On the same track that Sri Lanka’s spinners would later go on to get six wickets, neither left-arm spinner Fabian Allen nor offspinner Roston Chase could get a wicket. That they only bowled six overs apiece is also a reflection of the fact that Sri Lanka’s batsmen looked utterly comfortable against them. Before the series, Pollard expressed confidence in a light-on-spin strategy, suggesting that Sri Lanka are good players of spin, so it may be better not to feed their strength. Sri Lanka, though, have actually not covered themselves in glory against slow bowling over the last few years.

Team news

West Indies may be tempted to bring back legspinner Hayden Walsh Jr, who at least took wickets at the SSC, although he was expensive.West Indies(possible): 1 Sunil Ambris, 2 Shai Hope (wk), 3 Darren Bravo, 4 Roston Chase, 5 Nicholas Pooran, 6 Kieron Pollard (capt.), 7 Jason Holder, 8 Keemo Paul, 9 Hayden Walsh Jr., 10 Alzarri Joseph, 11 Sheldon CottrellSri Lanka will toy with the idea of bringing Dasun Shanaka in for a match. If the pitch looks like they won’t need an extra spin option, they may leave out Dhananjaya de Silva to make room. Lahiru Kumara could come in for Nuwan Pradeep as well.Sri Lanka (possible): 1 Dimuth Karunaratne (capt.), 2 Avishka Fernando, 3 Kusal Perera, 4 Kusal Mendis, 5 Angelo Mathews, 6 Dhananjaya de Silva/Dasun Shanaka, 7 Thisara Perera, 8 Wanindu Hasaranga, 9 Isuru Udana, 10 Lakshan Sandakan, 11 Nuwan Pradeep/Lahiru Kumara

Pitch and conditions

There can be seam movement with the new ball in Pallekele, particularly under lights. It is not expected to rain on Sunday, but you never can tell for sure at this venue.

Stats and trivia

• West Indies have lost each of their last eight ODIs in Sri Lanka. The last time they won a match here was back in 2005, when Shivnarine Chanderpaul was captain.
• Kieron Pollard has been especially modest on the island. After six innings, he’s scored just 17 runs an an average of 2.83. He’s never taken a wicket in Sri Lanka either.
• Avishka Fernando and Shai Hope – both openers – have each hit a hundred and a fifty in the series.

Quotes

“Within the next 18 months or so, we need to be among the best four teams in all formats. That’s vision of every member of the team.”Lakshan Sandkan outlines Sri Lnaka’s long-term vision.