All posts by csb10.top

Multan’s hot weather festival for the Asian Test Championship match with Bangladesh ended with Pakistan’s fabulous victory by an innings and 264 runs. As forecast by the majority of cricket observers, the one-sided contest finished in less than two and a half days.The feature of the last morning’s play was a magical spell of bowling by young leg spinner Danish Kaneria who claimed 6 wickets for 52 and a short but spirited spell of fast bowling by skipper Waqar Younis who claimed 4 for 19. Pakistan would have won the contest anyway but the combination of pace and spin made the job easy.Bangladesh batting proved too fragile. Except for some bold resistance offered by Habibul Bashar who remained unbeaten with a valiant 56 and a defiant innings of 31 by Hasibul Hossain, the remaining batsmen came and returned to the pavilion without making a tangible contribution. This made them crumble for 148 runs.Earlier Bangladesh resumed the 2nd innings at the overnight score of 55 for 3 facing a big 1st innings deficit. Playing the sheet anchor role, Habibul Bashar kept one end intact while wickets continued to fall from the other.Danish Kaneria mesmerised the batsmen with his guile dominating the whole show. With the spin that he generated from a flat pitch, he proved too good for the young and upcoming Bangladesh batsmen and augurs well for Pakistan in future.Kaneria was deservedly chosen `Man of the Match’. Another notable feature of the day was 4 excellent catches held by Younis Khan, who substituted for Inzamam-ul-Haq in the field.The match was very one sided and indicates that Bangladesh needs to put in a big effort to raise the standards of cricket in the country if they desire to achieve a respectable position in the mainstream of test cricket.As for organising the match, Multan’s cricket association as well as the civil administration deserve bouquets for putting up a grand show. The cricket fans also deserve a pat for coming out to witness the match in such scorching heat.

The three day Central Zone Cooch Behar (under-19) match between Rajasthanand Madhya Pradesh ended in a thrilling draw at the Mansarovar stadium inJaipur on Tuesday.Ahead by nine runs on the first innings, MP were all out for 136in their second knock. Opening bowler Naresh Gehlot was the wreckerin chief taking five wickets for 19 off 22 overs. MP were at onestage 68 for one, thanks to a second wicket stand of 55 runs off16.4 overs between Sachin Dholpur (31) and Mohnish Mishra (29).But the remaining batsmen offered little resistance.Rajasthan had to get 146 runs for victory in 29 overs and thoughthey lost wickets at regular intervals, they maintained a briskscoring rate. Opener Vivek Sharma (23 off 19 balls), Ankiush Singh(39 off 52 balls), Tahir Khan (25 off 31 balls) and Vivek Yadav(19 not out off 11 balls) all did their best to get Rajasthan nearthe target. Ultimately, they fell four runs short, finishing on 142for seven. Ambalal Patidar, with three for 54 off eleven overs, wasthe most successful bowler.

Australia overcame its most expensive bowling spell in history, an umpiring blunder, a Shoaib Akhtar thunderbolt, disrupted sleep and a world record partnership from Pakistan to win a riveting one-day match at SophiaGardens today.Chasing 257, Ricky Ponting cracked 70 – as Akhtar became the fastest bowler in the world ahead of Brett Lee with a delivery clocked at 97.7mph – to lead the tourists to a seven-wicket victory with 26 balls to spare.Pakistani supporters, who invaded the pitch at Edgbaston on Thursday, dared not repeat their unruly performance here because the on-field action was too entertaining to disrupt.Lee, in his first game at any level since an elbow reconstruction in February, went for 1-85 as Yousuf Youhana (91no) and Rashid Latif (66) rescued Pakistan from 6-85 with the highest seventh-wicket stand the abbreviated form of the game has seen.He had the unwanted distinction of wiping Glenn McGrath, who conceded 1-76 against Sri Lanka at the MCG in January 1996, from the record books, but the 24-year-old bowled better than his figures suggested.Youhana and Latif’s stand of 124 from 127 balls gave Pakistan a healthy total but Ponting, unrecognisable from the man who could not get bat on ball in the Tests against India, was magnificent.The first two balls he faced from Akhtar went for boundaries, as did five of his first 14 deliveries, and his knock was instrumental in Australia reaching 3-258.A pull shot off Akhtar sizzled over the boundary rope, bounced against the brick wall of the members bar and was travelling so fast it rebounded ten metres back onto the field.Ponting played a frustratingly loose shot off Saqlain Mushtaq that went straight down Abdur Razzaq’s throat at long-on, but Michael Bevan (56no) and Steve Waugh (54no) guided Australia home.Akhtar cut Gilchrist in half with a superb delivery that knocked back his stumps but video replays suggested it was a no-ball, less than a week after four such decisions went against England in the second Test against Pakistan.The previous ball of 97.7mph was sliced for four by the Australian vice-captain and as always, there was much debate about the accuracy of the speed gun.Lee’s fastest is 97.56mph in a one-day game versus South Africa at Johannesburg last year.As the team bus drives 90 minutes from Cardiff to Bristol for tomorrow’s clash with England, the Australian players will be hoping for a better night’s sleep than they had in the Welsh capital.Troublemakers set off fire alarms in the team hotel about six times between midnight and 1am, waking every player each time.Lee’s inclusion in the Australian side was announced only 15 minutes before play began and two weeks after officialdom declared “under no circumstances” would he take part in the one-day tournament.Niggling injuries to Jason Gillespie (hamstring), Nathan Bracken (shoulder) and Damien Fleming (calf) forced the tour selection panel of Waugh and Gilchrist to call on Lee.His first five overs of 1-29 were commendable given his four-month layoff but Youhana and Latif tore him to pieces, snatching 37 runs from the 24-year-old’s last three overs.Warne (3-52) struck twice in his first four balls to rekindle memories of his famous start to the Ashes series in 1993 but like Lee, his figures were spoiled by Youhana and Latif.Warne’s opening ball of the one-day tournament snuck between Razzaq’s legs and although Gilchrist fumbled the stumping chance, the ball knocked off the bails and Razzaq was gone.Akhtar left the field after bowling five overs for 1-41 and did not return.

• It was the 1735th ODI in cricket history.
• It was New Zealand’s 380th and Sri Lanka’s 356th match- 48th betweenthese two sides. The record now reads : Sri Lanka 19, New Zealand26,tied one and abandoned 2.
• It was the 100th match on Sri Lankan soil. Sri Lanka became countryafter Australia (386), India (219) ,England (202), United ArabEmirates (174), New Zealand (161), Pakistan (132) and South Africa(105) to host 100 or more ODI matches.
• Umpires LV Jayasundra and DN Pathirana were officiating in their fifthand 10th match respectively.
• Sanath Jayasuriya, leading Sri Lanka for the 54th time in his career,completed his 2000 runs as captain. He became second Sri Lankan afterArjuna Ranatunga and 13th captain in ODIs to achieve this landmark.The accompanying table has details :

• Craig McMillan , on 5,completed his 2000 runs in ODIs. He was playinghis 89th match and 83rd innings. He became 12th New Zealander and 94thbatsman in all to do so.
• The wicket of Vincent was 50th for Muttiah Muralitharan on Sri Lankansoil. He became second Sri Lankan after Sanath Jayasuriya (74 wicketsin 60 matches) to do so.
• Adam Parare was scoring a fifty after 61 matches. His last fifty hadalso come against Sri Lanka (54 at Dhaka on October 26,1998). It wasthe fourth fifty by a New Zealander wicketkeeper against Sri Lanka.All four have been scored by Parore !
• During his innings, Parore also completed his 2000 runs in `away’matches for New Zealand. He became fourth New Zealander to do so afterMartin Crowe (2820 runs in 86 matches), John Wright (2752 runs in 106matches) and Stephen Fleming (2344 runs in 90 matches).
• The two wickets in this match has taken Muralitharan’s tally to 32 inthe year 2001 which makes him the bowler with most wickets in onedayers along with Pakistan’s Waqar Younis (32 in 16) and Australia’sShane Warne (32 in 18). This was Murali’s 18th match in year 2001.
• The defeat was New Zealand’s 50th under Stephen Fleming’s captaincy.Fleming became first New Zealander and fifth captain in ODIs toachieve this dubious distinction. Others to do so are Sri LankanArjuna Ranatunga (95 losses in 193 matches), Indian MohammadAzharuddin (76 losses in 174 matches),Australian Allan Border (67losses in 178 matches) and Pakistani Imran Khan (59 losses in 139matches). However all other four captains had won more matches thanthe matches they lost.
• Sanath Jayasuriya was winning his 26th Man of the Match award. Withthis he equalled West Indian Desmond Haynes’ tally of awards. Now onlyIndia’s Sachin Tendukar (41),West Indian Viv Richards (31), PakistaniSaeed Anwar (27) and former teammate Aravinda de Silva (27) are aheadof Jayasuriya in this form of cricket.

As they have crashed headlong from one disaster to the next in this Test series against Australia, West Indies’ batsmen have been spectacularly undone by a differentbowler every time. Only fair on his home ground, then, that it should be the turn of leg spinner Stuart MacGill to loom large in the disappointing slide that saw thetourists finish at 9/256 on a fascinating opening day of the Fifth Test here at the Sydney Cricket Ground today.Following a lacklustre start, MacGill (7/92) went within a whisker of returning best ever figures in a career that has produced a fine bowling average but beenaccompanied by a general lack of opportunity too. In fifteen Tests prior to this one, he had taken sixty-eight wickets at less than twenty-five runs apiece. Yet thestrength of the Australian attack and, more specifically, the presence of Shane Warne has made his appearances at the elite level fleeting. He was far from a certaintyeven to play here; paceman Andy Bichel, in the end, unluckily omitted because of the suspicion that the pitch at the remodelled SCG will increasingly yield to spin inthis game. This despite the fact that the Queenslander had produced a five wicket haul of his own in the Test that preceded this one.The decision to re-include MacGill in the eleven proved a heady one. In a devastating burst on either side of tea, he struck seven times. And in so doing, he reducedthe tourists from a position of command at 0/147 to one resembling a far more familiar complexion at 8/240.With the exception of the scalp of Jimmy Adams (10) – who fell palpably lbw to Glenn McGrath (1/43) – he took each of the first eight West Indian wickets to fall.Admittedly, he was helped by a freakish catch by Mark Waugh at slip to remove Brian Lara (35) and by two highly dubious decisions from Umpire Darrell Hairwhich accounted for Marlon Samuels (28) and Nixon McLean (0). But he plied his trade well. On an occasion which represented a curious mixture of past andpresent – this match helps mark the one hundred year anniversary of Federation in Australia – he turned back the clock too. Reminders were provided of both theSCG Test against England two years ago (the match in which he produced that current Test best of 7/50) and to Sydney Tests of the 1980s, when West Indiantorment against the spinning ball was a regular sight.In many ways, this was a day of two halves. Before a packed, good-natured crowd of 40880, Australia had actually been outplayed initially. In fact, the first day ofTest cricket in a new year – depending on your particular perspective, maybe even the first of a new millennium – seemed to be illustrating that a new sense of resolvehad permeated the West Indians’ outlook too. There was a good piece of fortune at the start of the day when a coin fell on its correct side, giving them the chance tobat first on a pitch offering the Australian fast bowlers less bounce and pace with which to work than at probably any other time in the series. And then there was anoutstanding partnership to follow – a record-breaker for the opening wicket to be precise.Brought together by an ankle injury to Daren Ganga – the former’s regular opening partner in this series – the makeshift opening combination of Sherwin Campbell(79) and Wavell Hinds (70) generated a stand of 147. It was one that had the Australian attack looking a shadow of the outfit that had previously run through theWest Indian top order with regular abandon this summer.Through the opening passages of the day’s play, Campbell had looked shaky. He experienced a good stroke of fortune early (with his score at six, in fact) whenJason Gillespie (0/44) spilled a low caught and bowled chance. He also survived a beseeching lbw appeal against the same bowler two runs later, and would havebeen run out for eighteen if a throw from Justin Langer at mid wicket had hit the stumps. There were also more of the plays and misses at McGrath that have beenhis trademark during the summer. But the narrow escapes seemed to represent the change in fortune that he needed.A brace of powerful, well-timed strokes to both sides of the wicket ensued as the West Indian vice captain sought to take his game to a more attacking level than theone that had hitherto reaped the miserable aggregate of fifty-four Test runs for the entire summer. In the end, it was a surprise to see him misread a MacGill leg breakan hour after lunch; lift a catch back to the bowler at just below knee height; and put the cap on a partnership that represented a West Indies all-time best for the firstwicket in Tests in Sydney.While he accumulated his runs more slowly, Hinds also played well. His batting also pointed to new-found resolve and, more particularly, to disciplined judgementon and around the line of off stump. Several times in this series he has been dismissed courtesy of playing well away from his body. The same flaw was rarely spottedtoday.At that stage, the surface seemed to be offering far less in the way of assistance to the bowlers than the others that have already been used in the series and theAustralians accordingly struggled to look inspired. Gillespie’s early miss also set the stage for an uncharacteristically sloppy overall exhibition in the field with severalwayward returns to wicketkeeper Adam Gilchrist featuring. Waugh clutched a remarkable catch low to the ground in between two fingers on his left hand;otherwise, instances of errors in the field easily outweighed evidence of brilliance.But that was all before MacGill, and the unlucky Colin Miller (1/69), combined to make the surface look a more devilish beast. Fizzing turn, fizzing bounce, and thesight of a succession of batsmen shuffling back to the pavilion predominated after that.

The ICC Americas’ high performance consultant Tom Evans has said the ICC is hoping to encourage players from mainstream sports to give cricket a look, after two former National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) athletes – a baseball player and a lacrosse player – were included in a list of 83 names for phase one of the ICC Americas Cricket Combine in September.Kyle Netheary, who was offered an NCAA Division One baseball scholarship to Central Arkansas in 2008, and Ryan Carter, who played four years for Butler University’s lacrosse team from 2003-06, were two of the 83 names invited to the trial. Speaking to ESPNcricinfo after the list was announced, Evans said that although the pair might not have lengthy cricket credentials, he felt this trial was the perfect opportunity to think outside the box for player recruitment.”I think it’s probably worth taking a punt to see how the transfer of skills could potentially look and see how they go in some of the testing,” Evans told ESPNcricinfo. “Particularly with a baseball guy like Kyle some of the fielding testing we do and potentially the batting testing, although against a bouncing ball he may struggle a little bit. But it’s also to encourage that opportunities lie for people who have played college sports and have played other sports that they can make a transition to cricket if that’s what they want to do in time.”I think it’s exciting to see that someone is willing to take that step and hopefully it could be the first of many down the track. They were the only two really that we had that were sort of from left field and we thought that this was an opportunity to see some of that skill transfer and see how it might potentially go. But it’s nice to have a couple of guys who are interested in it from other sports.”Evans said he first discussed the issue with the six regional coaches who will be involved in the camp as talent evaluators and coaching development staff, and said the proposal received “near-unanimous” support from everyone. When asked if he thought it might rub some other players at the camp the wrong way, Evans said he hoped all invitees would keep an open mind regarding “skills transfer”.”I don’t know how some of the guys will react but even just in putting that to the coaching group that there were two guys from outside of the sport that I suggested might be worth a bit of a punt.”I think everyone agreed that it was a good idea to have a look at that and something we’d hope to see more of, particularly in North America but in other countries as well – the transfer from other sports to cricket – and hopefully that can be a bit of a trailblazer for other guys from other sports. It’s exciting to see how they track and how they go. They may be very raw but hopefully it’s something that could encourage some more of that in the future.”Separately, the first weekend of the tournament will feature 14 former national team representatives for USA at the U-15 and U-19 levels who haven’t yet been able to make the transition into the senior team. Evans was pleased with the number of applications he received from young talent and felt this may be an opportunity for them to show they haven’t been forgotten since the phasing out of junior cricket.”Hopefully it gives them a bit of incentive to feel like there is still an opportunity to impress. I think it’s hard sometimes in such a big country to get opportunities to impress with what’s happened in the past. So hopefully this gives them a little extra motivation and a bit of extra vision from a number of eyes as to what they have to offer.”I think it is relatively normal in most systems that there is a bit of a logjam after U-19s because there’s only 14 senior spots and every two years there’s an U-19 team picked. So it’s probably a little bit normal that there’s a few there but hopefully this gives them the added motivation to kick on and prove that they’re ready for the next level.”In addition to many of the fringe national players that have been floating around the USA cricket circuit for the last several years in the main playing areas like New York and Los Angeles, several players from neglected areas were also included in the trial. A host of players from Massachusetts – Sharaz Baksh, Jaideep Reddy and Pratik Dudhane – one player from Minnesota, Pavan Kumar Chakravarthy, and another from Kentucky, Mohsin Kapadia, have also been invited.Evans says it is the lesser known players that he is most eager to see at the trial. Rather than the established names who have been in and out of the national team, the wildcard selections more closely follow what seems to be the broad theme of this initiative in casting a wide net to see what talent the ICC might uncover.”We know there are some really good players in this list that we are pretty confident that would be close to the mark. But it’s probably more the players we don’t know so much about that I’m excited to see.”So I think there’s certainly some exciting talent there but you don’t know until you see them in a pressure situation and that’ll be exciting to have them tested on their skills and fitness but also tested in some game situations to see how they react under pressure.”

Scorecard and ball-by-balls detailsFast bowler Nathan Coulter-Nile and legspinner Cameron Boyce shared five wickets but South Africa A being restricted to 171 was largely a result of their own poor batting. The chase then was rather matter of fact. Australia A won by nine wickets with 19 overs to spare, earning a bonus point to boot.Most of the South Africa A players are coming together after an off-season and they did not look prepared. They had a 10-day camp at home in the hope of getting themselves game-ready and then a few hits in the nets in Chennai. But come game time, the slowness of the pitch provided too many problems.After South Africa A elected to bat, Dean Elgar and his opening partner Reeza Hendricks managed well enough, adding 71 runs. But the other nine could only cobble 77 more and needed a leg up from the 23 extras. There were no fifties and 186 out of the 292 deliveries they faced were dot balls. Only two batsmen managed a strike rate above 60 and they could not last the 50 overs. Not the most ideal audition with the senior team set for a 72-day tour of India in October.Australia A openers Usman Khawaja and Joe Burns, on the other hand, waltzed to their fifties and knocked 142 runs off the target themselves. They stroked 16 boundaries between them.Hardus Viljoen was smeared for a hat-trick of fours in the sixth over as Khawaja put away ordinary deliveries – a wide one driven through extra cover, one on leg stump whipped through midwicket, and a short one crunched through point. Lonwabo Tsotsobe was clattered for successive fours by Khawaja in the next over and in the eighth, bowled by first-change bowler Beuran Hendricks, Burns benefited from easy pickings: two short balls banished to two ends of the ground at point and deep midwicket. The bad balls, they kept on coming. The good times, they kept on going. Representative of that were the seven no-balls South Africa A bowled. Three of the resulting free-hits were smashed to the boundary.In contrast, Australia A bowlers gave nothing away. They had the advantage of playing in these conditions for two unofficial Tests and it showed in how tight a middle and off line Coulter-Nile adopted. His first spell read 5-1-13-0. With the rest of his team-mates keeping that pressure up, he had a more profitable second spell: wicketkeeper Dane Vilas was caught down the leg side. Four balls later Khaya Zondo’s edge was found. South Africa A, caught in a downward spiral, were 142 for 6 in the 39th over.But it was legspinner Boyce, who bowled 10 overs on the trot, and left-arm spinner Ashton Agar who initiated that downward spiral. Agar knew that with the batsmen already struggling to adjust to a slow pitch, his best chance was bowl even slower. Boyce, on the other hand, used the crease well, angling the ball on middle and leg, and created doubts in the batsman’s mind when a few turned sharply while most did nothing. Their 20 overs cost a measly 60 runs and yielded three of the top four wickets.So the story of the match ended up quite simple: In walked a South Africa A batsman, he couldn’t manipulate the field, he got bogged down, played a rash shot and off he went. Then Boyce and Coulter-Nile kept hitting repeat.

Paul Pollard and a determined innings by David Leatherdale took SecondDivision front-runners Worcestershire to 232-7 in their championship matchagainst Essex at Chelmsford. They came together at 75-3 and shared afourth-wicket partnership of 117n in 49 overs.
Pollard followed his two half-centuries in the previous game by making 77,his best score for Worcestershire since coming to them from Nottinghamshiretwo years ago. He was at the crease for 255 balls in 315 minutes beforefalling to 18 year-old fast bowler Andrew McGarry in his first championshipmatch. Leatherdale was equally adamant in scoring 62 with five fours and asix. McGarry had a happy debut – he had been brought into the team onlybecause Ashley Cowan and Ricaldo Anderson were injured – in bowling 16 oversfor just 29 runs. His first seven overs cost 11 runs during the course ofwhich he had Philip Weston caught and in his third dismissed Ryan Driver,and concluded by having Pollard l.b.w.”It was a superb effort by the lad” said Geoff Arnold, the Essex bowlingcoach. “He put the ball in the right areas and got his reward. Obviously hehas got the ability to make a name for himself in the game, but it is up tohim to work hard and make the best of it.”

The clatter of three Western Australian wickets shortly before stumps has continued to afford Tasmania the whip hand by stumps on the second day of the sides’ Pura Cup match in Hobart. At the game’s midway point, the Warriors are at a mark of 4/137 in reply to the Tigers’ first innings tally of 9/446.Led by Shaun Young (2/20), the Tasmanian attack took until the final hour of the day to display the penetrative qualities which had hitherto been missing from both teams’ bowling line-ups. It was the medium pace of Young which did the major damage, his clever variety accounting for a spooned return catch from a well-set Simon Katich (38) and the departure of a very scratchy Murray Goodwin (3) to a leg before wicket decision. On his return after a long absence from the first-class arena, Gerard Denton (1/51) also made a crucial strike when he induced opener Mike Hussey (35) to play a mistimed pull and present Dene Hills with the opportunity to complete an excellent running catch behind square leg.But the presence at the crease of the clean-striking Damien Martyn (46*) and the determined mindset of Warriors’ captain Tom Moody might combine to ensure that the encounter yet develops into a tight battle for first innings points. On a placid pitch, Martyn played the most aggressive cameo of the match during the concluding stages to continue a romance with Bellerive that might well reach even more intense heights tomorrow. He could have been caught, either by wicketkeeper Sean Clingeleffer or first slip Daniel Marsh, when he top edged a cut at Denton with his score at a mere eight. But the two appeared to leave the potential chance to one another and, with the miss, went the Tigers’ opportunity to nip in the bud a rapid acceleration of the Western Australian run rate.”There’s a lot more batting left in our line-up and hopefully we can resurrect it tomorrow,” said Moody after play.And despite conceding that Tasmania was definitely in the box seat, the Western Australian skipper remained upbeat about the possibility that his team could still claim at least two points from the match.”There’s nearly two hundred overs left so who knows what can happen? It depends on how well we bat and how it all pans out late tomorrow and early on the fourth day.”Moody also hinted that he was slightly surprised by opposite number Jamie Cox’s decision to delay his declaration until seventy-seven minutes after lunch.”We were out there a bit longer than I expected; maybe they should have pressed on a bit quicker.”The Warriors’ bowlers and fieldsmen could have accepted at least some of the blame, though. The complexion of proceedings certainly might have been very different if they had capitalised on an excellent opening thirty minutes to the day. It was in that period that spinner Brad Oldroyd (4/90) snuck an arm ball through the defences of Young (43) and Brendon Julian (3/94) encouraged Marsh (110) to waft at an outswinger shortly after he had reached the landmark of three figures for the sixth time in his first-class career.The most crucial moment of the day loomed not long afterward when all-rounder Scott Kremerskothen (81) edged another Julian delivery to Moody at second slip with his score at six. The catch was grassed, and the visitors were left to pay a hefty price as Kremerskothen and fellow youngster Clingeleffer (50) set about adding a priceless 122 runs for the seventh Tasmanian wicket.Oldroyd finally removed Kremerskothen with a brilliant low return catch and Clingeleffer, two deliveries after raising an accomplished maiden first-class half-century, spooned a catch to cover off the bowling (the off spin bowling, no less) of Moody (2/82). By then, though, significant damage had been inflicted.”It was terrific, wasn’t it?,” said Cox of the pair’s alliance. “‘Kremer’ fell only one short of a career best and it was ‘Clinger’s first fifty, which was a good milestone … he’s done an excellent job in the first three games and we’re very pleased with the way he has come on.”Following a generally unpleasant nine hours in the field, the Western Australians encountered further annoyance when dashing opener Ryan Campbell (8) was trapped shuffling back and across his crease by David Saker (1/32). Hussey and Katich then added sixty-eight in fine style, and Martyn hit out brilliantly, but Young and Denton countered to leave the Warriors facing a big challenge to restore parity.

The improvement in Milinda Siriwardana’s bowling may allow Sri Lanka to explore new combinations in their ODI side, vice-captain Lahiru Thirimanne said. It was largely Siriwardana’s batting that saw him elevated to the national team, but both Thirimanne and captain Angelo Mathews have now spoken of Siriwardana’s growing skill with the ball.Siriwardana has three wickets at an average of 26.33 in the five ODIs he has played so far. He was more impressive in the recent Test series against West Indies, in which he claimed seven wickets at 17.71. Tillakaratne Dilshan has provided a part-time spin option for Sri Lanka, but if both he and Siriwardana play, the hosts will have an offspinner and a left-arm spinner in their top seven.”I think the main thing we’ve been impressed with is Milinda’s bowling,” Thirimanne said. “We all knew he has got talent with the bat, but he has improved a lot in his bowling. It’s a big advantage when it comes to the one-day side. We haven’t had a spinning allrounder in the last few years.”In addition to Dilshan and Siriwardana, Sri Lanka also have frontline spinners Ajantha Mendis, Sachithra Senanayake and Jeffrey Vandersay in the squad. West Indies had lost 27 wickets to spin during the Test series, but Thirimanne expected stiffer resistance in the ODIs.”We are hopeful that our spinners and slow bowlers will give us the advantage,” he said. “But we can’t take the West Indies team lightly. They didn’t play the Tests well, but the one day team is quite strong overall. There are a lot of players who can change a match in that team.”Sri Lanka have three uncapped players in their squad, two of whom may play in the first ODI. Dinesh Chandimal’s one-match suspension may allow both Shehan Jayasuriya and Danushka Gunathilaka to enter the XI.”I think we’ll need to work out what our best combination is during this series,” Thirimanne said. “After the World Cup a lot of seniors left. We then played the Pakistan team, and if you take our batting line-up or our bowling line-up, we aren’t that settled. This series will help figure out a settled side.”Thirimanne himself had been dropped from the second Test in Colombo, after a long sequence of modest scores in that format. He will bat at No.3 on Sunday, however, having averaged 40.81 in ODIs this year.”I wasn’t successful in Tests. But if you look at my record, I’ve played very differently in Tests and one-dayers. I’ve done well in ODIs, but haven’t been able to replicate that in Tests. I don’t know why that is, but I’m expecting to go to the middle and score runs. There are times when scoring runs is difficult, but the best thing to do is enjoy the game.”