His credentials are hard to ignore, but how does he fit in for the defending champions?

Alex Malcolm02-Jun-20222:24

Vettori: David’s six-hitting is like Pollard’s in his heyday

Every T20 team in the world right now wants Tim David. Every team it seems, except Australia.To be fair to Australia’s selectors, the world’s most in-form power-hitter is front and centre on their radar and chair George Bailey has been in contact with him. But they are wrangling with how and when to fit him into a side that are the defending T20 World Cup champions.As Australia’s T20I side congregated in Sri Lanka on Wednesday night ahead of a three-match series starting next Tuesday, David remained in England representing Lancashire where he is dominating the Vitality Blast.Australia have picked a near full-strength squad for Sri Lanka, with only Pat Cummins (rested) and Adam Zampa (paternity leave) missing from the side that won the T20 World Cup. It is the first time they have assembled a near full-strength unit since the World Cup last year after resting a number of key players for the five-match home T20I series against Sri Lanka in February and the limited-overs tour of Pakistan in March and April.Related

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By every conceivable measure, David should be among them. Since the start of 2021, he has made 1413 runs in T20 cricket, averaging 32.11, at an absurd strike-rate of 170.65 (*stats as of Wednesday June 1), playing almost exclusively as a finisher.In the same period, Glenn Maxwell has scored 1777 runs at 32.90 with a strike-rate of 149.57 while the prolific Mitchell Marsh has scored 1432 runs at 40.91, and a strike-rate of 138.09, albeit batting exclusively at No. 3. Marcus Stoinis, who is currently Australia’s T20 finisher, made 1048 runs at 30.82 with a strike-rate of 143.75, although he batted in the top three in 15 of his 49 innings. Globally, since the start of 2021, only New Zealander Finn Allen has a higher strike-rate than David of those who have faced more than 500 balls.That the selectors baulked at adding David to the Sri Lanka squad was understandable. Australia announced their touring squads back on April 29. Even Mumbai Indians, who had invested $US 1.1 million (AUD 1.53 million) in David at the IPL mega auction, decided not to select him for six games between April 2 and April 30 after he missed out in the first two matches of the tournament.While David had monstered bowling in Associate cricket for Singapore, as well as the BBL, the PSL, the Blast, the Hundred and the CPL, there was a still a slight query, rightly or wrongly, over his ability against world-class attacks and spin in particular. But even then he ranks in top eight in the world for strike-rate against spin in the last 18 months.But when Mumbai finally realised the error of their ways, having lost all six games David didn’t play, he showcased his full capabilities in the final six matches of the season smashing 173 runs at an astronomical strike-rate of 230.66, to help Mumbai win four of them. He struck a boundary every 2.78 deliveries and a six every five balls.It was power-hitting that only Kieron Pollard and Andre Russell can match. Even more impressively, it was easy power, from a stable base, with the ability to go off side, straight or leg side. And all against international quality bowling. Neither Mohammed Shami, Lockie Ferguson, Yuzvendra Chahal, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, T Natarajan, Anrich Nortje or Shardul Thakur were spared from disappearing to and over the rope.Australia captain Aaron Finch admitted David is building a case that is hard to ignore.”He’s been in fantastic form for a while now,” he said. “The back end of the IPL was fantastic for him. He was at his brutal best. The ability to hit from ball one is a pretty rare skill. And he’s done that plenty of times now and for him to keep being so consistent, that’s something that we’ll definitely look at over the next little while.”David’s consistency, in arguably the most volatile role in T20 cricket, has been remarkable. He’s reached double figures in 18 of his last 20 T20 innings and stuck at above 140 in all 17 of those knocks, and above 175 in 13 of them. (*As of June 1)Australia have been searching for a specialist power-hitting finisher for years. Now, one has arrived on their doorstep and they are struggling to fit him in.Any question surrounding David’s allegiance to Australia need not be a concern. He was born in Singapore and has played 14 T20Is for them but he is an Australian citizen, having grown up in Perth and spent far more of his youth in Australia than other recent internationals in Marnus Labuschagne and Josh Inglis. The notion that he has turned his back on the Australian system is also a misnomer, having been contracted by Western Australia before being discarded aged 23 and forced to look for opportunities elsewhere.Tim David has scored runs all over the world in T20•Ron Gaunt/BCCIHe also wouldn’t be the only player without a state contract to play for Australia if selected, with Chris Lynn, AJ Tye and Dan Christian all doing so in recent times. David did play in the Marsh Cup for Tasmania last summer.The only question is when and how David can break into the side. The earliest opportunity he could play would be a T20I series in India in September, where some senior players might be rested and he has proven himself in the conditions but that is barely a month before the World Cup.Fitting him into a stable set-up for the World Cup is another debate. He is a specialist finisher, with those roles currently occupied by semi-final heroes Stoinis and Matthew Wade. Both of those men fill dual roles and would not be like-for-like swaps for David. Wade also keeps wicket (and provides a left-handed option) while Stoinis is one of three allrounders who provide vital bowling flexibility, given Australia have settled on playing just four specialist bowlers alongside seven batters.David would have to play as a specialist batter, with his very part-time offspin unlikely to be used at international level. But his presence would change the dynamic of the order. If he replaced Steven Smith, for example, it would deepen the power-hitting at the expense of a versatile role player who could be promoted or demoted up and down the order depending on situations, although both Wade or Stoinis have the experience to fill a versatile role further up the order.The only other scenarios are if injury or form prevents one of the top four from playing. But Australia are intent on sticking with their skipper Finch, who is in the midst of a lengthy lean patch, while David Warner, Marsh and Maxwell are locked in.Where there is a will, there is a way. Australia’s selectors would have to be willing to pick a T20 specialist, something previous panels have rarely done.David possesses the rarest of skillsets. Australia know they need to improve their side to defend their title. On present form, David could make them a goliath.

In the last year, the South Africa captain has led his side to the top of the World Test Championship table. Now he has his sights set on England

Firdose Moonda15-Aug-20224:48

‘It’s about getting players to buy in to your ideas, process and journey’

Dean Elgar doesn’t care what you think of his captaincy or his batting or anything else about his cricket career. But he is quite sure he cares about those things more than most.”From a relatively young age, I was always that person who was pretty hard on myself and my biggest critic. What people write and say about me now – that can’t penetrate my skin. I’m the critic in my career,” he says from Canterbury, where South Africa are preparing for their three-Test tour in England.And a harsh critic he is too. Even though South Africa have resurrected themselves from seventh on the Test rankings to the top of the World Test Championship points table; and have not lost a series under Elgar’s captaincy, with three wins and a draw, his reaction to their progress is more cerebral than celebratory. “It’s a good environment but we can get a lot better knowing that it’s still pretty young, it’s still pretty raw. And the minute you think nothing is wrong is when you need to maybe have a look in the mirror.”Related

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Thinking nothing is wrong is not a problem that has afflicted South African cricket recently. In the three years since the 2019 World Cup, everything from the administration to the on-field performance unravelled, sponsors left, the coffers dwindled, and the sociopolitical culture of CSA and its teams was scrutinised. Skeletons tumbled out of the closet. For the players, the laser focus on the change-room environment and in particular their understanding of issues related to race was cause for angst and introspection. This was underlined by their initially not taking a knee and then being instructed to do so by the board. Ultimately they have now come out on the other side with a greater sense of understanding and purpose, Elgar believes.”We’ve been through quite a rocky ride but at the end of the day, we can sit around the same table and we can still look each other in the eye and have a lot of respect for each other,” he says. “From a boardroom sense, obviously we know what that is, and I don’t want to get into that because that’s now water under the bridge. We’ve turned a new page, and we have to work with what we have now. Everyone is pulling in the right direction. It’s a little bit difficult to work in one direction when three people are going this way and five are going the other way. You’re always going to have something that doesn’t work and doesn’t complement the environment. Now we’ve got something that’s a lot more concrete going forward. We’ve got people around the team that have seen cricket as the focal point. They want to get cricket and South Africa and the Proteas back on the map again.”After stumbling through multiple crises, Elgar says South Africa have emerged on the other side with greater understanding and singular purpose•AFP/Getty ImagesOne of those people, according to Elgar, is the head coach, Mark Boucher, who was also at the centre of a storm. From facing criticism over the way he was appointed – by his friend and former director of cricket Graeme Smith, to testimony at the Social Justice and Nation Building hearings (SJN) that brought into question his conduct as a player and a player-manager and led to disciplinary charges being filed against him by CSA, and then dropped, it’s clear that Boucher is not everyone’s favourite person, but the captain thinks he is the right person for the job.”He just wants to see the best cricketers performing and playing for South Africa. He does demand a high standard, no doubt. He’s been there, done that, and he’s seen a lot of things throughout international cricket over a few decades. And I think he understands what this badge means,” Elgar says.”I work well with Bouch. We kind of complement each other pretty well. One day he’s the bad guy and the next time I’m the bad guy, but I think you need that. For things to work, you need that kind of relationship. It’s a good relationship. Don’t get me wrong, him and I, we also bump heads. It’s natural. It’s just trying to try to reach an outcome at the end of the day and the outcome is for us to give us the best chance of performance and obviously ultimately winning.”This is not the first time the idea of playing the “bad guy” has come up where Elgar is concerned. A couple of months ago, Temba Bavuma spoke to the Cricket Monthly, where it emerged that he, in his role as white-ball captain and Test vice-captain, also feeds off a contrasting leadership style to Elgar’s. Bavuma described them as being different in the way they communicate but with the same goal in sight, and Elgar echoed that. “If you combine what Temba and I are trying to create, it’s off the same hymnal,” he says. “The biggest thing is that we obviously wanted to bring back the respect to the badge. And we were pretty ruthless around that – that the only way we can do that is by playing the brand of cricket that everyone loves and wants to watch. Our currency is obviously runs and wickets and wins. And I think with regard to that, we definitely have the same vision going forward.”And now that they have been in charge for more than a year, Elgar believes they have succeeded in establishing their style and have the support of all the players involved. “I’ve always had a very good relationship with all the players that I’ve come across within the set-up and it was just about maintaining those relationships, and actually, for the players to get the buy-in from you as a captain and your ideas,” he says. “And I don’t think I’ve struggled with regards to building a relationship with guys, because that foundation had already been set in the time I’ve been in this environment. So in a sense, you’ve already got that respect factor between the two parties. It’s just about getting the players to buy into your ideas and your views and your journey forward. The guys have definitely responded very well.”Good cap, bad cap: Elgar says he and vice-captain Temba Bavuma have contrasting leadership styles but the same end goal in sight•Mark Baker/Associated PressFor Elgar to communicate his vision of tough, smart cricket, he says he had to “upskill” himself, “just taking a little bit more time and showing a lot more care towards the guys, which has been something I was more than willing to do”. He calls it one of the biggest learning curves in his career, and a “full-circle experience” but said it could never come at the cost of his primary job: opening the batting. “I feel it’s my duty to still be Dean the captain and also be Dean the cricketer. My currency is runs, first and foremost. That’s how I was selected for the side.”And Elgar has walked his talk. Since taking over, he is South Africa’s leading run-scorer in the format and has also set the tone for how they approach their batting. He led the series-levelling chase against India at the Wanderers, with an unbeaten 96, he led the comeback against New Zealand by spending two and a half hours at the crease to score 41 runs, and he led the aggressive batting against Bangladesh, with 70 off 89 balls in Gqeberha. But without a triple-figure score to his name as captain, he isn’t entirely happy with his performances.”The last year has gone well but by no means was it ideal or perfect. I know responsibility is big on my shoulders to score runs for us and I was still disappointed. Even though I might be sitting on top of the run-scoring list, for me it’s about making a bigger impact,” he says. “It’s still about [having] a bigger influence and leading a lot of young batters as well. A lot of the batters that we have – they are definitely talented – are just young and inexperienced and they need someone to feed off.”In this England series, that will be even more important because Bavuma has been ruled out with an elbow injury, and no one else in the top six has played Test cricket in this country before. They’re not used to the Dukes ball, the seaming conditions, and the boisterous crowds, having played all their Test cricket over the last two years to mostly empty stands. It’s a new challenge, but one Elgar feels his team is ready for, given how they have embraced the ones they have faced so far, and he is pushing them to.”I don’t play to lose. I absolutely despise losing. And if we play an average brand [of cricket], or we’re not putting our best foot forward, and we don’t have results going our way, then that affects me quite a bit,” he says. “This is a massive series for all of us. I think we’ve got 17 players and it’s massive for all 17 of us to go out there, play a brand of cricket that appeals to South Africans and ultimately gives us the best chance of winning in England. We’ve seen it happen in the past before, so we know it can be done.Since he took over as captain in June 2021, Elgar has scored over 600 Test runs at an average of 46.14•Cricket South Africa”We played against the best in the world last year [India, then-ranked No. 1], and I think we did things that we didn’t quite expect to do at that time. So the standard that we’ve set and the bar that we’ve raised since last year has happened pretty naturally just out of us doing good things on the field again.”It’s gonna be a tough series, no doubt. They are a proud cricketing nation and I respect that. But I know they are definitely beatable. I didn’t come here to play second fiddle. I came here to win a series.”Expect Elgar to repeat some of that tough talk on the field. He is well known for his words, even when they don’t always lead to the outcome he intended. In May 2017, for example, he motivated Rilee Rossouw, a long-time domestic team-mate of his to score 156 from 113 balls in a one-day cup match by taunting him about his Kolpak deal. If he plans on anything similar against England, he is not telling us.”Our sledging days have come to a bit of an end because of the ICC and the heavy fines that they implement on players now if you step over the line. But there is still plenty of space for a bit of wit and a bit of commentary off mic,” he says. Remembering he is a senior player, he quickly adds: “I don’t even think I’m gonna have time for that because when you are captaining, you’ve just got to focus on your greater job and that’s obviously to get one over the opposition.”But in typical Elgar fashion, he won’t leave it there. “In the heat of battle, there’s always something that comes out. Let’s put it that way. I just want to play three really, really hard Test matches and go out there and put the badge on the line and throw a bit more respect into the badge.”The badge is something Elgar speaks about with immense pride. He points to it every time he mentions it. It means something to him. And it meant something when he criticised some of his team-mates for choosing the IPL over the Bangladesh Test series in March-April this year.All those who went to the lucrative Indian tournament are back in the Test squad – and CSA’s willingness to let them go, and the board’s years of co-operation with the IPL has paid off handsomely, with all six teams in CSA’s new league bought by IPL owners. The new league will be played in January-February, previously a prime Test window for South Africa, which means that international fixtures will be squeezed into earlier in the summer (later is unlikely because of the IPL) and as more leagues pop up, there’s more talk of the international game shrinking. Elgar still seems to take a dim view of players preferring franchise competitions over their national colours badge but can understand why he may be in a minority.”Captaincy was just about maintaining relationships, and for the players to get the buy-in from you as a captain and your ideas”•RANDY BROOKS/AFP/Getty Images”There are quite a few of them [leagues] around at the moment. It’s a little bit difficult to keep tabs on everything and everyone that’s playing around it. I still think international cricket needs to be the pinnacle of every cricketer, irrespective of what age you are. The English do it pretty well, where they want to commit everything, they want to give all their energy to play in Test cricket. And I’d like to think the rest of the world also sees that. You can’t compete when people are throwing around millions of dollars in tournaments because not every cricketer is eligible to get selected for international cricket. You can only select a few but I still like to think that the strength of Test cricket, especially, still holds the highest rank around the world,” he says.That said, he concedes that he will play in the CSA league if called on, as part of his commitment to helping South African cricket thrive. “It’s part of our season, that’s part of my schedule. And if I get picked up, I mean, why not?” he says. “I still think we hold it in our own personal capacities to make things right again in cricket in South Africa. That’s still a massive responsibility for us. It’s not just playing international cricket. It’s about going back home and giving back to the game and giving back to the younger cricketers as well. We need to get that ball rolling again for CSA so that they can become a powerhouse again.”South Africa were probably last considered a powerhouse a decade ago, when they came in 2012 to England and beat them to claim the Test mace. A few months later, Elgar debuted in Australia, where South Africa won. They went on to draw a series with Pakistan in the UAE and win in Sri Lanka, and stayed No. 1 for more than three years before losing to India in 2015. Since then, they have battled for consistency but not heart and now they are on a run that suggests better times are ahead. Elgar won’t look too far, though, and prefers to stay in the moment. “I don’t like to plan too far down the line. I don’t like to set myself goals. I live for the now. What must be, must be,” he says.In nine Tests, Elgar has been dismissed four times by James Anderson•Getty ImagesAt 35, he still believes there are many years and runs left in him. “I’d like to still try and contribute as much as I can to the Proteas. I’ve always said as long as they want me around, I’ll be around. I still feel I’ve got a hell of a lot left in me. But the minute that cloud has come over you and you get a sense you don’t really belong here as a player anymore, I’d be pretty mindful and realistic around that. And probably end my career playing county cricket.”With stints at Somerset in 2013 and 2017, and Surrey in 2015, 2018 and 2019, Elgar is familiar with the county set-up but he never considered a Kolpak deal. Although the nature of England’s domestic cricket is changing and the County Championship is no longer considered the prime competition of the summer, he still wants to give it a go. But he is happy to remain open to other offers, including from South Africa. “Who knows? Things can come around. I might be in the Proteas setup in a coaching capacity. No one knows. At the moment the future is so unpredictable. The only thing you can try and control is what you have in front of you.”Elgar will soon have the English attack in front of him and two of them – Ben Stokes and James Anderson – have dismissed him more often than any other seamers. “I have a pretty rich history with opening bowlers of the English,” he says. “They tend to challenge me quite a bit, but in a good way. It makes me pretty hungry to do well knowing that I’m competing against the best bowlers that England’s ever produced. For me, it’s purely about living in the now, as I mentioned, and focusing on my team-mates, focusing on our team management and giving us the best opportunity.”And that’s what Elgar really cares about: doing whatever he can do to help South Africa win.

They attacked their way out of dire situations, defended resolutely at the death, and found heroes where heroes should not be found

Andrew Fidel Fernando12-Sep-20223:18

Maharoof: ‘These young lions will be treated like heroes’

Danushka Gunathilaka stumbles a touch, and looks back at an off stump. It is still convulsing, as if it has 10,000 volts run through it. Haris Rauf tears away in his follow through, his team-mates racing after him. The stadium is a riot of fluttering Pakistan flags, and noise.It is the most spectacular moment in an incandescent passage of fast bowling. Earlier, Naseem’s Shah’s vicious inswinger had also made an eruption out of the woodwork, but this ball to Gunathilaka, oh man – that’s unplayable. Angled across, straightening in the air, seaming off the pitch. On his best day, Gunathilaka is not hitting that. No one is. It is a meteor. It has scorched through the atmosphere at 151kph.Pakistan do this. They’ve doing this. In limited-overs cricket, no modern side places so much of their pride on the altar of fast bowling, and when they’ve caught fire in finals, they’ve razed oppositions to the ground. Mohammad Amir and Hasan Ali were an inferno against India in the 2017 Champions Trophy. Against a much more decorated Sri Lanka top order than the one in this Asia Cup, Pakistan’s quicks had been in searing form in the 2009 T20 World Cup title match.Related

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Today, they’ve got Sri Lanka reeling at three down by the end of the powerplay, and in the first three overs of spin, Pakistan take two more wickets. Sri Lanka are 58 for 5, at a venue that favours chasing sides so severely, only three teams have batted first and won, in the 21 previous T20Is here.After 8.5 overs, Sri Lanka are down to their last three recognised batters, two of whom are bowling allrounders. ESPNcricinfo’s Win Probability tracker has their chances at 15.74%. That percentage does not account for emotion, but when you’re in the maws of a great Pakistan bowling performance, it is as if the world closes in.Sri Lanka had had a good run, turned heads, and sprung surprise. There’s no shame in succumbing to bowling of this quality. Because surely they will not win from here.

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Few sports force elite athletes to tackle situations they are unsuited to like cricket does. As debutant and No. 10 Asitha Fernando walks out to bat against Bangladesh, his team-mates are visibly worried. Sri Lanka have just lost their last recognised batter to a run out, and still need 13 off the last seven balls – a tricky proposition even if he had remained not out.If you watch him take guard, Fernando does not look like he can bat – his movements too fidgety, his stance overeager, rather than poised. And his stats don’t read like he can bat. He has hit 24 runs from five domestic T20 innings; his List A and First-Class averages are both below five.But he faces up gamely, and does the thing that most players of his batting ability do. Tailenders such as Fernando are like the drunkest uncle on the dancefloor, forever busting out the same move, the result frequently unsightly. He clears his front leg almost before the bowler has bowled the ball, so urgently does he want to get it out of the way. A path now clear for his bat to come through, he whooshes the blade down.”Good shot!” bellows Scott Styris on commentary. Well… yeah… so it turned out. Fernando is from the “swing it and wing it” school of batting. In fact, it is giving too much credit to call it a school – it’s more like a dodgy online course that exists to steal your credit card info. He finds the boundary over extra cover that keeps Sri Lanka in the hunt.Asitha Fernando came from the “swing it and wing it” school of batting, and won Sri Lanka a thriller against Bangladesh•AFP/Getty ImagesNext over, he finds himself on strike again. And what does he do? Gets his front foot to the ball, and drills a glorious boundary down the ground, front elbow finishing high, sending batting coaches around the world into a swoon. No, that would be crazy. What Fernando actually does is throw that front leg out of the way with such single-minded commitment it is as if he would like to remove it from his body entirely and hurl it into the stands. He swings again, the ball happening to hit the middle of the bat, then happening to find a gap near deep midwicket.Next ball, another almighty heave, for two this time. Because the bowler has delivered a no-ball, Sri Lanka achieve their target.Sri Lanka were chasing 184, a big score for a side that had been bowled out for 105 three days previous. There were times in the chase when their win probability dropped into the low teens. And when a No. 10 who had only hit four boundaries in his entire T20 career arrived at the crease, that was it, the game is done, you thought.Surely they will not win from here.

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Against Afghanistan, Sri Lanka are in potentially tournament-defining trouble much earlier in the match. Rahmanullah Gurbaz is belting Sri Lanka’s bowlers over the ropes with almost uncanny ease. Are there explosives in his bat?Maheesh Theekshana, Sri Lanka’s most reliable powerplay bowler, is getting taken apart in his first over. He gets clobbered over cow corner fourth ball. Then in the next one, he thinks he’s had Gurbaz caught on the straight boundary, only Gunathilaka has stepped on the boundary skirting, so it is a six instead.Sri Lanka were on fire for much of the Asia Cup, and especially in the final•AFP/Getty ImagesThis does not temper Gurbaz, who pummels Fernando over the deep square leg boundary next over, hoicks Wanindu Hasaranga over deep midwicket soon after the powerplay ends, and later, flat-bats the ever-loving daylights out of a length Chamika Karunaratne delivery – the ball cannoning into the sightscreen.After 14 overs, Afghanistan are 132 for 1. Commentators are confident a total of 200 is on the cards, at a ground (Sharjah) on which the highest successful chase is 172. Afghanistan had won both their group games, and mauled Sri Lanka inside 10.1 overs in the tournament opener, so as far as they, or most others, were concerned, Afghanistan were the ascendant side, and Sri Lanka a shadow of what used to be, who had merely snuck into the Super Fours on the back of some unlikely tail-end thrashing.Afghanistan still have Najibullah Zadran, perhaps their most-destructive batter to come, with the hugely experienced Mohammad Nabi, and Rashid Khan there as well, plus Samiullah Shinwari and Karim Janat. They bat deep. Surely Sri Lanka cannot contain them from here.And yet, Fernando gets Gurbaz caught in the outfield, Theekshana bowls a couple of cheap death overs, Dilshan Madushanka gets the other set batter out, and in the last 36 balls of this innings, which Afghanistan were beautifully-placed to plunder, they make just 43, losing five wickets.So good had their first 14 overs been, though, they have still set Sri Lanka a target that has never been achieved on this ground before. No Sri Lanka batter produces an innings in the league of Gurbaz. But Pathum Nissanka hits a solid 35 off 28, and Kusal Mendis 36 off 19 – the pair putting on 62 together in 6.3 overs.Gunathilaka, out of form lately, hits two sixes off Nabi – one of the canniest spinners in the game – and gets himself to 33 off 20. Still, Sri Lanka end up needing 49 off the last 30 balls, and Bhanuka Rajapaksa smokes 31 off 14. In the end, they complete a record chase with some ease – five balls to spare.Over in Dubai, the Asian rivalry of legend is unfolding – India taking the first match, Pakistan the second. Sri Lanka have not faced either yet.

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What mismatch? Sri Lanka always seemed to have it under control during their chase against India in the Super 4s•Getty ImagesIn 25 previous T20Is against India, Sri Lanka have lost 17. In the three matches they had played earlier this year, India monstered Sri Lanka in the first match, winning by 62 runs. The same could be said of the two matches to follow. Forget being on the same level as India. They may as well have been playing different sports.In this tournament, India were without their best fast bowler in Jasprit Bumrah, but they had the likes of Bhuvneshwar Kumar, who off the top of the head has played – and you should check this – roughly a million T20s, as well as Arshdeep Singh, who had been excellent with the ball in the two big games against Pakistan.R Aswhin, Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Hardik Pandya, Rishabh Pant, Suryakumar Yadav, KL Rahul. There are stars here to fit out a whole galaxy. Sri Lanka have Hasaranga, plus some other guys. Guys like Dilshan Madushanka, playing his third T20I ever, having not played hard-ball cricket until very late in his teens. Or like Pathum Nissanka, who has never played a franchise T20 tournament bigger than the serially-postponed Lanka Premier League. He’s maybe the brightest young batting talent in Sri Lanka and after 55 T20 innings has a strike rate… in the 110s? Wait, are you serious? Have you seen the bonkers Indian batters that haven’t even made this squad? Ishan Kishan? Sanju Samson? Rahul Tewatia?But wait, there’s Madushanka, inswinging a yorker into Kohli’s stumps, uprooting two of them at once, screaming into a multi-teammate bearhug. Much later, Nissanka is running down the track to punch Bhuvneshwar down the ground, lofting Pandya over the long-on boundary, crashing Yuzvendra Chahal through the covers, then slamming him over deep square leg.At the other end, Kusal Mendis is playing an even better innings, as Sri Lanka’s openers put on 97 together, providing an outstanding platform from which they can chase down 174. Such is India’s quality, that they still make a game out of this, allowing Sri Lanka only to scramble to the finish with one ball to spare, even after Dasun Shanaka and Rajapaksa have struck big blows.There were times in this chase when the win probability got below 25%, but of all Sri Lanka’s pressure matches in the Asia Cup, this is the one in which they seemed most in control. Which is a strange thing to say, given the resources India command, the depth at their disposal, and the obscenely one-sided nature of this rivalry.

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In the final, five down, abject defeat the likeliest outcome, Pakistan’s seamers white-hot, their spinners backing them up, Sri Lanka continue to attack. No one wins big finals making 120 or 135, as Sri Lanka had themselves found out in that 2009 T20 World Cup final. To have a chance, at a venue as loaded against you as Dubai, you’ve got to get yourself on the far side of 150.Former Sri Lanka coach Mickey Arthur had once described Hasaranga as a DGAF player. He’s out there, unrepentantly, to win. Despite not having been at his best with the bat this year, he produces a DGAF innings. He backs away and throws his bat repeatedly, hitting Shadab Khan behind square on the offside to get his first two fours, before crashing Mohammad Hasnain through extra cover, then belting him over deep third two balls later, for a six.He takes on Haris Rauf too, thumping him back over his head, flaying him through backward point. He tries to hit a third successive four and gets out, and this is where Rajapaksa takes over. Having initially batted in Hasaranga’s slipstream, dabbing boundaries past short third man to begin with, Rajapaksa brings out his power game.To look at him, Rajapaksa is not a power hitter. He does not have a lot of height, and as such, lacks the long levers. He does not seem to have the taut muscle of an Eoin Morgan, Brendon McCullum, or a Kusal Perera either, having infamously failed a number of skin-fold fitness tests. Let us be kind and say that of the Sri Lanka greats, he resembles Rangana Herath more than anyone.What he has are obscenely powerful wrists. After Hasaranga gets out, the wrists begin to break through the course of his batswing, generating outrageous bat-speed. This is never more apparent than when he swats a Nassem ball off middle stump high over deep backward square leg, the bat coming down like whiplash.Fans in Colombo erupt after Sri Lanka seal their Asia Cup triumph•AFP/Getty ImagesHe gets dropped twice, but again this is the wrists at work. He gets the timing wrong, but generated so much power, the ball went high into the night, to make those catches difficult. His last shot, a leg-cleared (Asitha Fernando style) whipped six over extra cover – one of the hardest strokes to pull off in the game, propelled Sri Lanka to 170.But 171 is eminently gettable in Dubai, and it is in the field where Sri Lanka’s sublime Asia Cup campaign reaches its crescendo. The first wicket is a small wonder. Not because of the ball Pramod Madushanka bowled – that is a legside length ball deserved the disdain that Babar Azam treated it with, flicking it pretty much off the middle of the bat into the legside, the ball traveling rapidly.It’s a wonder only because of Madushanka’s astounding overhead catch, plucking the ball as if conjuring it from thin air. Earlier, Madushanka had bowled five illegal deliveries to start out the match, but recovered through the rest of the over, and now had helped remove Pakistan’s captain.Perhaps more importantly, he had set the tone for Sri Lanka’s fielding, and soon after, was a beneficiary of the standard he’d set. Iftikhar Ahmed drove powerfully down the ground, third ball of the sixth over, which Madushanka was bowling. Theekshana zoomed across, stuck his right arm out, and saved a certain four.Through the rest of the evening, Sri Lanka’s fielding was electric, almost without exception. Ashen Bandara (the sub fielder), racing around the legside boundary to cut two runs off, even when the bowler deserved to go for four. Gunathilaka was throwing himself full-tilt at a ball scorching a path down the ground, saving two. Hasaranga ranging the square boundary in fast forward.Sri Lanka, through astonishing bravery and enterprise, refused to throw in the towel at this Asia Cup•AFP/Getty ImagesIt is not kosher to call their fielding “hungry” when back home, many Sri Lankans are skipping meals as an economic crisis tears through homes. Better to say they willed themselves to balls they should not have got to, every second of this fielding effort loaded with desperation. In their relentlessness, Sri Lanka turned the most prosaic of cricket’s three disciplines into a spectacle every bit as high octane as Pakistan’s fast bowling in the early overs. Pakistan were in the maws of a great Sri Lankan fielding performance, their horizons closing in.They rounded the boundary at high speed to get under catches, threw themselves around the infield to prevent singles, and flat out refused to let Pakistan batters score runs that perhaps the batters felt they deserved.But this has been Sri Lanka’s cricket throughout most of the Asia Cup. They have attacked their way out of dire situations, defended resolutely at the death, found heroes where heroes should not be found, plotted paths around better-drilled, highly-decorated teams.Sri Lanka have just not allowed themselves to be beaten – sometimes with astonishing bravery and enterprise, like cornered honeybadgers fighting off a pride of lions. Though at other times, they have been like petulant toddlers throwing a tantrum at the supermarket, plain refusing to submit to rationale.They’ve dug in heels, pushed back, defied odds and all manner of probability trackers, and discovered new levels to their game.Surely, they shouldn’t have won it. But they did.

A look ahead to the IPL mini-auction

ESPNcricinfo staff20-Dec-2022In the latest episode of , Nagraj Gollapudi and Raunak Kapoor join Karthik Iyer to make their auction predictions for the IPL 2023. Who will be the most expensive – Sam Curran or Ben Stokes? What do teams need? Who are the uncapped Indians they are eyeing? Also, allrounders ftw!