Cricket

It at least looks certain to be a winning finish even if totally meaningless for this series.

What it isn't however is totally meaningless for England as it is virtually their last test match, bar one against Ireland, before the ashes and I'm sure that played a part in the Bairstow keeping and dropping down to seven move.

More generally reflecting on mistakes made...

The lack of preparation for touring sides is nowadays a major factor generally too, and even the warmup games can be on quite different and misleading wickets to those likely to be encountered, and that's even when they are actually first class games against decent opposition too.

They made crucial mistakes on the perceived wisdom of the west indies pitches being of the slower turning variety they had so often encountered on recent tours, this gave rise to a spinner too many and a batsman fewer.

I do think the mistakes made now look so much worse and can be painted in the blackest possible colour with the benefit of experience and hindsight. We now know about the actual quick, uneven pitches and variable bounce encountered and just how ill equipped such a selection was.

Sam Curran wasn't suited to them - never mind the more obvious failed choices like 'good for slower spinning wickets' Keaton Jennings and too many spinners.

Hindsight together with the total lack of any real meaningful preparation time does exacerbate any shortcomings with selection, a quick look at the West Indies likely bowling strengths might have made a better guide.
 
England won in the end by 230 odd runs

Chase the main resistance with an unbeaten century and good support from Roach and Joseph, but it only really delayed what always seemed inevitable after Wood's first innings fiery spell had decimated the West Indies batting.

A good way to end a disappointing series for England.

They crucially misread the likely wickets and chose a squad suitable for the slow Caribbean turners so prevalent in recent years. It resulted in a serious imbalance within the squad and one totally ill equipped to cope with the fast bouncy uneven wickets of rather variable standard, and in Antigua's case, extremely poor veering on substandard in the first session.

Too often the destiny of these matches were heavily influenced by the toss, a symptom of bad or very poor wickets, only the third test on by far the best cricket wicket made winning the toss inconsequential.
 
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I think we've got to credit the West Indies first and foremost and say that the better side won this series, when it mattered.

The majority of their players made at least 1 good contribution, but the 2 stand-outs for me were Jason Holder and Kemar Roach. I thought the captain really led by example, both with bat and ball and Roach bowled excellently, troubling our out-of-sorts batsman throughout the series.

As far as England go, it's all hindsight now, but there were a few things that I feel helped lose them this series:

  1. Insufficient warm-up games to get the players and staff accustomed to the local conditions.
  2. Not selecting the correct 11 players for the first two surfaces
  3. Not making competitive first innings totals while the series was still alive.
The fact England were not fully prepared for Barbados must come down to a lack of match practice on the kinds of surfaces they had out there. Something that I feel is overlooked with the Sri Lanka series is, while we did win every toss, we had the ODI series first - which in my opinion, despite the different format/ball did help a number of our guys get used to the local conditions.

In a 3 test match series, with all of the games back-to-back, the 1st test is the one that I look back on as being most important to the ultimate result here - and fittingly, it was in Barbados where England really made a horlicks of the team selection, with arguably as many as 4 players being incorrectly selected.

In my view, there are a combination of supplementary factors (on top of the lack of adequate preparation) as to how they reached the conclusion they did in terms of the starting 11 at Kensington Oval...

  • The way England A lost in the West Indies last year (spun out on turning tracks)
  • The make up of the England side in the succesful Sri Lanka series (winning on turning tracks)
  • The visibly patchy pitch that they couldn't read (but felt might turn)
  • The emergence of Sam Curran and Ben Foakes in 2018 to the point they clearly felt them 'undroppable'
So we landed on 2 spinners, 3 wicketkeeper batsman, Sam Curran as a second all-rounder (batting as low as 9) plus no room for Stuart Broad - ultimately a line up that was very different for the team that took the field just 2 matches later in St. Lucia.

It may be pertinent to note just how much the conditions changed after tea on day one in Barbados when Anderson struck so decisively, with day two being a continuation of this and 16 wickets falling in no time.

Against such a background the resistance offered by Hetmyer was match winning for me, and his 81 easily the match winning batting (as opposed to Roach's match winning bowling) performance, not the 200 from Holder or century from Dowrich with the match already won.

(I actually thought Hetmyer's batting performance outshone any of the bowler's too, as in day one after tea and day two, batting was far harder than bowling, before it flattened out)

The first two sessions on day one weren't easy and the openers showed admirable guts and fight to bat time but the uneven patches did become more pronounced and show more as the day wore on, making it more difficult after tea and on day two, all of which made Hetmyer's knock all the more commendable.

While Anderson suddenly became dangerous after tea, the errors in selection were brutally apparent and left little support. The West indies bowlers on day two with the extra height and bounce, or in Roach's case marvellous skill and accuracy in making the ball hit the right areas and move just enough, made batting even more difficult.

If one bowler didn't work there was always backup, but England's feeble batting effort hardly needed any and just carried on where everyone, other than Hetmyer, had left off on the previous evening. The pitch did level out after day two but the match was won.

I still maintain whoever was batting in the morning session in Antigua, after early rain had fallen and a substandard, even at times outright dangerous pitch, was going to lose every time and made winning the toss essential. That was no normal 'you have to be prepared to battle it out on a tough pitch' wicket, it did improve slightly in the afternoon but never at any point was any better than below par the entire match. A dreadful wicket which may merit a below par rating for the match but far below that in the morning of day one. A nightmare toss to lose.

The worse the pitch, the more unbalanced the conditions, the more important the toss is a reasonable rule of thumb, and the second test in Antigua was right up there.

The third test was by far the best wicket and could have been the best test match had there been more on it.

In conclusion, this series was decided with hindsight in Barbados, where the lack of preparation, poor selection - due to a misread of conditions, and lack of bowling support (a consequence of selection) were exacerbated by batting which was without application and thought in more difficult conditions - Hetmyer had showed it was possible.

Once Barbados was done we needed to win a 50/50 coin toss to still be in it by St Lucia and we lost.
 
Gabriel has accepted a four game ban which includes the ODI series which he rarely plays in anyway.

England seem to have chosen their way forward on selection...

Bayliss has warned Ben Foakes faces a lengthy spell out of the Test side after deciding the experiment of batting Jonny Bairstow up the order at No 3 is over.

Foakes was dropped for the third Test despite averaging 41.50 from five Tests and keeping immaculately in difficult conditions this winter. Foakes lost his place because England want to accommodate Bairstow in the side but he has averaged 27 since he was promoted to five last May and developed a problem with being bowled through the gate. He remains first choice for now but Foakes is putting pressure on Bairstow for his place in the side.

“It is one of those things, he (Bairstow) is working on it and he has got to continue to work on it,” said Bayliss. “Sometimes it doesn't matter how much you work on it though, if you've been playing a certain way for a long time it is difficult to get out of it in a hurry. He is aware of it.”

When asked if Bairstow back down the order permanently is bad news for Foakes, Bayliss replied “yes, unfortunately.”

He added: “The good thing about Foakes is that obviously he is a very good keeper, and I think we've discovered someone who can put pressure on that middle order from a batting point of view. I've said that we've struggled to get guys in county cricket putting pressure on the guys in the team, including the middle order, and Foakesy has shown he could be one of those guys to put some some pressure on.”

Bayliss left the door open for Keaton Jennings to stay in the side but his career looks over for the time being after another poor series against pace bowling and England are looking at others to bat in the top three including James Vince, Ben Duckett and Jason Roy.

(Copied from Nick Hoult's piece

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/cricket/201 ... omophobic/)
 
Interesting finish in prospect at Durban in the first test match of a two match 'so called series', calling two consecutive tests 'a series' is just a misnomer for me.

At lunch on the 4th day, Sri Lanka need 138 to win with 5 second innings wickets remaining having so far reached 166-5 chasing 304 with Kusal Perera 56* and de Silva 25* after earlier struggling a little at 110-5.

They have a long tail, but if you these two can get it down to double figures it could be nervous times for South Africa. South Africa are likely to be without Philander's bowling through injury but they do have Steyn and Rabada plus Olivier's medium pace and Maharaj's left arm spin.

South Africa favourites but not done.

(On sky channel 404 - lunch break atm)
 
Sri Lanka run away with it by 1 wicket

Kusal Perera 153* what a monster of an innings.

Unbeaten last wicket stand of 88 of which Fernando made an unbeaten 6.

Famous day for Sri Lankan cricket.
 
Sri Lanka needed 78 runs for an unlikely win over South Africa when they lost their ninth wicket. But Vishwa Fernando held his own against the strong South African bowling attack with Kusal Perera exploding at the other end. The diminutive Sri Lankan paced his innings to perfection to steal a one-wicket win and remained unbeaten on 153. Here's how Twitter reacted to this monumental effort:


Roshan Abeysinghe
Roshan Abeysinghe
@RoshanCricket
Sri Lanka has answered their fans and critics in style. Proud of you guys let's continue the momentum. Congratulations Dimuth and the team. Kusal you are a star. Lost for words watching this historic win.

Angelo Mathews
Angelo Mathews
@Angelo69Mathews
What a win by @OfficialSLC @IamDimuth well led.outstanding by @KusalJPerera abuldeniya and everybody chipped in
1f44f.png
1f44f.png
1f44f.png
great team effort



Ashwin Ravichandran
Ashwin Ravichandran
@ashwinravi99
One of the greatest test matches in the recent past. #SAvSL Made for great viewing too.. Well done to both the teams
1f44f.png



Freddie Wilde
✔
@fwildecricket
That is surely one of the greatest Test innings of all time. Sri Lanka had won one of their previous 19 matches in all formats; they were playing one of the world's strongest bowling attacks in their own conditions, chasing 304 to win & were reduced to 226 for 9. Bonkers. #SAvSL

671
1:23 PM - Feb 16, 2019


Mahela Jayawardena
✔
@MahelaJay
What a beauty !!!! One of the best inings under presure. Showed intelligents and mental strength KJP and very proud of you.
1f44d.png
1f44a.png


2,511
1:30 PM - Feb 16, 2019


Russel Arnold
✔
@RusselArnold69
Magnificent from KP @KusalJPerera Really top class batting . The composure shown after Canberra is something to admire . Very well played .. Congratulations!! #SAvSL

962
12:18 PM - Feb 16, 2019


ian bishop
@irbishi
Well played Kusal Perera and @OfficialSLC
1f44f-1f3fb.png
1f44f-1f3fb.png
that was a knock for the ages. Gripping test cricket. Gosh I hope test cricket continues to be this good all year as we’ve seen in the last three weeks.

1,095
1:17 PM - Feb 16, 2019 · Trinidad and Tobago


Andrew Samson
@AWSStats
Highest 10th wkt partnership in the 4th innings to win a first-class match:
78* K Perera/V Fernando SL v SA Durban 2019
77* T Leather/R Oxenham Aus v Madras Madras 1936
Prev highest in Tests:
57* Inzamam-ul-Haq/Mushtaq Ahmed Pak v Aus Karachi 1994

457
1:14 PM - Feb 16, 2019



Callum Ferguson
✔
@calferguson12
That was an absolutely incredible chase by Sri Lanka! 78 run 10th wicket partnership... Test cricket at it’s best. #SAvSL
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1,107
1:20 PM - Feb 16, 2019 · Adelaide, South Australia



Tim
✔
@timwig
Stunning innings from Kusal Perera - 153* to lead Sri Lanka to 304/9 to beat South Africa.
More than shades of Brian Lara's 153* to lead West Indies's chase of 311-9 v Australia in 1999.

121
1:17 PM - Feb 16, 2019



Kumar Sangakkara
✔
@KumarSanga2
What an amazing win. One of the best if not THE best overseas win by @OfficialSLC Kusal Janith Perera was unreal. Congratulations to the team and @CHathurusinghe keep believing and keep fighting. If you compete for long enough the opportunities to win come your way.

3,026
1:37 PM - Feb 16, 2019


https://m.cricbuzz.com/cricket-news/106 ... hing-knock


(Obviously those emojis or symbols were normal size but copy and paste meant very large on here)
 

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