3rd T20I Preview: England to experiment with combination, SL forced to make alterations

England have been in some top form in the ongoing T20I series against Sri Lanka at home. The hosts have taken an unassailable 2-0 lead in the three-match series after winning by 5 wickets in a rain-curtailed encounter in Cardiff on 24 June, Thursday.

Unlike the first match, the home side had a nervy start to the chase in the second game and after losing four wickets in quick succession, a steady stand between Sam Billings and Liam Livingstone and a late surge from Sam Curran took England home while bringing down the target of 103 in 18 overs (DLS method).

The Sri Lankan bowlers gave a good fight, but could not control the English side given the lack of runs put on board by the batsmen. The Kusal Perera-led side hasn’t been in form especially with the bat in this series. In the first game too, they were restricted to 129/7 in 20 overs before Jason Roy and Jos Buttler took on the Lankan bowling attack.

While the 2-0 lead has provided England with the chances of making few changes and experimenting with the combinations, Sri Lanka on the other hand would be looking to win this last T20I to gain some confidence and might be forced to make alterations in the final XI.

Match Details

Match: ENG vs SL, 3rd T20I, Sri Lanka tour of England, 2021

Date: Saturday, June 26, 2021

Time: 7:00 PM

Venue: The Rose Bowl, Southampton

Pitch Report

The conditions and the track in Southampton had something on offer to the fast bowlers during the WTC final. Well, something similar could be expected as England take on Sri Lanka at The Rose Bowl. The fast bowlers from both sides are in some good form and can have a slight edge. So, if you win the toss, bowl first.

Team News

England: England at present look pretty steady with their combinations. The batsmen have been among some runs and the multifaceted bowling attack has been in top form thoroughly in the series.

Openers Jason Roy and Jos Buttler showed some class with the bat in the first match while the middle-order chipped in with some valuable contributions when there were early hiccups. The presence of someone like Sam Curran in the lower middle-order adds massive depth to the already strong English batting line-up going into the T20 World Cup .

The youngster has been a brilliant customer with the ball for England so far and can also fetch quick runs at any given stage of the game. Nevertheless, with World T20 in mind later this year, the hosts are likely to make some changes in the final XI and experiment with the combinations.

Sri Lanka: Sri Lanka are struggling with their batting. The batsmen have been unable to put up a fighting total which has eventually ended them up being on the losing side.

But there have been certain positives for the visitors as well in the series. The bowlers did show some mettle in the second match and didn’t let the match slip away easily. Now with nothing to lose, the Lankan lions would also be looking to make the alterations in the playing XI.

Probable XI

England: Jason Roy, Jos Buttler, Moeen Ali, Eoin Morgan (c), Sam Billings, Liam Livingstone, Sam Curran, Tom Curran, David Willey, Chris Woakes, Adil Rashid

Sri Lanka: Danushka Gunathilaka, Avishka Fernando, Kusal Perera (c & wk), Kusal Mendis, Niroshan Dickwella, Dasun Shanaka, Wanindu Hasaranga, Isuru Udana, Akila Dananjaya, Dushmantha Chameera, Nuwan Pradeep

Fantasy XI

Jos Buttler (c), Kusal Perera, Jason Roy (VC), Kusal Mendis, Liam Livingstone, David Willey, Dasun Shanaka, Sam Curran, Adil Rashid, Isuru Udana, Chris Woakes

Discover more

Sri Lanka's batting woes continue as England take unassailable 2-0 lead in the series

England sealed the three-match series against Sri Lanka in Cardiff on Thursday after winning the second encounter by 5 wickets in a rain-curtailed match. The home side were initially handed a task to chase down 112 in 20 overs but the match was later reduced to 18 overs per side with the revised total being 103 runs after the rain at the end of England’s 12th over. The Sri Lankan bowlers gave the home side some hard times after they got some early breakthroughs in the innings. Binura Fernando first removed Jonny Bairstow for a duck while Dawid Malan was trapped in front of the stumps by Dushmantha Chameera for 4 soon after. The hosts then lost a couple of more wickets in quick succession and were left struggling at 36/4 before Sam Billings and Liam Livingstone stitched a stand of 54 runs for the fifth wicket. While Billings was eventually undone for 24 by Wanindu Hasaranga, Livingstone remained unbeaten at 29 off 26. Sam Curran who came in at number seven also remained not out for 16 as the two batsmen took the side home and gave the team an unassailable 2-0 lead in the series. Hasaranga scalped a couple of wickets for the visitors while Chameera, Fernando and Isuru Udana bagged one wicket each. Earlier, Sri Lanka’s batting woes continued after they were restricted to 111/7 in the allotted 20 overs. The Kusal Perera-led side had a disappointing start to the proceedings after openers Gunathilaka and Avishka Fernando were sent back in the hut early. Sri Lanka were 18/2 when captain Perera and Kusal Mendis provided the visitors with some resistance as the two batsmen put up a partnership of 50 runs for the third wicket. The skipper eventually departed for 21 off 25 while Mendis was next to follow for 39 off 39. Mendis’ dismissal saw a flurry of wickets for the Sri Lankan batting line up and they were left tottering at 90/7 before Udana chipped in with an unbeaten 14-ball 19. For England, it was Mark Wood and Adil Rashid who returned with two wickets each while Curran and Chris Jordan had one scalp to their name apiece. Sri Lankan captain Kusal Perera hailed the side’s bowling efforts but admitted that the batting was a bit of a concern. “Not ideal to be on the losing side, but our bowling was good. The concern is the batting. The conditions are not an excuse, and we need 140-150 to give our bowlers a chance. Our intent is positive cricket, but we haven't executed too well. We need to get back up soon,” he said after the match. England captain Eoin Morgan expressed delight and said that the wicket was good to bat on but the early hiccups had them on the backfoot. “With the WC in mind, this is a good challenge. It's normally a good wicket to bat on, but with the hiccup we had early, we tried to force the equation with the bat, but Sam and Liam showed the depth we had,” Morgan said. The two teams will now meet in the third and final encounter in Southampton.

PSL 2021 | Final: It's like we've found a new Shoaib Akhtar; Azhar Mahmood can’t praise Dahani enough

Multan Sultans made it to their first-ever Final in their fourth season in Pakistan Super League, having played their first in 2018. And in their very first attempt, the team managed to win the tournament and that too by a huge margin of 47 runs against four-time finalists and one-time winner Peshawar Zalmi. Shahnawaz Dahani with the ball and Sohaib Maqsood with the bat were two real finds of the tournament for the green brigade as other more experienced players like skipper Mohammad Rizwan, Sohai Tanvir, Imran Tahir and Rilee Rossouw too chipped in with their contributions. After the victory, the players and support staff couldn’t hold themselves back and fully expressed the winning feeling. In fact, the 23-year-old Dahani was the centre of attraction as the Multan bowling coach and former Pakistan all-rounder Azhar Mahmood compared him to one of Pakistan’s most lethal bowlers, but equally attractive personalities, Shoaib Akhtar. Describing Dahani at the post-match interview, Azhar said, “He is always smiling, whether he's been hit or not. The whole team lights up by his reactions. He is chirpy and always in a good mood, It's almost like we've found a new Shoaib Akhtar.” Talking about the bowling abilities of the Larkana born, Azhar said, “This is just a start for him, we'll work on his outswingers, on his inswinger. There are things that I will write down in a report and send to the Pakistan bowling coach for better management of Dahani.” The bowler who was awarded the Best Emerging Player and Best bowler award for picking up the highest wickets in the tournament (20), has been picked in the Pakistan squad for the tour of England and the West Indies. Multan skipper Rizwan was excited about the victory and credited the ‘Mighty Allah’ for providing strength to his entire team to fight it through after being at the bottom at the start of the Abu Dhabi leg. “Finals are pressure games - you can't avoid that in the final. We discussed that and brought it down to two things - it would either be the pressure of batting first or batting second,” he said about the preparation of the team ahead of this all-important game. The 29-year-old praised his bowlers and also credited the management to allow him the freedom to trust his players and play his team. “When you go for the win, you need to ignore the noise (criticism of team selection). With Maqsood we felt he wasn't getting enough of a hit and then we decided to push him up and it's paid off. And our bowlers have been fantastic throughout.” Sohaib Maqsood, who was drafted into the Pakistan team for his brilliant performances earlier in the morning as replacement of Haider Ali, after the latter was thrown out of the team for disciplinary reasons, played an amazing knock to bag Man of the Match and Man of the Series award at the tournament. The Multan born was happy with the victory and credited a good domestic season and his team management for the success. “I got a lot of confidence from the domestic season. In the PSL I hadn't established myself, but the management showed faith in me and sent me up the order. It all started falling in place particularly when I started batting No. 3, which helped turn things around,” said Maqsood. The 34-year-old, who gave up red-ball cricket to focus on his white-ball skills was thrilled by the National call up but said that would focus on his fearless cricket approach rather than changing anything. “I don't want to do anything different - if I get a chance, I'll play with the same kind of mindset and aggression,” he said. Before the presentation ceremony, the likes of Blessing Muzarabani, Tahir, Dhani and Rossouw thanked the management for all their efforts and faith shown in the team. Tahir had special words reserved for his family whom he was seeing after more than a month. “My family is here and all the celebrations, the sprinting was mostly for them. I want to tell my son that if he wants to play, he would have to play like a champion,” said the leg spinner.

PSL 2021 | Final: Multan Sultans' dramatic turnaround encapsulated by historic maiden title win

“Started from the bottom, now we're here,” If anything that could describe the journey of the Multan Sultans in the Pakistan Super League 2021, it is these lines by Drake. The journey has been such that nobody gave any chance to the Mohammad Rizwan led side after the end of the first leg in Karachi. They came to Abu Dhabi being at the bottom of the table alongside Quetta Gladiators, having just two points from five games. But, now they are the champions of the Pakistan Super League beating the one time champion and four-time finalists Peshawar Zalmi in their very first attempt at the Championship. In the final, the Sultans were on top of their game in every aspect. The only thing that the Rizwan led side lost in the game was the toss, post that it was all domination from the team from Southern Punjab. With the help of a steady opening partnership of 68 by skipper Rizwana and Shan Masood, the Sultans got off to a great start and the shoulders of the Zalmis started dropping from thereon. Adding to the drudgery of the Peshawar team was dropping Sohaib Maqsood’s catch by Hazratullah Zazai when the former was at just six. Maqsood made the Zalmi pay for it big time, hitting an unbeaten 65 off 35 balls. He along with Rilee Rossouw created a storm in the Sheikh Zayed Stadium of Abu Dhabi. The two added 98 off just 44 balls and forced the Multan side to get near 200. When Rossouw got out after completing his 20 balls 50, Khushdil Shah came along and played a cameo of five balls 15 runs to get the team to 206-4. The chase of Zalmi never got going in the first half of the innings as they were struggling in the sixties with three wickets down in such a big chase. Shoaib Malik and Rivaman Powell tried to bring things under control and at one point with 70 needed in the last five overs, and the two of them at the crease, the probability of a dream comeback seemed possible for a moment. But that wasn’t going to be the case, as just after the strategic timeout Blessing Muzarabani Struck with fuller length outside off which Powell nicked to Rizwan behind the stumps. Malik’s stay post that wasn’t long either as he was caught at deep square leg by Imran Tahir off a Sohail Tanvir slower bouncer. Post that it was all formalities and Tahir made sure that those formalities were completed as quickly as possible, removing Sherfane Rutherford, Wahab Riaz and Mohammad Imran in just one over. Zalmi, however, didn’t get all our as Sameen Gul and Mohammad Irfan played out the last three overs before handing the Sultans a huge 47 run win to lift the trophy. For Sultans, Tahir was the pick of the bowlers as he ended with 3/33 in his four overs while 39-year-old Malik was the highest scorer for Zalmi with his 28 balls 48. Sohaib Maqsood who has been drafted into the Pakistan squad dramatically after disciplinary actions against Haider Ali was awarded Man of the Match as well as Man of the Series. He scored 428 runs in 12 innings throughout the tournament. His average of 47.55 and his strike rate of 156.77 was the highest among all batters from Multan Sultans Shahnawaz Dahani [Dhani] was adjudged the Best Emerging Player of the Tournament as he also ended as the highest wicket-taker to win the prestigious Fazal Mahmood cap with 20 wickets in 11 innings.

England’s Regional Women’s T20 tournament named after iconic Women’s skipper Charlotte Edwards

The regional women’s T20 tournament in England, kicking odd this weekend has been remanded as Charlotte Edwards Cup, in honour of one of the most famous and celebrated Women cricketers of England, Charlotte Edwards. The eight women's regional teams in Central Sparks, Loughborough Lightning, NW Thunder, Northern Diamonds, South East Stars, Southern Vipers, Sunrisers, Western Storm, will play against each other. The tournament running across two months begins on June 26th with the clash between Loughborough Lightning and South East Stars at Trent Bridge. The first day would see all eight teams in action. The Semi-Finals and Final would be played on September 5th, the venue for which is still to be decided. Edwards, who is England Women's most-capped player and who captained her country from 2006-2016, winning three Ashes, an ICC Women's World Cup and an ICC Women's T20 World Cup, also leads the charts in most runs scored by an English Women in T20Is (2605 runs). Overall, the 41-year-old has amassed 10,273 runs in her 309 matches long career across three formats. Earlier last year, the 50 over regional women’s competition was named after another great Rachael Heyhoe Flint. "There are numerous individuals who have served English cricket with distinction who we could have chosen, but we felt with Lottie's relevance to the T20 game and her excellence as a player in the international T20 format, it was most fitting for the competition to take her name,” ECB Managing Director of Women's Cricket, Clare Connor, said on this occasion. Edwards, who is now involved in coaching young domestic players, said, "It's a huge honour to have my name attached to the competition. The regional players who'll take part in the competition are at the beginning of such an exciting journey, and the pathway has progressed and developed so far since I was in their position.”