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BAN vs SL | Ton-up Kusal Perera, hostile Dushmantha Chameera propel Sri Lanka to face-saving win

A captain’s knock from Kusal Perera and a dominating five-wicket haul from Dushmantha Chameera helped Sri Lanka salvage pride after losing the first two match and the ODI series against Bangladesh. Chasing a formidable target of 286 runs, Bangladesh got off to almost the worst possible start against Chameera as the tall pacer ripped through the top order and sent back Mohammad Naim and Shakib Al Hasan before in a span of 13 balls. Naim was guilty of wafting at a delivery that kept on going away from him with the angle and the edge was snaffled by Kusal Mendis while Shakib was beaten for pace on a short ball when he tried to take on the short deliveries from Chameera. Then, the skipper Tamim Iqbal and man-in form Mushfiqur Rahim adopted a pretty defensive approach in face of a hostile bowling spell from Chameera. The duo would have hoped to prey on others after seeing off the new ball but the move did not work well as Tamim disappointingly fell to Chameera while trying to be cheeky and handed the right-armer his third wicket inside the powerplay. Tamim felt his bat touched simultaneously when the ball was near and hence the decision was not correct and he made no qualms about his disapproval of the decision which might also fetch him some demerit points later on. The next man in, Mosaddek Hossain tried to tee off and hit some lusty boundaries and tried to put Bangladesh back on track. However, Mushfiqur Rahim was getting stuck at the other end and failure to hit boundaries while the required run rate was going up made him desperate against debutant Ramesh Mendis who got him caught at long-on as his maiden ODI wicket. Mosaddek was in a great rhythm and he got excellent support from Mahmudullah as the dup started hitting the gaps to keep Bangladesh in the game. Mosaddek reached his fifty but an always increasing required rate forced him to manufacture shot and Mendis came back to claim another wicket on his debut. Mahmudullah got going with crisp boundaries but Chameera came back to wipe up the tail and open the account for Sri Lanka in the ODI Super League. Earlier, Sri Lanka won the toss and elected to bat first after making as many as three changes in the playing XI from the series-losing game. In contrast to Bangladesh’s start in batting, Sri Lanka were off to a rollicking start as Danushka Gunathilaka got going with a boundary on the very first ball. There was no dearth of momentum and the opening pair of Kusal Perera and Gunathilaka made merry of Bangladesh’s inaccuracies with the ball. The pair put on a rapid 82-run partnership in 12 overs before Taskin Ahmed came into the attack and struck two back to back wickets to peg Sri Lanka back. Perera reached his fifty and did not look in any mood to throw his wicket away as Kusal Mendis joined him in the middle. The right-hander took a calculated risk to keep the scoreboard going till the 26th over when he too was undone by Taskin Ahmed’s pace. Perera then found a perfect partner in Dhananjaya de Silva but he earned a reprieve only by DRS when the umpired adjudged him LBW against Taskin. There was no stopping Perera though but he too earned a timely reprieve at 99 when Mahmudullah failed to grab a tough chance at mid-off against Mustafizur Rahman. He later redeemed himself with an excellent catch to send back the Sri Lankan skipper. Perera’s dismissal did little to change Sri Lanka’s momentum as de Silva in the company of Niroshan Dickwella and Wanindu Hasaranga took Sri Lanka to a formidable total. Perera would be relived at getting off the mark in his ODI captaincy career as he has already earned a rather unceremonious tag of becoming the first Sri Lanka captain to lose a series against Bangladesh. The win although can’t change the scoreline of the series provided glimpses of Perera’s changing role in the current Sri Lankan batting order while Bangladesh over-reliance on Mushfiqur, Tamim and Shakib finally came back to hurt them as none of them could bail them out of trouble what could have been an otherwise dead rubber but not in the current era of ODI Super League.

Not a fool, Wasim Akaram couldn’t come to coach Pakistan because of fans’ ruly behaviour

Former Pakistan speedster Wasim Kamram revealed why he hasn’t taken up the job of Pakistan coach. The left-arm fast bowler believes that it is the behaviour of the fans that has over the years become unruly that has kept him from taking up the job. “I am not a fool. I keep on hearing and seeing the way people misbehave with their coaches and seniors. The coach isn’t the one playing. The players do that,” Akram said in an interview with Cricket Pakistan. "The coach can only help with planning so if the team loses, I don’t think the coach is as accountable as we hold him as a nation,” added the current Karachi Kings coach. Sating that he is afraid of being misbehaved online and otherwise, the 54-year-old said that he would like fans to trim their ways a bit. “I don’t tolerate misbehaviour. And we are becoming that. I love the people… their enthusiasm and passion for the game, but without the misbehaviour that is shown in social media. It shows what we are,” said Akram. If not the home team, then what about coaching former teams? Why hasn’t the man with 1932 professional wickets in 856 games, given any foreign team a try? Answering that Akram says, “When you become the coach, you need to give at least 200 to 250 days a year to the team and that’s a lot of work. I don’t think I can manage so much work away from Pakistan, from my family.” “And as it is, I spend time with most of the players in the PSL, they all have my number,” added Akram who will be travelling with the Karachi franchise to the Shiekh Zayed Stadium in UAE where the remaining PSL's sixth edition games would be held.

Never felt I will play day-night Test ever: Smriti Mandhana

India’s most popular female cricketer right now, Smriti Mandhana was pleasantly surprised by BCCI’s announcement of the maiden day-night Test for the Women’s national team on their Australia tour. She believes that it is like something she would have never imagined in her playing career. "Frankly, when I used to watch day-night Tests of men, I actually never felt that I will be able to experience this moment - it's wrong to say 'I' at the moment - that the Indian team will be able to experience the moment," Mandhana was quoted as saying by Espncricinfo. "So, when it got declared, I was like, 'Oh, wow. That's going to be crazy,'" added the exciting left-hander. The match between India Women and Australia is scheduled to take place between September 30 to October 3 at the WACA Ground in Perth. But before that, the Indian Women’s team has England to deal with when they begin their muli format tour with the one-off Tests at Bristol. The four-day match will begin on June 16. "When we got to know of the first Test, against England, the whole team was really excited," said the 24-year-old. The opening batter then went on to share how eagerly the whole team and herself are looking forward to playing only their third Test in seven years. "We all were looking forward [to it]. The last Test match I was part of was in 2014, so it's been quite a long time, we haven't gone out in whites, so that excitement of playing a Test match [after nearly seven years] was on another level," Mandhana said. Having represented India in 54 WODIs, two Tests and 78 WT20Is, Mandhana who made her debut as a 17-year-old in 2013 has come a long way, but could still recount her first memories of being excited like a child while playing her first day-night game. "Now that we are going to play a day-night [Test] match, [we have] lots of things to work on but [there's a] lot of excitement…excitement about being part of a day-night Test match, and that too in Australia, against Australia; it's always a good challenge. It's going to be a great moment for the Indian women's cricket team," concluded the Mumbai born.

Sri Lanka pay dispute | Arvinda de Silva asks players to stop complaining, focus on 'winning games'

Former Sri Lanka great Arvinda de Silva, who heads the Cricket Committee has defended the new payment structure that has led to a dispute between players and the Sri Lanka Cricket board. Arvinda de Silva said that the committee ‘discussed’ all aspects of the ‘performance based’ system and created a ‘fair’ system where they will be guaranteed increased income based on performance. “The Committee has been very fair to them by infusing additional benefits than before, which is on a performance-based scheme. We discussed this matter in depth before we presented it to the players. Unlike in the past, we have increased the benefits three-fold (300%) than what it was but purely on the team’s performance,” de Silva told the Daily News yesterday. Instead, he asked players to give up on the attitude of complaining and focus on performing well for Sri Lanka which anyway would make the new payment structure worthwhile and the SLC too can take that ‘positive approach’ to consider offering more benefits than stipulated in the newly-introduced payment structure. “The most important fact is that they should get into the middle and play positive cricket and start winning games for the country rather than complaining. This positive approach will encourage us to consider offering them more benefits, like some of the other countries in our region,” he added. Detailing the up-gradation in payment for players, de Silva said that if Sri Lanka players have been offered payment three times more than their previous payment in case of good performances. “It has to be a collective effort by the whole team. If they win a Test series, we pay them US $ 150,000 which was earlier limited to US $ 50,000. Winning a limited overs series we have offered them US $75,000, which was earlier limited to US $25,000. We also introduced a slab for the T20 format, which also runs up to a maximum of US $ 50,000, which earlier didn't have any rewards at all. Therefore, it is very unfair that our players say that they are not agreeable to this scheme,” de Silva asserted. Sri Lanka are touring Bangladesh for a three-match long ODI series and they have tasted their first series defeat in the format against Bangladesh.