The legspinner has had a stop-start international career but produced a remarkable performance

Andrew Fidel Fernando05-Aug-20244:45

Takeaways: Vandersay exposed India’s vulnerability against spin

It didn’t take much to win them over.It was only five nights ago that Sri Lanka’s batters tanked what seemed to be an untankable T20I, the middle order collapsing with such seismic ferocity even the batting in the Super Over was shaken. Spectators were incensed, and let the team know it. Hundreds in Pallekele gathered on the edge of the grass banks closest to the presentation ceremony and demanded answers from Charith Asalanka, the only player who emerged from the dressing room. Sticking around until well after the last wicket fell to scream their frustrations. This was after midnight on a weekday – fan feedback driven almost totally by spite.By the second half of Sunday’s ODI, the was blaring, a Lankan crowd was in voice, an India middle order was crashing, the vibes were back. It didn’t take much, never taken much, doesn’t seem like it ever take much. On its best days, Khettarama feels less a cricket ground, more a party that happens to have shimmied up to a cricket ground.Related

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This team crashed out of the T20 World Cup at the earliest opportunity. They haven’t qualified for next year’s Champions trophy. They’re ranked as low as… well… let’s not depress ourselves.Still, this public still looks for reasons to show up. On Friday, only about a third of Khettarama was full, but the team pulled off a tie, which after 10 straight losses to India, felt a little like a victory. On Sunday, expectedly, many more rolled up, clutching Sri Lanka flags. Helped by a strong contingent of India fans, the stands appeared at least 90% full.The middle order, so meek in the T20s, found its spine for the second match in a row in Dunith Wellalage, whose name has been on Khettarama’s lips since he impressed in a series against Australia two years ago.

“As much as we want to play the game and win, we need them supporting us. It’s a process. It will take time. But I believe we are on the right track.”Jeffrey Vandersay

But they truly came alive for Jeffrey Vandersay, shunted into the team at the last moment after Wanindu Hasaranga was ruled out. On the kind of big-spinning surface that tends to narrow the gap between these two teams, he bowled sublime wicket-to-wicket lines, excellent lengths, and vitally changed up the tilt of the seam.Some caught the seam and turned or leapt big – the ball that had Rohit Sharma caught at backward point, the ball to get Shubman Gill caught at slip, the one to trap Shivam Dube in front. Others slid on, like the balls that dismissed Virat Kohli, and KL Rahul. His was almost a Test-match mode of attack, on what essentially felt like a dustbowl day-four surface.India had raced to 97 for no loss on the back of another Rohit fast start. But although there were big cheers for Rohit’s departure, it was when Gill was dismissed that the crowd lifted leaping at their seats, almost as spectacularly as Kamindu Mendis leapt to his right to complete the tour’s most exquisite grab, at slip.Jeffrey Vandersay had a night to remember•AFP/Getty Images”Gill was going nicely, so with that blinder of a catch, Kamindu turned everything around,” Vandersay said after the game. This is not a crowd that expects victory exactly, particularly against a team such as India. But it does expect to be made happy, and few acts on the field are as infectiously joyous as an astonishing catch.”People still love us and want to back us,” Vandersay said. “No point if we go and play the game if there’s no backing – if there are no supporters. As much as we want to play the game and win, we need them supporting us. It’s a process. It will take time. But I believe we are on the right track.”Whether the track is right is yet to be seen. This was a single victory, on what may be described as a singular track, given the runways seen much more often in white-ball cricket. Vandersay’s own career is one of significant highs, such as his T20 World Cup in 2016, but also of lows such as the 2019 World Cup, where he was modest in the one game he was allowed to play. It has been no surprise that his presence in squads have been sporadic.And yet, on a night when the rare victories come, the difficult truths feel more manageable. It is possible to imagine a future in which Vandersay makes himself part of Sri Lanka’s spin-bowling core over the next two years. There’s a T20 World Cup Sri Lanka are due to co-host in 2026.More vitally, this was a karate-chop to the monotony of defeat, and the pessimism it is so easy to slip into. If this crowd is a cardiogram, in an era of Sri Lanka’s men’s cricket in which it’s often felt like their condition was critical, in this ODI at least, there was a powerful heartbeat.

Very little went New Zealand’s way on the opening day of the second Test and chancy Sri Lanka cashed in

Madushka Balasuriya26-Sep-2024Welcome to the multiverse of madness fine margins. Doesn’t quite roll off the tongue as the Marvel one, but don’t for a second think New Zealand wouldn’t consider making all sorts of morally ambiguous choices to slip right into any other universe right now. See, if you’re slow on the uptake (read: only clicked on this article and nothing else), that intro is not quite right.Yes, Sri Lanka won the toss and, yes, Nissanka edged behind off the final ball of the first over, but that’s about it. New Zealand thereafter embodied their slightly less competent self from seemingly another reality.Karunaratne was grassed by Daryl Mitchell at first slip, before later being let off as Tom Blundell fumbled a stumping. Chandimal, meanwhile, was fortunate to edge between third slip and gully when he was only on four, but then it happened again in the 13th over – this time as New Zealand had opted to go without a second slip.Related

Chandimal, Mathews punish sloppy New Zealand to make it Sri Lanka's day

The end result of these costly errors (and some just regulation bad luck) was a 122-run second-wicket stand, which was precisely what skipper de Silva would have been hoping for when he won his sixth toss in a row in Tests (yeah, he definitely doesn’t want to inhabit a different universe).Even the breakthrough came against the run of play. Karunaratne’s call on a quick run to midwicket was turned down by Chandimal, leading to a mix-up which saw the former nowhere near returning to his crease. That he even made the frame was down to a throw from Glenn Phillips that found Tom Latham at short leg instead of Blundell closer to the stumps.But if New Zealand thought that this would prove to be a watershed in terms of their fortunes, the universe was only just getting started.You know that whole bit about Mathews being strangled down leg after a no-ball, well in this reality that ball too was a no-ball. Couldn’t script it, really, but then again there are supposedly an infinite number of realities. Mathews also wound up edging one behind shortly after, but as the fates would have it, the ball fell short of first slip.Chandimal’s chanced innings then continued with a leading edge dying on Tim Southee at short cover, four runs short of his 16th Test ton. And as if to really punctuate the milestone, once reaching it, he edged yet another drive past first slip.Tim Southee and Co found it hard to break the second-wicket stand•AFP/Getty ImagesWith New Zealand uncharacteristically unreliable in the field, Chandimal eventually fell after playing all around a sharp-turning off break from Phillips. By then Sri Lanka had 221 on the board, but if the first Test had shown anything, it is that wickets breed more wickets. Still, when you’re running bad even quads aren’t safe.See the scale of New Zealand’s misfortune by this point had already reached rotten levels, so much so that new units of measurement were being expediently crafted following the close of play.How else would you choose to surmise the series of events that followed: Kamindu edging twice through a vacant second slip region, before getting a full-blooded edge that Mitchell was only able to parry away for four. Disastrophy? That could work, potentially. Especially after Mathews became the third Sri Lankan batter to be dropped, as he fenced away a sharp bouncer from the luckless O’Rourke that Latham at second slip could only get fingertips on.Mercifully for the visitors, that was to be the last of their close calls, as Sri Lanka ended the day having piled on 306 runs for the loss of three wickets at stumps. But things can change quickly in Test cricket, particularly in Galle, and especially on a new day.”A lot of days are like that in Test cricket actually,” stated Glenn Phillips reflecting on the day’s play. “A lot of the time at home, especially on the greener wickets, they get edged quite often either just before or just over the slips fielders.”That’s part and parcel of the game, but it really makes you feel like you’re in it. And if you can create some pressure for a long period of time, then you definitely feel like you’re not that far away from a couple of quick ones. We could come out tomorrow and they could potentially be bowled out for 330, as simple as that.”But until then, New Zealand would, as a collective perhaps, do well to keep an eye out for any stray banana peels or rakes lying around.

Eden Carson, part of the new generation, had taken out West Indies’ top order before the team’s most experienced figured closed it out

Valkerie Baynes19-Oct-2024West Indies needed 15 runs off the last over with seven wickets down and Suzie Bates wanted the ball.With the backing of captain Sophie Devine and Amelia Kerr – with whom Bates forms an impressive White Ferns triumvirate – she took it.Zaida James, in the middle of a crucial cameo for West Indies with a place in the T20 World Cup final on the line, crunched Bates’ first ball through the covers for four. New Zealand were only allowed three fielders out due to an over-rate penalty. But this wasn’t the first time Bates had been here, and it showed.Related

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A dot ball followed by a fuller one that angled in and pegged back James’ leg stump meant New Zealand were almost there. A single to Ashmini Munisar left Bates’ fellow 37-year-old Afy Fletcher with 10 to get off the last two balls. When she managed just a single off the last, Bates was there to collect the ball, fired in by Kerr from deep midwicket, and slammed it into the stumps in triumph.Some 14 years of waiting for another shot at the title was over.”I looked at Suzie and said, ‘Suzie I think you should bowl,’ and she said to Sophie, ‘bowl me, I want to bowl it,’ Kerr said of that last over. “That’s huge from your leader, your most capped player, to step up again in that moment.”She’s done it before for us, she’s a bit of a last-over specialist and she likes to call herself Michael Jordan. I think that was a Michael Jordan moment.”It was reminiscent of Bates’ over against England in March, the final one of the match in which she defended eight runs and took 2 for 4 to win it and keep their five-game series alive after two defeats.Playing her 333rd international match, equalling Mithali Raj’s record for appearances, in what could be her final campaign for New Zealand, Bates’ solitary over against West Indies in Sharjah on Friday night was the ultimate complement to Eden Carson’s efforts in the powerplay.Carson, the 23-year-old offspinner, was Player of the Match for a second consecutive time at this tournament with 3 for 29 as New Zealand defended a modest total of 128 for 9.

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She removed Qiana Joseph, star of West Indies’ upset against England in their final group game, and Shemaine Campbell inside the first five overs. After six overs, New Zealand had sent down 19 dot balls between Carson, 20-year-old left-arm spinner Fran Jonas and seamer Rosemary Mair.When Carson rearranged Stafanie Taylor’s stumps in the ninth over with one that ripped past the bat to end a laboured innings of 13 off 20, West Indies were left with too much to do, despite Deandra Dottin’s best efforts to chase down the target with her 33 off 22 balls.It was Kerr who removed Dottin via a top edge to Jonas, who held on at short fine leg on a night when New Zealand put down five catches and missed two reviews that would have yielded wickets.So there it was, Bates representing the old guard with Devine, Carson representing the future, and 25-year-old Kerr with 158 caps the bridge between two generations of White Ferns.That all three came together at the perfect time following a difficult period since the last T20 World Cup was something no one on the outside saw coming at the start of the tournament but those on the inside believed in.Since New Zealand crashed out in the group stages of the 2023 edition in South Africa, Devine has spoken of wanting to protect the likes of Carson, Jonas and Izzy Gaze, the 20-year-old wicketkeeper-batter who scored a vital 20 not out off 14 balls on Friday, from any pressure.That theme continued through series defeats to England at home and away and a 3-0 series defeat in Australia immediately before this tournament and now New Zealand, young and old(er), are seeing the benefits.Eden Carson celebrates dismissing Qiana Joseph•ICC/Getty Images”It’s been a tough year but I think it speaks volumes of the character and the people in the group,” Kerr said of her side’s achievement. “Those series were tough and they were against England and Australia, who are both two world-class teams.”Losses can dent your confidence but coming to a World Cup you want to stay positive and believe that you can win any game and hopefully those losses made us better, which I think they 100% have. To stay upbeat and together just shows the character this group has.”While it’s been almost impossible to completely shield the youngsters, as Carson revealed, they have been able to thrive.Georgia Plimmer, the 20-year-old opener, is another example of New Zealand keeping the faith with a young player. After struggling through their tour of England, she rewarded them with a half-century against Sri Lanka in the group stage then top scoring in their eight-run win over West Indies with 33 off 31. That Plimmer’s innings came as Bates battled her way to 26 off 28 was another sign that the future is bright for New Zealand.”As a team we could have fallen into a bit of a hole with each other and getting a bit of stick from people online, but I think that just built us as a team,” Carson said. “We’ve been a lot closer over the past year. We don’t try speaking too much about the losses, we just speak about the learnings that come from that.”The more experienced group, it has been tough on them as well. I know mentally and emotionally it has been draining for them but to be able to show up every day to training, to camps back in New Zealand, to now the World Cup on the big stage. Anything can happen at a tournament like this. In a series we can go 3-0 down like we did against the Aussies but I think those games, we took a lot out of those.”With England and Australia making shock exits in the group stage and semi-finals respectively, New Zealand now face South Africa in Sunday’s title decider, guaranteeing a new champion. That seems apt for a side unearthing new champions within.

The allrounder has played just four first-class matches and is yet to take a wicket, but has the backing of Australia’s stand-in captain

Andrew McGlashan10-Jan-2025If you thought Sam Konstas was inexperienced with 11 first-class matches under his belt when he came into the Australia side, their next debutant could have just four games to his name when they earn a baggy green and a maiden first-class wicket might come in a Test.Cooper Connolly, the 21-year Western Australia allrounder, was the most eye-catching selection in Australia’s squad to tour Sri Lanka and while he has already impressed with the bat early in his career it’s the left-arm spin, which he has only sent down 16 wicketless overs of at first-class level, that played a key part in his call-up.Steven Smith, who will captain the Tests in Sri Lanka with Pat Cummins absent on paternity, pitched for Connolly’s inclusion when he spoke to coach Andrew McDonald and selector Tony Dodemaide after the Sydney Test to supplement the specialist left-arm spinner Matt Kuhnemann.Related

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“I was quite big on someone like Cooper coming in to be able to spin the ball away,” Smith said. “You watch India play in India and they have Axar [Patel] and [Ravindra] Jadeja, if one of their spinners gets tired or nothing’s happening they can turn to another spinner. I like the fit, just having a couple of spinners going each way. It matches up really nicely.”Australia’s desire for left-arm spin on the subcontinent led to Kuhnemann’s hasty debut on the 2023 tour of India. They will also come against Prabath Jayasuriya in Sri Lanka who has 107 wickets in 18 Tests, having started his career with 12 on debut against Australia on their previous tour.Connolly, who revealed he had pulled out a 10-year-old picture of him alongside Smith at the WACA following his call-up, won’t be expected to play the role of those specialist spinners, but he is confident in how his bowling is developing despite the limited opportunities.”I feel like my bowling is pretty high at the moment. I like to think it is,” he said. “That’s something that will get me in teams around the world and hopefully more opportunity for Australia. Think my bowling’s come a long way in the last 18 months so I’m happy with where it’s at.”It was 9pm in the evening when Connolly received the phone call to tell him he had made the squad. “Saw Tony Dodemaide’s name pop up and thought there’s probably only thing it could be,” he said. “[It was a] nice phone call, went straight and told mum and dad, mum was about to cry. I’ll never forget that moment. Dream come true.”Cooper Connolly (red cap) with Steven Smith at the WACA•Cooper ConnollyConnolly’s career has always been on the fast track. He was the youngest member of Australia’s 2020 Under-19 World Cup squad and captained them in the 2022 edition but things really took off with his match-winning performance in the 2022-23 BBL final where he helped carry Perth Scorchers to the title. Just as significantly, certainly as far as Test cricket is concerned, he made a high-class 90 on his first-class debut last season’s Sheffield Shield final having been a last-minute replacement for Cameron Bancroft.”While he’s still young in terms of games played, he’s put some eye-catching performances,” WA and Perth Scorchers coach Adam Voges told ESPNcricinfo last year after Connolly’s inclusion for the limited-overs tour of the UK. “He’s a character that doesn’t get overawed by big moments, that’s what the selectors must have seen and been happy to get him involved.”It was a theme picked up by chair of selectors George Bailey when the squad was announced. “Technically, we like it. Temperament, we like. Character, we like. Clearly, skill set, there’s a lot to like there as well,” he said.Connolly would have played Shield cricket before last season’s final but for a boating accident, and he would have added a couple more appearances if not for a broken hand picked up in the ODI against Pakistan in Perth. He has scored half-centuries in each of his first three Shield matches and featured in the Australia A-India A series before switching to the ODI squad.While Connolly’s bowling has been a big part in his selection, batting is clearly his stronger suit, although even there he continues to learn on the run, particularly when it comes to switching between formats which he will need to do heading to Sri Lanka from the BBL where he is currently the leading run-scorer.”I haven’t done a lot of it [changing formats] so I’m still learning but think it will be about [how] I like to be an aggressive player in red ball cricket as well,” he said. “So it’s just about toning it down a little from T20 and still playing the way that’s got me to this level.”As the game gets a glimpse of Australia’s next generation, Connolly was full of praise for the way Konstas started his Test career. “Seeing him play ramps shots off [Jasprit] Bumrah, it’s exciting; I won’t be doing that,” he said with a smile. “He’s brought so much energy to that team, they already had a lot of energy, but he’s just brought something different, the way he plays it’s amazing to be honest. He’s brave enough to ramp Bumrah three times in an over. It will be a nice opportunity to get in there and hopefully provide some more energy with him.”Whether Connolly plays or not, he will use the chance in Sri Lanka to soak up as much knowledge as he can from the experienced players.”I’ll probably sit in Travis Head’s pocket like I did during the one-day and T20 series,” he said. “It’s just going to be exciting to be around some players that ten years ago I was watching play Test cricket at the WACA. I actually pulled up a photo from 10 years ago, it was a photo of me and Steve Smith, so that was pretty cool thinking I could be running out with him.”

England ended their tour of New Zealand with a heavy defeat in Hamilton. Alan Gardner spoke to Vithushan Ehantharajah, Andrew Miller and Matt Roller about how their year in Tests has gone

ESPNcricinfo staff19-Dec-2024England ended their tour of New Zealand by suffering a 423-run blowout, but still went home with the Crowe-Thorpe Trophy in their luggage. On Switch Hit, Alan Gardner spoke to Vithushan Ehantharajah in Hamilton about how the final Test played out, and then was joined by Andrew Miller and Matt Roller to discuss England’s year in Tests – from the the arrivals of Shoaib Bashir, Gus Atkinson and Jacob Bethell, to Zak Crawley’s woes and what it all means for next winter’s Ashes.

Has he had a string of low scores? Yes. Has it happened to plenty of batters in T20? Yes. Is there a pattern to this one? Probably not

Karthik Krishnaswamy07-Apr-20252:13

How big a concern is Pant’s form?

Rishabh Pant has faced 32 balls in IPL 2025, and he has been dismissed four times. Only one of his four innings has lasted beyond ten balls.It’s a sequence of low scores; a short sequence, as of now. It can happen to any batter, in any format, and of the three formats, it’s likeliest to happen in T20. These sequences happen multiple times to batters if their careers last long enough, and several times they are pattern-free things that everyone forgets about as soon as they end.Is there a pattern to this one? It would appear not. Pant has been out twice in 16 balls against pace, and twice in 16 balls against spin. One of his dismissals to pace was off a high full toss that took him by surprise and would likely have been no-balled in the days before ball-tracking technology began to mediate these decisions. One of his dismissals to spin was to a half-tracker down the leg side that he happened to hit straight to short fine-leg.Related

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It feels wrong to even try and look for a pattern. We like to think we have all accepted that as batters take risks more frequently in T20 cricket, many of them will go through weeks of failing to get out of single digits and that this will often happen without anyone being able to say with any conviction that something about their technique seems off, or that teams have worked out a method to get them out or keep them quiet long enough to force a wicket-inducing error.We like to think all this, but the moment a big-name player (we cringe at using that word but we’ll use it anyway) three or four times in a row, we go back to a way of looking at the game that we like to think we’ve left behind us, a way that judges outcomes rather than processes. He’s not scoring runs. Something must be wrong.Pant is not scoring runs. Something could be wrong. But have we really seen enough to be able to tell?He has faced 32 balls this season, across four innings. He has scored 19 runs. That sounds bad, and it sounds worse if you turn those numbers into an average (4.75) and a strike rate (59.37), but we’re still in the territory of it’s too early to tell.

Pant has strengths and weaknesses like anyone else, but because he bats in a way that’s almost unique to him, we tend to underestimate the robustness of his methods and pay inordinate attention to his flaws

Keep in mind that Pant is coming off a long break, having not played any international cricket since the New Year’s Test in Sydney. His last competitive game before Lucknow Super Giants’ (LSG) match against his old team Delhi Capitals (DC) on March 24 was a Ranji Trophy game that ended on January 24.Rest can do players good – it seems to have helped Mohammed Siraj, certainly – but it can also leave them rusty. It can take batters a little longer than bowlers to get their muscle memory back to full sharpness because so much of their art is about reaction.There’s really only one wise way to look at Pant’s season so far. It is to wait and watch. Yes, at INR 27 crore, he’s the most expensive cricketer in IPL history. Yes, he’s leading a new team. Yes, his scores have a bearing on his team’s results. Yes, he’s currently not in India’s T20I team and is only their reserve wicketkeeper in ODIs. Yes, his scores could have a bearing on his selection in those two formats. But it really is too early to try and read patterns into his scores.Rishabh Pant fell for a duck on his LSG debut•BCCIIt isn’t as if this is an extension of poor form from recent IPL seasons. He scored 340 runs at an average of 30.90 and a strike rate of 151.78 in IPL 2022. He missed IPL 2023 after suffering a car crash that left him needing reconstructive surgery on three key knee ligaments. He came back last season, and it was as if he had never gone away: 446 runs at 40.54, and 155.40.Pant has played eight full IPL seasons. He has scored his runs at 150-plus strike rates in five of them, failing to do so only in 2016 – his debut season – and the Covid-19-ravaged seasons of 2020 and 2021. It’s a terrific record, and he’s a wicketkeeper on top of it. He has strengths and weaknesses like anyone else, but because he bats in a way that’s almost unique to him, we tend to underestimate the robustness of his methods and pay inordinate attention to his flaws.He has come back from a bit of a break, and he has started a new season with four low scores. It can happen to anyone, but Rishabh Pant isn’t just anyone. It’s his blessing and his curse.