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Plays of the day from the third one-day international between South Africa and Sri Lanka

Andrew Fidel Fernando04-Feb-2017The backtracking fumble
In the Johannesburg Test against Sri Lanka, JP Duminy had chased at an errant uppercut from backward point, and flung himself horizontally near third man to complete a spectacular catch. A similar chance came to him again. When Niroshan Dickwella top edged an uppercut off Kagiso Rabada, Duminy tore after it from backward point again, lined it up perfectly, but this time, could not close his hands on the ball. This had been by far the easiest of the two chances – even third man could have come in off the boundary to take it.The bright idea
There were several attempts to vanquish a swarm of bees that had taken over the infield, including putting a fizzy drink in a bucket in an attempt to trap them in the receptacle. One of the tactics that almost worked, though, seemed to come from a player himself. Chris Morris was seen lugging a fire extinguisher out onto the field and handing it to a groundsman. The groundsman was able to displace the bees momentarily, only for the extinguisher to eventually run out of gas, and for the bees to take their positions once more.The mandatory du Plessis stunner
Faf du Plessis has already taken two sublime one-handed grabs in this series, and would not let his 100th ODI pass without producing another. Debutant Lahiru Madushanka attempted to steer a back-of-a-length ball from Dwaine Pretorius to third man, but could not beat du Plessis – at second slip flinging himself aerially to his right, and coming up with his second spectacular take in as many matches.The bad leave
Sri Lanka have struggled to leave balls on length all tour, but today one batsman fell attempting to leave on turn. Seeing a well-flighted Imran Tahir delivery pitch about 30 centimetres outside off stump, left-hander Sachith Pathirana declined to play a shot, perhaps thinking Tahir had bowled the googly, and that the ball would break away from the stumps. Instead it was just the usual stock ball. It cut back sharply, and hit Pathirana’s undefended wickets between middle and off stump.

Also: Are Mithali Raj’s six consecutive ODI fifties a record?

Steven Lynch30-May-2017In a recent IPL match, Sanju Samson hit seven sixes but no fours – was this a record? asked Parteek Khunger from India
Sanju Samson’s achievement, for Delhi Daredevils against Gujarat Lions in Delhi on May 4, was the fourth occasion that someone had hit seven sixes but no fours in a senior T20 innings. It was the second instance at this year’s IPL – Nitish Rana also did it, for Mumbai Indians against Kings XI Punjab in Indore a fortnight before. The other instances were by the Australian pair of Andrew Symonds, for Surrey against one of his former counties, Kent, at The Oval in 2010, and Andrew McDonald, for Melbourne Renegades against Sydney Sixers at the Docklands Stadium in Melbourne in 2011-12.Which batsman was out bowled most often in Tests? asked Khalid Maroof from Pakistan
The answer here is a slight surprise: it’s Rahul Dravid, India’s supposedly impregnable “Wall”, who had his stumps rattled 55 times in all in Tests. That’s one more than Sachin Tendulkar, and two more than Allan Border. Jacques Kallis comes next with 46. This sort of table, of course, is likely to be dominated by people who played a lot of Tests (Dravid played 164, Tendulkar 200, Border 156 and Kallis 166). But next on the list is the New Zealander John Reid, who played only 58 Tests and was bowled in 44 of his 108 innings. He was thus out this way in 40.7% of his innings – a record for anyone who batted at least 50 times. The England offspinner Sam Staples had five Test innings (in South Africa in 1927-28) and was bowled in all five of them.What is the fewest runs scored in a Test that produced a positive result? asked Allan Alexander from the United States
The lowest number of runs in a completed Test match is 234, on a spiteful pitch in Melbourne in 1931-32. Australia, who had managed only 153, completed a 5-0 whitewash over South Africa by bowling them out for 36 and 45. Left-arm spinner Bert Ironmonger, who was 49, took full advantage of the helpful conditions, claiming 5 for 6 in the first innings – which lasted just 90 minutes – and 6 for 18 in the second. The lowest in a Test in which all 40 wickets went down comes next in the list – 291 runs in all on another rain-affected pitch, at Lord’s this time: Australia (116 and 60) beat England (53 and 62) by 61 runs in 1888.Mithali’s Raj’s live streak of six consecutive ODI fifties is a joint-record in women’s cricket•Bipin PatelMithali Raj just scored her sixth consecutive fifty in ODIs – is this a record? asked Sankar Anand from India
Mithali Raj’s unbeaten 62 against South Africa in the final of the recent quadrangular series in Potchefstroom was indeed her sixth score of 50 or more in a row in one-day internationals – and she could obviously add to that in her next innings. She has already equalled the record of six successive half-centuries in women’s ODIs, which was established by Australia’s Lindsay Reeler in 1988, and equalled by Charlotte Edwards in 2013 and Ellyse Perry in 2015. The men’s record is nine successive scores of 50 or more, by Javed Miandad between March and October 1987; five others have made six in a row.Regarding last week’s question about the bowlers who took 16 wickets in their first Test, is there anyone who played more Tests than Bob Massie but failed to match the number of wickets he took on debut? asked Brian King from England
As mentioned last time, Australia’s Bob Massie took 16 for 137 on his debut – against England at Lord’s in 1972 – but only 15 wickets in the other five Tests of his career. I was just wondering how to work this query out, when the assiduous Aslam Siddiqui answered it for me on Facebook! It turns out there are two bowlers who did better (or perhaps worse) than Massie, in terms of matches played. Alfred Shaw bowled the first ball in Test cricket, in Melbourne in 1876-77. He took eight wickets in that inaugural match, but only four more in six further appearances. Even he was trumped by the South African legspinner Ian Smith, who collected seven wickets on debut – against England at Trent Bridge in 1947 – but only five more in eight further Tests. Further down the list is the Pakistan seamer Mohammad Zahid, who took 11 wickets on his debut, against New Zealand in Rawalpindi in 1996-97, but managed only four other wickets in four further Tests.Leave your questions in the comments below

Matches between India and Pakistan used to be emotional, heated, and high-stakes contests for the players involved. Not so much anymore

Jarrod Kimber in Edgbaston03-Jun-2017″India-Pakistan once again, and probably will draw the same questions,” was the first thing asked of Virat Kohli at his press conference, even before the questions about the coach and captain rift. Because unlike the rules of Fight Club, the first rule of India-Pakistan is to talk about India-Pakistan.Yet this feels like the quietest contest between these two teams in a long time.Outside the India team’s hotel, there were a handful of fans waiting for autographs, and not many seemed to be Indian fans. Often there is a feeling around the city, the hotel and among the players that lets you know an India-Pakistan match is coming. In Birmingham right now, you’d barely know there is a game of cricket going to be played, let alone the match that is hyped as a war without the shooting.Perhaps in the days of amateur cricket, when a win for most teams was about national identity and pride, India-Pakistan was the biggest contest in sport. Now it might still be one of the most-watched contests, but for players who have marketing deals, agents, and are regulating their diet for optimum performance, every match is important.Modern cricketers live in a bubble, and while Twitter and WhatsApp can burst it at times, they will be staying focused and bonding as a unit while ticking off the processes. At training they didn’t do a super secret India-Pakistan only training regime, on match day they won’t inject themselves with green or blue magical serum to turn into giant India-Pakistan gods. They will play as best they can, like the professionals they are, for their country, but also for their team-mates and their future.Mickey Arthur was focusing on the professional part of it. “Yeah, we know for us to progress in this tournament, we’ve got to hit the ground running. So whether it was against South Africa, whether it was against Sri Lanka, the intensity and the expectation, certainly from myself as coach and I’m sure from the captain, would have been the same. It’s just a different opposition, and there’s a little bit of hype. And it’s a massive game. But every game for us in this competition is massive. We can’t take our foot off the pedal in any game, and we can’t think, ah, it’s India, we have to just lift ourselves, because that would be very unprofessional.”When talking about the rivalry, Sarfraz Ahmed spoke of the talk of the rivalry more than the rivalry itself. “It is also played up in the media. I feel those things affect the players sometimes. But we have tried to tell the players these things happen. There will be hype created in the media.”The professionally grumpy Virat Kohli said of the contest: “Nothing different, to be honest. I know it sounds pretty boring, but this is exactly what we feel as cricketers. We’re not saying anything different to what we feel.” Nothing different, the Indian captain, on India-Pakistan, the day before. Things done changed.Of course that is probably an understatement, or at least a lesson in the language of pre-match press conferences.The rivalry still holds for India-Pakistan fans•AFPWhen Aakash Chopra played in Pakistan in the Goodwill tour of 2003-04, India’s first Test series in Pakistan in 14 years, they knew it wasn’t a normal series: “As we grew up, it was not an option to lose to Pakistan”. Sachin Tendulkar told Chopra that he didn’t sleep for 15 nights before the big match in the 2003 World Cup. How many nights’ sleep would Virat Kohli lose over a Pakistan match now? Probably none.The relationship between the two countries has changed so much in the last 10 to 15 years. They are still two nations with a shared history and sibling rivalry, there are still problems on the border and of terrorism, but the roles of the siblings have changed. India is on its way to being one of the most important nations on earth, trying to go cashless while their leader sells out Madison Square Garden. Pakistan has been fighting with itself. India is an economic and political juggernaut, so why would a loss to Pakistan, their less successful sibling, mean that much? This current cricket relationship is more like a massively exaggerated version of Australia and New Zealand: the bigger sibling patronises the little one, when they think of them at all.There is still tension, the last scheduled match between India and Pakistan caused such political problems that it needed to be moved to a new venue. But there is no doubt that it’s not the same, as Chopra says: “It’s no longer the matter of life and death, or a war without the weapons”.The players are professional, the nations have moved on, many of the fans who will watch this game at Edgbaston will have friends who are from their great rivals. “The days of effigies getting burned, and player’s homes getting vandalised seem to have passed,” Chopra says. “When India used to win they’d use firecrackers on the streets, I think now we are well beyond the firecracker celebrations”. And as for the players, he says: “the current crop are not overwhelmed.”There are still uber-nationalists on both sides who cling to every chance to beat their enemy. Some players feel that way, most notably Gautam Gambhir, who has suggested that all ties with Pakistan be cut until terrorism ends.But most players don’t feel that strongly. Shahid Afridi recently wrote about his friendship with Indian players (Gambhir aside). Perhaps if the two teams played more often they would have a normal rivalry, but they don’t. Of Virat Kohli’s 264 international matches, 5% has been against Pakistan (16% against Australia, 17% against England). Azhar Ali has played India twice in 105 matches. And on the odd occasion they play each other, there haven’t many good games, or Pakistan wins, to spark anything outside Shahid Afridi’s last-over heroics in Dhaka three years ago.If picked, teenage legspinner Shadab Khan will play India in only his ninth international match, but when he was asked about this momentous game of incredible national and geopolitical importance, he said: “I used to feel the pressure when I saw them play on TV, but now I don’t feel any pressure”. The pressure is gone, so too the firecrackers, and we’re just left with the talk.

Harmanpreet Kaur’s innings broke a long list of records in women’s cricket history. We take a look back at our ball-by-ball commentary for five moments that shaped her knock

ESPNcricinfo staff20-Jul-2017Kristen Beams had kept it tight, going for just seven runs off her first 20 balls. Harmanpreet’s hit was the first signal of intent from India, a portent for how things would unfold.20.3 Beams to Kaur, FOUR runs, pushed through outside off, Kaur drops down to one knee and sends it clattering away over midwicket with a rasping slog-sweep.In a 42-over game, India seemed like they were going nowhere, nudging singles and twos. After Mithali Raj’s departure in the 25th over, there was added pressure on Harmanpreet to deliver. The six off Beams in the 27th over was the first of the innings, kickstarting her extended phase of acceleration.26.4 Beams to Kaur, SIX runs, and boom. Steps out, and Beams errs right in her wheelhouse. A lovely languid swing goes waaaay over long-on.Australia are known to raise the bar in World Cup games, and this delivery showed why. Seeing Harmanpreet step down the track, Jess Jonassen dragged one down the leg side and could have had her stumped. Harmanpreet was up to it, with a last-second readjustment that showcased her versatility, and another reminder that this was her day.33.5, Jonassen to Kaur, FOUR runs, this is a match-changing innings. Kaur runs down again, premeditated. Jonassen fires this down leg, but Kaur somehow stretches after that and gets a boundary to fine leg.Harmanpreet Kaur flings her helmet off after reaching her hundred•Getty ImagesThe ball where she got to the hundred was the YouTube moment of the innings, and one of the most bizarre non-celebrations in cricketing history.34.6 Beams to Kaur, 2 runs, last ball of the over. She wants one, then Kaur wants two because the fielder isn’t too quick on it. Kaur is not happy. Not happy at all. The throw from midwicket is to the keeper’s end, who throws the stumps down at the bowler’s end, by which time Deepti has made her ground. That means it’s Kaur’s 100. The glory of the moment lulled by the rage because of her partner’s lack of game awareness. More anger than joy currently, but that will pass. Out goes a hand on Deepti’s shoulder. Deepti had initially told her partner no to the second, but Kaur was set on two. She asked Deepti to sacrifice her wicket but the throw was to the wrong end, so both make it.Australia had almost bowled out their pace spearheads Megan Schutt and Ellyse Perry, and turned to Elyse Villani’s part-time services. In the eye of the Kaur storm, the hitting left our ball-by-ballers speechless, quite literally.38.1 Villani to Kaur, SIX runs, another six. Kaur moves to 140. Gets across and slog sweeps this over midwicket. Sensational-er. Massive-er. I’m losing my language. Wow.

And how many times have two batsmen scored double-centuries in the same innings of a Test?

Steven Lynch19-Dec-2017The new West Indian batsman Sunil Ambris was out hit wicket in two of his first three Test innings. Was this unique? asked David George from New Zealand
Sunil Ambris uniquely hit his own wicket to the first ball he received in Test cricket, from New Zealand’s Neil Wagner in Wellington recently. After getting off the mark in the second innings with a six, he then hit his wicket again in the first innings of the second Test, in Hamilton. To complete the unusual start to his Test career, Ambris retired hurt in the second innings.As to whether it was unique, that’s problematic: most published scorecards suggest it was, but actually I think it might have happened before – to another West Indian. In his maiden Test innings, against England in Bridgetown in 1929-30, the great George Headley is shown, on ESPNcricinfo and elsewhere, as bowled. But Wisden 1931 records the dismissal as hit wicket, and the rare 1974 Jamaican biography of Headley says of that debut innings: “But he was batting too close to the wicket; this was dangerous because he had a high backlift. When, finally, a ball came off the pitch very slowly his bat hit the wicket and he was out.”Bill Ponsford, the prolific Australian, was out hit wicket in successive innings in his final Test series, in England in 1934. He probably wasn’t too bothered, though, as he had 181 and 266 at the time!England have now lost seven overseas Tests in a row. Is this their worst ever run? asked James Lavender from England
Seven away defeats in a row – four in India last winter, and the first three Ashes Tests this time – equals England’s worst ever run. In 1992-93 they lost three in India and one in Sri Lanka, then the following winter lost the first three Tests in the West Indies. And there’s worrying news for England fans planning to turn up (possibly in disguise) for the Boxing Day Test at the MCG: Australia have now won their last eight Ashes Tests at home, equalling their best ever run – a 5-0 whitewash in 1920-21, followed by the first three matches of the next series, in 1924-25.How often have England scored 400 in the first innings of a Test and lost by an innings, as they did at the WACA? asked Michael Peters from England
The remarkable turnaround in Perth was only the ninth time England had reached 400 in the opening innings of a Test and lost. Four of those were by an innings – and three of them have been in the last 13 months. In the fourth Test in Mumbai last December, England opened up with exactly 400, but lost by an innings after India made 631. A week later, in Chennai, England managed 477 – and again lost by an innings after India’s 759 for 7. The only other time it happened was back in 1930, when England scored 405 at The Oval, but lost to Australia, whose 695 featured 232 from Don Bradman.Virat Kohli and Shikhar Dhawan are the two fastest Indian batsmen to 4000 ODI runs•Associated PressIt’s only happened twice to other countries: in Cardiff in 2011 Sri Lanka opened up with 400 but lost to England (496 for 5) by an innings and 14 runs, while in Melbourne in 2016-17, Pakistan lost to Australia (624 for 8) by an innings and 18 despite opening the match with 443 for 9 declared.In all there have been 47 occasions when a team has scored 400 or more in the opening innings of a Test but ended up losing. The highest total among them is Bangladesh’s 595 for 8 declared against New Zealand in Wellington in January 2017. If you included any first innings – the first or second innings of the match – there have been 79 occasions when 400-plus was not enough to avoid defeat, 16 of them by both England and Australia, and nine by India.It didn’t quite happen in Perth, but how often have two players made a double-century in the same Ashes innings? asked Rajiv Radhakrishnan from England
Mitchell Marsh’s eventual departure for 181 in the third Test in Perth at the weekend meant there have still been only two Ashes Test innings which contained two double-centuries. And it’s no great surprise that Don Bradman featured in both of them: at The Oval in 1934 he scored 244 and Bill Ponsford 266, while in Sydney in 1946-47 both Bradman and Sid Barnes made 234.In all Tests, there have been 16 instances of two double-centuries in the same innings, most recently by Ricky Ponting (221) and Michael Clarke (210) for Australia against India in Adelaide in 2011-12.Shikhar Dhawan went past 4000 runs in one-day internationals the other day. Is he the fastest Indian player to reach this milestone? asked Richard Daniels from Bahrain
Shikhar Dhawan reached 4000 runs in ODIs during his rapid undefeated 100 against Sri Lanka in Visakhapatnam at the weekend. It was his 95th innings, in his 96th match. The only Indian to get there quicker is Virat Kohli, in 93 innings, although he also did it in his 96th match. The overall record is 81 innings (84 matches) by Hashim Amla: Viv Richards (88), Joe Root (91) and David Warner (93) also reached 4000 in fewer innings than Dhawan.Leave your questions in the comments

The achievements of Dean Elgar, Aiden Markram and AB de Villiers should be celebrated and the form of Faf du Plessis should be questioned but that will come on another day, a less strange day

Firdose Moonda in Cape Town25-Mar-2018What a strange day to win a Test match. With all the focus on everything but what was happening on the field. With the headlines hijacked by a confession of an attempt to cheat, albeit a failed one. With the hype for one of the most highly-anticipated contests of the modern era hidden behind layers and layers of hysteria.”It has been bizarre, crazy, ridiculous,” Faf du Plessis said. “We joke about it but it’s literally like a soap opera. There’s something happening every day.”And the somethings have got out of hand. From stairwell altercations to shaming of a player’s wife, this series has been overtaken by the sideshows, to the point where du Plessis has now decided there are “too many things happening away from the game,” and it is taking the shine off on-field performances.Who will remember that Dean Elgar scored a gutsy century to set South Africa up for a fine first-innings score, or that AB de Villiers has made seven scores of 50 or more since his Test comeback three months ago, two of them in this match? Who will remember that South Africa have scored over 300 in three out of four completed innings since being bowled out for 162 in the first innings in Durban? That is a major turnaround in a team’s fortunes but it may be forgotten in the fumes from the fires this series has sparked.The first innings at Kingsmead revealed a South African side that were underprepared and unable to deal with the reverse-swinging ball and Mitchell Starc. If South Africa were secretly wondering if Australia being able to get the ball to tail earlier than usual was a result of some foul play, but were not saying it, they wouldn’t be the only ones asking the question. Whatever the answer, reverse-swing has added a different dimension to a series played in South Africa, which is usually about pace and bounce, and has demanded more than just tough openers from the respective line-ups.It has required patience and discipline in the middle order, something South Africa have got right more than Australia. “The ball has reversed a lot this series. We joked that normally being an opener in South Africa is the toughest time to bat, but at the moment everyone is putting their hands up to open the batting,” du Plessis said. “The toughest time to bat has been 40-80 overs, where you lose a wicket and you come in and the ball is reversing. And it is two very skilful attacks. The bowling attacks are such big exponents of reverse swing, it’s such a big weapon because it’s pace and late swing. Generally, teams have one, maybe two guys, the Australians have three and we have three. As a batter it’s really tough.”And so the achievements of Elgar, Aiden Markram and de Villiers should be celebrated and the form of du Plessis should be questioned but that will come on another day, a less strange day, a day which was not about how long it would be before Australia cracked.”It was about how can we apply more and more pressure on them as a team? Away from the game there was a lot of pressure on them from the stuff that was happening, so it was about making sure the boys were even more motivated to tighten the screw and not give them any breathing space whatsoever,” du Plessis said. “Keep it tight on them so they can feel the pressure and know it isn’t going anywhere. The discussion in this last session was to keep at it and once we get through them, we expected it would happen quickly because there is a serious amount of pressure on them as a team.”What a strange day to be named captain of your side. When you know you are on a hiding to nothing. Tim Paine admitted as much when he was asked how it felt to lead, and he was in an unenvious position. What could he possibly say to rally troops that had been let down by their commander-in-chief? Would he try to say anything at all?For their part, South Africa did not say very much at all in the field. They let the ball do the talking and once, they were spoken to by the umpires, who told them to stop throwing it onto the pitch to scuff it up. They let Morne Morkel do the talking at the end.What a strange day to take your first Test nine-for. On what could be your last day as an international cricketer.Morkel, one of the game’s true gentleman, who has barely uttered a word in anger across his 12-year career, was so modest about his performance, he didn’t even take credit for it. He even stopped to check on Starc when he hit him on the helmet and then removed him two balls later.Morkel should be able to say his final goodbyes at the Wanderers next week but stranger things have happened. He will be the first to admit his place in the XI is still not guaranteed.What a strange kind of insecurity for a man who has 85 Test caps and is one of only five bowlers from his country to have taken 300 Test wickets. But that has been the story of Morkel’s career so on this unusually strange day for cricket, it was fitting that in a series filled with villains, the ultimate gentle giant was its hero.”I’ll remember his last game in Cape Town as one of the sweetest moments,” du Plessis said of Morkel.What a strange day but for South Africa, what a sweet one too.

A fictitious voice from the South African camp shares his thoughts on the state of affairs after a horrendous second day in Galle

Andrew Fidel Fernando in Galle13-Jul-2018Wait, hang on. This is not how it went when we played these okes last time.Remember that game in Johannesburg? Ah, what a Test. Our quicks were so good then, and these Sri Lankan batsmen so fearful, they were practically racing each other back to the dressing room. Three days, that’s all we needed to win the match. And we did it looking so strong, and athletic, and manly, almost like we were the jocks in one of those high-school movies, running around the locker room bare chested, snapping the wimpy Sri Lanka batsmen on the backside with our towels.So I don’t really understand how, after so recently smashing Australia so hard that half their team is now banned, we have wound up in this kind of trouble in Sri Lanka. I mean, look at our pace attack, and then look at theirs. They only have one seam bowler. Credit to this Lakmal guy for looking in the mirror every day and still having the confidence to go outside with that hairstyle, but his bowling average is over 40 – about twice as high as Kagiso’s and Vern’s. Apparently he’s their captain, but he doesn’t bowl himself in the first 35 overs. Is he playing as a specialist batsman at No. 10? None of this makes any sense.It’s like everything is the opposite here, right? When our quicks have their tails up at home, like they did against Australia, they are fearsome, and forbidding. Watch yourself, or you’ll get an earful from Kagiso Rabada. Dale Steyn has eyes that scorch, and a forehead vein so pronounced that just by throbbing it’s committing more violence than most people have ever done in their lives. These Sri Lankan bowlers are like soft toys. That Dilruwan Perera is so shy that when I tried to talk to him he got so nervous and I had to stop the conversation for fear of being vomited on. Rangana Herath could not be less menacing if he tried. I know dad bods are in, but look, there are Herath indentations around the field from the times he had dived during fielding practice.

So I don’t really understand how, after so recently smashing Australia so hard that half their team is now banned, we have wound up in this kind of trouble in Sri Lanka. I mean, look at our pace attack, and then look at theirs.

And yet, what’s this? Between the two of them, they’ve got us five down for 48, the ball fizzing past the bat. There are so many catchers around the batsman that it’s more crowded at the crease than on one of the buses clunking around the stadium. And when these guys had come to South Africa, they’d dropped a lot of catches, while we raced around like superheroes after making stunning takes. Here it’s all backwards. Even when we get a full toss and drive the ball into a gap, an unseen fielder pops up as if out of the ground, and zings it back to the keeper who, by the way, never stops yapping.So what is there to do but prod, and stumble, and poke your bat out and pray that the ball will bounce into it, exactly like their whole top order had done 18 months ago? What else is left to do but go to the press conference and say the same things they did – “it’s the conditions that have landed us in this trouble,” and “we did apply ourselves with the bat, but the bowling was just too good”. This time it is us who are basically out of the match after six sessions, and will have to play extremely well to even take the game into day five.This is a place where three-quarters of their attack is made up of spinners, their lone seamer only gets the sympathy over before lunch, and while our dressing room is almost in silence, they are in howls of laughter out on the pitch. Everything is in reverse, and so, it would appear, are we.

England have won two successive away Tests for the first time in six years to complete a rare series win in Sri Lanka.

Shiva Jayaraman18-Nov-2018 England end their away woes 2000-01 The last time England won a Test series in Sri Lanka. The visitors had won the three-match series 2-1. Since then, this is England’s first win in the country in four attempts. While the hosts had won in 2003-04 and 2007-08, the two-match series in 2011-12 was drawn 1-1. This is England’s third series win in Sri Lanka: they had won their first series – a one-off Test – back in 1981-82. 4 Number of times in 20 attempts before this series that teams from outside the subcontinent had managed to beat Sri Lanka in a Test series in Sri Lanka. Apart from England in 2000-01, Australia had managed to beat the hosts in 2003-04 and in 2010-11. More recently, Sri Lanka lost to South Africa in 2014. 10 Number of Test series won by England in the subcontinent excluding one-off Tests. Their previous win here had come against India in 2012-13, when they had won the four-match series 2-1. Since 2000, they have won six out of the 17 series they have played in Asia involving two or more Test matches. 2012-13 The last time before this tour in which England had won two successive away Tests. They beat India in Mumbai and Kolkata in the 2012-13 series. The two wins in this series have come after a poor recent run for England in away Tests. Their last away win before this series had come against Bangladesh at Chittagong, after which they had lost ten matches out of the 13 that they played outside England. England spinners – 19, pacers – 0Thirty-eight wickets fell to spin in the Pallekele Test, the most ever in Test history•ESPNcricinfo Ltd 0 Wickets taken by England pacers in this match. This is only the third time that England have won a Test match when their quick bowlers have not taken a single wicket. The last such instance had come in the 1956 Ashes Test at Old Trafford when Jim Laker took 19 wickets in the match. The first such instance had come against India in 1951-52 at Kanpur. 38 Number of wickets taken by spinners in this Test – the most in a Test match ever. The previous highest were the 37 wickets which fell to spinners in the Nagpur Test in 1969-70 between India and New Zealand. 5 Number of times England spinners have taken 19 or more wickets in a match including this. The last such instance was against India at Mumbai in 2012-13 when Monty Panesar and Graeme Swann combined to bowl their team to a famous win.

Ball-tampering, captaincy issues, forthright coaches: if the duo find the moment for a chat during this brief series they won’t be short of stories to share

Andrew McGlashan in Brisbane23-Jan-2019If Tim Paine and Dinesh Chandimal find the moment for a chat during this brief series they won’t be short of captaincy stories to share. One is the accidental skipper, the other the captain of a team where the longevity of the role can be decided on the whim of an administrator.They are also linked, dare we say, by the spectre of ball-tampering. It was the infamous use of sandpaper in Cape Town that propelled Paine into his current position nine months ago and Chandimal was found guilty of the offence during the second Test against West Indies in St Lucia last July.While Australia were caught red-handed and could offer no defence, the Sri Lankans did not take the situation lying down. The refused to take the field on the third day, delaying play by two hours before a truce was reached. But the outcome was that Chandimal, along with the team manager Asanka Gurusinha and coach Chandika Hathurusingha, were suspended for the two Tests against South Africa.All that meant Chandimal wasn’t present for Sri Lanka’s series-levelling win in Barbados or the 2-0 win over South Africa which followed. Then he was only able to play one of three Tests against England due to a hamstring injury. That series was lost 3-0 on home soil, a real kick in the guts for Sri Lanka, and while the 1-0 loss in New Zealand was more expected, it has all left Chandimal with some catching up to do.Still, it’s not a patch on the job Paine has had to undertake. After the emergency role in Johannesburg he had to wait until October to start the Test captaincy for real. That began with a 1-0 loss against Pakistan in the UAE – hardly surprising given Australia’s travails in Ashes – followed by the recent 2-1 defeat against India.ALSO READ: Sri Lanka’s best chance to win in Australia?India played some magnificent cricket and were worthy winners. They could well have beaten an Australia team in far better shape than this one. But the series continued to shine a spotlight on the major issues in Australia: selection uncertainty and weak batting at the top of the list. Usually a visit of Sri Lanka would be seen as almost a given for Australia to win (11 wins and two draws in the head-to-head is a one-sided history) but such is the upheaval that has gone on that, while an Australia win remains favourite, it is by no means a certainty.Getty ImagesThrough all the challenges, Paine, who had almost lost his voice on the eve of this Test, has carried himself with dignity and, at times, no little humour. He was, without doubt, the right captain for the moment but that doesn’t mean he can afford to not turn around fortunes. Victory over Sri Lanka would not mean everything was okay again, but it would afford Paine a chance to take stock in a more positive frame of mind ahead of the Ashes later this year.For Chandimal, a defeat on tour is unlikely to make or break his captaincy – which dates back to 2017 – although in Sri Lankan cricket you can never quite tell. His team are in the midst of a very challenging overseas spell playing New Zealand, Australia and South Africa. The expectation is that will come away with very little, so in one sense Chandimal doesn’t have much to lose but he has spoken of his desire to be the captain who ends the team’s wait for success in Australia.It will be an awkward feeling for him that Sri Lanka’s best victories in recent times (Barbados and the South Africa series) have come without him in the team. That would all be forgotten with a win in Brisbane or Canberra. In his favour is that the captaincy appears to have suited his batting: his average as captain is 46.30, three runs higher than his career number, and has included fine centuries in Abu Dhabi, Delhi and, before the ball-tampering, St Lucia.Paine has also played his part with the bat, to the extent that he was Australia’s second-highest run-scorer last year albeit in a narrow field. He fronted up well against India but could not convert his starts. There was even an argument he should bat higher, but that appears unlikely to happen. He has enough on his plate.Both captains are also operating with coaches firmly in the spotlight. Justin Langer is trying to rebuild the culture around the Australian team (elite honesty and all that) while Hathurusingha is a forceful figure, believed to be the highest paid Sri Lanka coach in their history and not a man to take fools kindly. His response to Sri Lanka’s ongoing no-ball problem was refreshingly blunt: “It’s about being aware of the white line in front of you basically.”Ultimately, though, captains can only work with what they have. Australia’s main absentees are well documented while Sri Lanka are without Angelo Mathews for this series and settling into life without Rangana Herath. There is hope for both to cling to as well: Steven Smith and David Warner will be back sometime soon while Sri Lanka have some talented young players.In the short term, however, there is plenty for them to ponder. Paine is trying to lead his side to much-needed late-season victory while Chandimal is trying to defy history. Whoever comes out on top in the next couple of weeks will feel just a little bit better about life at the helm.

England have been on the wrong end of some big upsets in ICC events and were surprised once again in this World Cup, by Sri Lanka. Which of these defeats was the most surprising?

ESPNcricinfo staff22-Jun-2019England have been on the wrong end of some big upsets in ICC events and were surprised once again in this World Cup, by Sri Lanka. Which of these defeats was the most surprising?