Mason Greenwood is one of the nominees for the La Liga Team of the Season in EA Sports FC 24 after shining during his loan spell at Getafe.
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Kraigg Brathwaite, John Campbell stood firm for West Indies after their bowlers rolled England out for 187 on a lively surface
The Report by Valkerie Baynes31-Jan-2019West Indies 30 for 1 (Campbell 16*, Brathwaite 11*) trail England 187 (Moeen 60, Bairstow 52, Roach 4-30) by 157 runs
Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsAgain England were dismissed inside a day, again West Indies’ strike bowlers were damaging and again the home side capitalised on winning the toss, this time on a green and lively pitch that provided an entertaining start to the second Test in Antigua.While on the subject of deja vu, once again a pair of West Indies batsmen proved stubborn, thwarting England’s bowlers to end the day on 30 without loss, Kraigg Brathwaite unbeaten on 11 and John Campbell 16 not out.But it is worth noting the differences between England’s latest first-innings performance and their dismal collapse for 77 that set the stage for a 381-run defeat in Barbados to put this match in context so far.Moeen Ali’s timely score of 60, after a pair in the first Test and a nervy start to the second, Jonny Bairstow’s rapid-scoring half-century while wickets tumbled around him, and a couple of almost unavoidable dismissals thanks to the challenging pitch and some menacing bowling were in sharp contrast to England’s rank capitulation of the previous match.That is not to say there were not some soft dismissals as well. Opener Joe Denly sabotaged his maiden Test innings by reaching for a short, wide Alzarri Joseph delivery that was sailing well outside off stump to connect with the toe of his bat and send a simple catch to wicketkeeper Shane Dowrich.Having narrowly survived an appeal for lbw off Kemar Roach, which the DRS conferred back to the original umpire’s call of not out despite the ball looking fairly perilous for Denly, the debutant faced 15 deliveries for his first run and added just five more before his dismissal.Denly and fellow opener Rory Burns had endured four maiden overs before Burns was finally off the mark with a four, clipped through square leg off Roach. But Roach struck two balls later with a good line and length that tempted an outside edge from Burns, which was collected low at second slip by Jason Holder.England were in trouble at 55 for 4 and 93 for 6, but Moeen and Ben Foakes gave the innings some respectability. Foakes eventually mistimed a pull shot off Shannon Gabriel and gloved the ball on to his stumps via his hip after sharing an important 85-run partnership with Moeen. The blow to his hand resulted in Bairstow taking his place behind the stumps for the West Indies innings while Foakes received treatment.Moeen’s dismissal shortly after tea when he skied a Roach delivery to Gabriel, who had all the time in the world to take the catch at midwicket, looked soft but it was in fact indicative of the tricky bounce off the pitch.However, even more helpless was Joe Root, who could do little about his dismissal to a vicious Joseph delivery that hit the top of his bat handle and bobbled up towards Campbell who, reeling back at third slip, parried the ball high behind his head to Shai Hope, who ran across from gully to collect the catch.Bairstow faced just 64 balls for his 52, which included nine fours and a six, before he was trapped lbw by Roach with the second ball after lunch. His dismissal meant it looked like Ben Stokes would be forced to take up the rescue mission with England struggling on 78 for 5, but Gabriel had other ideas.Gabriel appeared to have broken down in his first over of the match, limping off with some apparent leg pain before returning gingerly in time for his second. But he returned from lunch with plenty of venom, sending down some brutal deliveries and engaging in a brief but notable verbal battle with Stokes.While the chat ended in a good-natured bump of fists the bowling barrage continued. Gabriel whacked Stokes on the thumb with a spitting delivery that elicited a yelp of pain, though Stokes responded well with a straight drive for four on the next ball.In his next over, Gabriel struck Moeen on the helmet with a short ball the batsman should have ducked but tried to pull instead. Just four balls later, Gabriel delivered another pearler that forced a defensive prod from Stokes, only to be caught behind by Dowrich for 14.Roach, the architect of England’s first-innings collapse in Barbados, finshed with 4 for 30, while Gabriel took 3 for 45 and Joseph 2 for 38.But perhaps most frustrating for England was that, despite the pitch only being subjected to a light rolling at the change of innings, their bowlers – including veteran strike duo James Anderson and Stuart Broad – were unable to make inroads on the West Indies’ batting after 21 overs with Brathwaite and Campbell offering stubborn, if static, resistance.Some individual performances aside, it begs the question, are England really in much better shape this time around?
Barcelona star Pedri says Lionel Messi is “without doubt” ahead of Cristiano Ronaldo in the GOAT debate, despite the Portuguese being “great as well”.
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All-time greats spent careers locked in battleBlaugrana star a big fan of Argentine iconCurrently working his way back from injuryWHAT HAPPENED?
Two iconic figures of the modern era have spent their respective careers battling with one another for the right to be considered the best player on the planet, and potentially the greatest of all-time. Messi now has eight Ballons d’Or on his roll of honour, compared to Ronaldo’s five, but both have countless records and major trophies to their name.
AdvertisementGetty/GOALWHAT PEDRI SAID
Pedri, who worked alongside Messi at Camp Nou prior to the Argentine’s move to Paris Saint-Germain in 2021, has told when asked for his take on the long-running GOAT discussion: “Messi, without a doubt. But Cristiano is a great player as well.”
THE BIGGER PICTURE
Pedri is considered to be a potential Golden Ball winner himself, with there more to come from him at 21 years of age, but he has bizarrely stated when asked what he hopes to be doing in 10 years time – with a nod of sorts being offered to playmaking idol Andres Iniesta: “Playing football, and bald. I have always wanted to go bald.”
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GettyWHAT NEXT?
Pedri is currently out of action again at Barcelona, with there “no specific date” in place for his latest return from injury, but he will be hoping to aid the Blaugrana’s efforts to land another Champions League crown in 2024.
You might get to see this exciting New Zealander play in this year’s IPL. Here’s what to expect
Deivarayan Muthu27-Mar-20215:07
‘Kevin Pietersen was always someone I loved to watch’
Northern Knights welcome Mitchell Santner back for the 20-over Super Smash after he seals an epic Test win for New Zealand against Pakistan at the Bay Oval. They throw him into the mix in the powerplay, but a certain Wellington Firebirds rookie right-hand opener switches his stance, turns into a left-hander, and monsters New Zealand’s premier T20 spinner into the grass banks beyond midwicket at the Basin Reserve. It is arguably shot of the Super Smash season. The opener treats New Zealand seamers with similar disdain, galloping out of the crease and going over the top like he is casually range-hitting net bowlers. Ask the likes of Matt Henry and Scott Kuggeleijn.Finn Allen’s chart-topping tally of 512 runs in 11 innings at an average of 56.88 and strike rate of 193.93 lights the Firebirds’ run to the title. A day after winning the Super Smash, he is called into the New Zealand T20I squad as a standby player. A few weeks later, he is called into the Royal Challengers Bangalore squad as a replacement player for IPL 2021. A week after that, he gets a gig with Lancashire for the T20 Blast. He is just 13 T20s and 21 years old but there are already signs that Allen could be a white-ball star.A day out of the Super Smash final, Allen said to ESPNcricinfo that he had no expectations of being picked in the IPL, but after Josh Philippe opted out of the upcoming season, RCB’s director of cricket reached out to Allen.Related
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“Hey Finn, Mike Hesson here. Give a message when you’re free for a call,” was the text, Allen says. After hearing the news of his maiden IPL deal with the Royal Challengers, where he will team up with the likes of Virat Kohli, AB de Villiers and Glenn Maxwell, Allen told reporters that he “nearly cried and genuinely didn’t know how to react”.Such a rapid rise looked like a dream even as recently as the start of the 2020-21 New Zealand domestic season, when Allen was wondering whether he could fit into a robust Wellington set-up, having moved from Auckland in search of more game time. He made his senior debut for Auckland in 2017, but got only a further 21 matches across formats there over the next three years.ESPNcricinfo Ltd”It [the move to Wellington] came about after I spoke to the New Zealand Cricket Players’ Association members [to] see if anyone else would be interested in having me,” Allen says. “Wellington showed keen interest straightaway and I got a phone call from Glenn Pocknall [the head coach] the next day.”I didn’t think Wellington would be interested in me at all, given the number of good players they’ve got. I sort of thought: ‘Wow! How am I going to fit into this side?’ He called me and said he thought I was a good player and he was keen to have me at Wellington. I was pretty excited by that and within the next few days Glenn called again to give a ranking and I could see where I stood within the side. I took a bit of time to think, spoke to Auckland, and took the decision a few weeks later.”Just as Allen was getting used to living away from home and finding his way around a new team, he was concussed after being struck on the head while training during the four-day Plunket Shield season. He was sidelined for about five weeks and ended up missing the first four rounds of the 50-over Ford Trophy. He then eased himself back into action with scores of 30 and 6 from No. 4 against Auckland.When Allen ran into his former team again, on Christmas Eve, in the Super Smash, he laid down the marker with a 23-ball 53 in his new role as an opener. It was the first of six half-centuries Allen would hit in the tournament, the highlight being the 16-ball one against the Central Stags. Only Kieran Noema-Barnett (14 balls) and Martin Guptill (15) have struck faster fifties in New Zealand’s domestic T20 competition.Allen puts his barnstorming Super Smash run down to an uncomplicated see-ball-hit-ball approach. “I guess I would say initially it was about having a plan,” he says. “For me, it’s quite simple and then sticking to it. Along with that, I made it a key focus of mine to emphasise watching the ball as hard as I can until the bat and trying to hit the ball hard. Probably the simplicity of it all is what got me going, I guess.”No prizes for guessing who the top run getter in the recent Super Smash season was•Kerry Marshall/Getty ImagesAllen also credits his off-season fitness training amid the coronavirus pandemic and unstinting support from Pocknall for his success. “The winter just was gone with Covid and everything, but I was lucky I had a gym at my home in Auckland. I did a lot of fitness work and running to progress that side of my game,” he says. “Once I came to Wellington, they worked hard and are a very professional unit, and training was very tough – it helped push my game a little bit further.”[Power-hitting] is an effect of being fitter and stronger. I also think the way the coaches have given me the confidence to play how I want to play – be free and express myself – really helped me. I’m someone who is a big confidence player – as most people are, but for me that backing really gets me going. I was told two or three days before the first game against Auckland that I was opening and I was kind of a little bit scared and nervous at first. I sort of thought, ‘Oh my gosh! I don’t think I’m good enough to open, I’m not up to that’, but they really backed me to the hilt and told me that they felt that I was well suited for the role.”Roll back to that stunning switch-hit off Santner. Allen recalls that he had never practised the shot until the lead-up to the game against the Knights.”I usually just use the pace of the bowler and it’s always along the ground,” Allen says. “Leading up to the game against Santner, I thought to myself – he’s pretty hard to hit straight; you see a lot of dismissals straight down the wicket, and I thought: How can I have a different option to combat him?”Switch-hit was one. I only practised it two or three days before the game and I was lucky to face a lot of left-arm spin in the nets. I think I spent one training session batting left-handed the whole time and just getting used to that movement. Fortunately, it came off in the game. I was pretty shocked when it came off the way it did!”There was a bit of Kevin Pietersen in that shot, and perhaps there is a bit of Brendon McCullum when Allen dashes out to the quicks. Allen, whose father is from the UK, says that Pietersen’s aggression has been a major influence.Allen in the 2018 U-19 World Cup, where he averaged over 67 at a strike rate of near 120 – the highest among all players who made at least 200 runs in the tournament•IDI/Getty Images”For me, Kevin Pietersen was always someone that I just loved to watch. I’m sure a lot of people are on the same boat, watching him take it to the opposition and how aggressive he was in his nature of play… That just really excited me and I always thought I want to be like that. Not necessarily look like him or play like him in that way, but just the same intent – the way he goes out there, puffs his chest out, and you know he’s full of confidence and ready to sort of do damage. I suppose if I can mirror any form of that confidence and intent that he has, I’d absolutely love that.”Allen had a stint at Brondesbury in the Middlesex league between two Under-19 World Cups for New Zealand in 2016 and 2018, which he reckons prepared him for the rigours of top-flight cricket, particularly helping him get better against spin. It showed in the second of those World Cups, where he was New Zealand’s highest scorer and fourth-highest overall.”I guess it’s all about playing more and more cricket at a higher level,” Allen says. “My first World Cup, in Bangladesh, was pretty eye-opening. It was pretty cool to be part of it and I didn’t expect to be in the side. The look on my face when my name was read out on the team sheet was probably excited and shocked. The second World Cup [at home] was one that I was more hopeful to make, and I had higher expectations of myself in terms of runs and getting close to winning the World Cup.”The sweep and reverse-sweep were productive shots for him in that second World Cup. Allen puts it down to how he practised it and working with coaches on it during his time in Middlesex. “And yeah, I suppose it’s still working and I’m learning to play on different grounds. I went over [to England] with a Kiwi, Ben Sears, travelling with him was cool and it made things comfortable. The biggest learning was about myself and my game.Allen will be back in the UK later this year, straight after his RCB stint. Before all of that, he is set to make his T20I debut against Bangladesh. It remains to be seen whether he can live up to the early hype in international cricket and big T20 leagues, but his clear sense of perspective will probably stand him in good stead as he tackles those challenges.”I don’t pay too much attention to [outside noise] at all. For me, it’s about contributing to wins for my team and putting scores on the board, and fingers crossed, all that stuff will take care of itself,” he says. “My parents obviously love to read the media and see what they’re saying about me, but for me it’s niggly to be caught up in it, and it can sort of take your focus away from things. Sometimes, it’s not nice either. I try to stay away from that stuff and focus game by game.”
A total of 577 players* are set to be featured in the IPL 2025 mega auction on November 24 and 25 in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Out of those, 367 are Indians and 210 overseas, including three from Associate teams. Of the 331 uncapped players, 319 are Indian and 12 from overseas. A total of 204 slots are to be filled with 70 available for overseas players. This is also the first time since the 2018 auction that the marquee list has been split in two.!function(){“use strict”;window.addEventListener(“message”,(function(a){if(void 0!==a.data[“datawrapper-height”]){var e=document.querySelectorAll(“iframe”);for(var t in a.data[“datawrapper-height”])for(var r=0;r<e.length;r++)if(e[r].contentWindow===a.source){var i=a.data["datawrapper-height"][t]+"px";e[r].style.height=i}}}))}();
da bwin： With the pressure growing on Arne Slot, Xabi Alonso has reportedly made his mind up on taking the Liverpool job if it becomes available at the same time that he potentially leaves Real Madrid.
da aviator aposta： For the first time in Slot’s Liverpool career, serious questions are being asked about his tenure. Last season’s Premier League title win has provided him with plenty of credit but, as Jamie Carragher pointed out on Monday Night Football, not everyone is still convinced that he’s still the man for the job.
After eight defeats in 11 games, the Dutchman simply has to turn things around. The Reds backed him by breaking their transfer record twice in the summer and spending over £400m, but are yet to see that investment pay off.
The most concerning aspect of Liverpool’s recent run is that nothing has changed. Slot has persisted with the same system, which only provided false dawns against Real Madrid and Aston Villa.
Now, with Alonso also under pressure at Madrid, Liverpool could be presented with a tempting opportunity to make a sensational change.
Xabi Alonso makes Liverpool decision
According to Football365, Alonso is now ready to take the Liverpool job if Real Madrid decide to sack him. The Spaniard has been put under increasing pressure by reports that Vinicius Junior has decided against signing a new deal whilst the manager is in charge.
As Real Madrid are forced to decide between their star man and their new manager, it’s Liverpool who could take full advantage.
For many, the big question has centred around who would replace Slot if Liverpool decided to sack the Dutchman. In Alonso, they’d have the perfect answer.
The Reds were interested in a reunion with the Spaniard before they hired Slot and could now get what they initially wanted over a year later.
Forget Leoni: 19-year-old academy star could end Konate's Liverpool career
Liverpool’s French centre-back has been abject in Slot’s system this season.
ByAngus Sinclair Nov 24, 2025
Although a lot of pieces will need to fall into place, there’s little doubt that Alonso would be welcomed with open arms at Anfield.
"I'm told" – Romano shares what Slot thinks about his own Liverpool future
Sarina Wiegman says the Lionesses thrive on "chaos" after defending their Euros title with an "incredible" win over World Cup holders Spain.
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Mason Mount has opened up on how Manchester United’s Europa League final defeat to Tottenham stayed with him long after the final whistle. The midfielder admitted he carried the pain of that loss into his summer break, even while on a golf course in Spain. The former Chelsea midfielder is now focused on bouncing back with a stronger season with the Red Devils.
Mount reflects on Europa League final heartbreakUnited missed out on Europe after poor seasonMidfielder uses defeat as motivation for comebackFollow GOAL on WhatsApp! 🟢📱WHAT HAPPENED?
Manchester United suffered a heartbreaking loss to Tottenham in the Europa League final, with Brennan Johnson’s deflected goal sealing the win. Mount, who started the game, reflected on his performance and questioned the decisions he made during the match. The result capped off a miserable season for United, who also missed out on European qualification.
AdvertisementGetty Images SportWHAT MOUNT SAID
In an interview with The Athletic, Mount recalled ruefully when asked how long it took for the emotion to fade: "Quite a long time,. Yes, it takes some time, for sure.
"Because as a player, you're just thinking about little things in the game. I started the game, so it was like 'what could I have done in that situation?' Or 'could I have made that pass better?' Any little thing that happens in the game it's like a bigger impact, especially in a final.
"You don't look too much into it because you would drive yourself crazy, looking into loads of detail. But it hurts and the whole season hurt.
"I've had quite a few losses in finals, so it's not easy. It never gets any easier, for sure. Finals are never easy to take when you lose. But when you're in that next one, you remember that feeling."
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Manchester United’s 15th-placed Premier League finish marked their worst league campaign since 1973/74. Missing out on Europe has intensified pressure on both players and staff, with Mount determined to help the team recover. The 26-year-old is keen to use the frustration from last season as fuel heading into the new campaign.
He added: "This is a new slate now. We're looking forward and really using this pre-season to work on a lot of things that maybe we didn't get enough time to last season. With the schedule, with the games, and obviously with the gaffer coming in halfway through, this period is so vital for us to work on things."
Getty Images SportWHAT NEXT FOR MOUNT?
The 26-year-old is back in pre-season training and aiming for a fresh start with Manchester United. The club will be hoping for a major turnaround after last season’s failures. With renewed determination, Mount will look to play a bigger role in getting United back to the top.
From finding a finisher to take over from MS Dhoni to investing in young, local talent, here’s what the Super Kings must look at to rebuild their empire
Deivarayan Muthu02-Nov-2020The Chennai Super Kings empire that was built for repeated success over ten years by MS Dhoni and Stephen Fleming crumbled spectacularly in IPL 2020. They were the first team to be ousted this season, when they imploded to 30 for 6 on a flat Sharjah track against the Mumbai Indians. It was always going to end this way for Dhoni’s Dad’s Army, wasn’t it?They had defied the odds and proved critics wrong, marking their return after a ban with a third title in 2018. They defied the odds again and defended their title against Mumbai in 2019, courtesy Dhoni’s leadership and a spin barrage at their fortress Chepauk. However, the cracks kept widening, the slow-moving legs got slower and, inevitably, the team crashed in the UAE.In a way, Dhoni and Fleming brought this upon themselves. They made no bones about their plan to back experience and win titles, even if it came at the expense of preparing for the future. In 2019, when the Super Kings had already qualified for the playoffs, an ill Dhoni sat out of the home game against Mumbai. It might have been a good opportunity to ease reserve wicketkeeper N Jagadeesan or opening batsman Ruturaj Gaikwad in, but the Super Kings opted against it, with Fleming coming out to the press and saying they weren’t there to hand out caps.Ruturaj Gaikwad reached his third successive half-century•BCCITime for a full revamp
On Sunday, both Dhoni and Fleming admitted a revamp – starting with the core group before moving on to the strategy – is overdue. Whether there’s a mini auction or a mega auction, whether IPL 2021 gets underway in India or the UAE, the Super Kings will aim to rebuild with a focus on the young players like 22-year-old Sam Curran and the 23-year-old Gaikwad, who could end up with a long stay at the Super Kings.Dhoni and Fleming will continue to be at the helm while the experience will probably be provided by Faf du Plessis, Ravindra Jadeja and Deepak Chahar, along with Dwayne Bravo and Ambati Rayudu, if they remain fit. It is difficult to see the franchise retain Shane Watson, M Vijay, Kedar Jadhav and Piyush Chawla until and unless there is only a mini auction for 2021.Also, the Super Kings’ fans might have to accept the fact that Suresh Raina, who opted out of this season’s IPL, may now be talked of as a former player – it should perhaps not be looked at as a purely emotional move, considering the left-hander has had fitness issues and not played any competitive cricket since IPL 2019.The Super Kings do have a handful of young players who have shown they can grow and steadily become part of the core. Both Curran and Gaikwad have received praise from the team management. Fleming said Curran has “exceeded” expectations. Dhoni trusted Curran to bowl the tough overs in the powerplay and at the death, though he said the left-arm seamer still “needs to be convinced” that he can execute the wide yorker. Curran’s all-round skills are also underlined by the fact that he fields in catching hotspots along with du Plessis and Jadeja.Gaikwad, too, finished the 2020 season guarding the hotspots and pulling off a blinder to dismiss the King XI Punjab’s Jimmy Neesham on Sunday. He made a bigger impact with the bat, becoming the first batsman from the franchise to hit three back-to-back fifties.Although the team management is yet to be fully convinced by the 24-year-old Jagadeesan’s abilities, he did show intent and innovation during his first game this season, when he got 33 against the Royal Challengers Bangalore.ESPNcricinfo LtdLet Dhoni the batsman take the backseat
The biggest challenge for the franchise would be to identify a player who can go on to take over the captaincy from Dhoni in the next two years. Both N Srinivasan, the Super Kings’ owner, and Kasi Viswanathan, the franchise’s chief executive officer, have reiterated more than once that Dhoni will be retained at the next mega auction.On Sunday, for the first time, Dhoni himself said he is not in a rush to retire from the IPL.While Dhoni the captain remains fresh, Dhoni the batsman has become a problem for the Super Kings. Dhoni will turn 40 next year and, personally too, has just endured his worst IPL season, managing only 200 runs in 12 innings at an average of 25 and strike rate of 116.27. For the first time across 13 seasons of IPL, Dhoni ended one without a single half-century.Against the Sunrisers Hyderabad in Dubai, Dhoni was sapped by heat and fatigue, coming up short in a middling chase he would have likely aced in the past. Against the Kolkata Knight Riders in Abu Dhabi, Dhoni arrived with his team needing 69 off 47 balls, and they lost by 10 runs.Dhoni seemingly retains the belief that he can work hard to return stronger for IPL 2021, but he knows the Super Kings need a dependable finisher, which he is no more. But there’s one man who has the experience, the courage and the strokes to become a long-term finisher: Jadeja.Jadeja struck at over 200 in the slog overs this IPL, but he faced all of 135 balls in 11 innings. Fleming believes Jadeja is better suited to arriving late and making an instant statement, but Jadeja might disagree. Perhaps he can man the middle order and Dhoni can instead arrive later and free his arms along with Dwayne Bravo.MS Dhoni has been bowled by Varun Chakravarthy in both clashes this season•BCCIInvest in local talent
Releasing players like Jadhav and Chawla will help the Super Kings go into the next auction with a fatter purse, allowing them to invest in younger players and possibly local talent.Mohan Abhinav, who was among the Super Kings’ net-bowling contingent in the UAE, is a legspinner with an unorthodox action, while V Gowtham, the left-arm seamer who bowled at the Chepauk nets, is said to have a good yorker and has just made it to the Tamil Nadu Premier League (TNPL). Gowtham is even being mentored and coached by the Sunrisers Hyderabad’s T Natarajan at his academy in Salem. Is it worth punting on them?In the past, the Super Kings have missed out on recruiting the likes of Varun Chakravarthy, who has now broken into India’s T20I squad for the upcoming tour of Australia, after his match-winning performances for the Knight Riders this IPL. Varun had caught the eyes of the Super Kings’ batting coach Michael Hussey in the nets before he made a splash in the TNPL. Varun has duly bowled Dhoni both times the sides met this season.All that said, the manner in which the Super Kings bounced back to finish this IPL with three consecutive wins will lend them confidence. They will be particularly optimistic because those victories were constructed by the young brigade led by Gaikwad. In a way, the Super Kings have already launched their new template.
Nissanka’s calm century delivered a consolation victory for the visitors inside four days
Valkerie Baynes09-Sep-2024″Too soon!” That was the mood as autumnal conditions enveloped an Oval ground which, it felt like only yesterday, had hosted a packed-out Men’s Hundred eliminator tie in stunning summer twilight, T-shirts, shorts and sunglasses everywhere in the stands.But as a crowd of 9,860 raided the back of their wardrobes for more suitable attire and turned up on a chilly Monday morning to see Sri Lanka overhaul a target of 219 and claim a consolation victory over England, the mood among those clad all in white was more like: “Finally!”Related
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It had all come together at last for the tourists, albeit too late when they were 2-0 down. The eventual 2-1 series scoreline didn’t matter though to Pathum Nissanka, whose calm century delivered victory inside four days and could well have cemented his place in Sri Lanka’s top order after two years in the wilderness.It took Sri Lanka 25.3 overs on the fourth day to complete their first Test win in England since 2014, their speed entitling spectators to a 50% refund on their tickets. The visitors resumed on 94 for 1 and needing 125 more. Nissanka’s unbeaten 127 off 124 balls built on his first-innings 64 and saw his side home by eight wickets.There was also a hint of relief that this match was over and done with for an England side that had dropped their bundle in the second innings and proved far from potent on the final morning when they managed to extract just one of the nine wickets they still needed after Chris Woakes’ return catch had removed Dimuth Karunaratne cheaply the previous evening.Bear in mind that no matter what the weather says, “summer” is far from over for England’s white-ball players who have a series looming against Australia from Wednesday, only the magnitude of Sri Lanka’s victory ensuring a gap of more than 48 hours in between.Gus Atkinson, who is nursing a thigh problem which kept him out of the attack for the second half of Sri Lanka’s first innings on Sunday, took the only other wicket to fall.He gingerly jogged halfway to Shoaib Bashir, who made up the rest of the ground from fine leg where he had taken an excellent catch running in and diving full-stretch to his left to remove Kusal Mendis for a brisk 39 in the fifth over of the day.But Nissanka, supported by Angelo Mathews, kept at Sri Lanka’s task in impressive time. He moved to 95 by threading a Woakes delivery that was too short and too wide behind point and raised his century running three with a neat cut off Atkinson to deep point.Nissanka soaked up the applause with arms spread wide and a warm bear-hug from Mathews, marking his second ton from 10 Tests, although this was only his second match in the format since mid-2022.Pathum Nissanka brought up a century•Getty Images
After bringing up the milestone, Nissanka clobbered an Olly Stone short ball over the fence at deep backward square and, two balls later, he saw Bashir spill his ramp to deep third.A facsimile six from Nissanka off Stone’s next over took Sri Lanka past the 200 mark and, fittingly, he hit the winning runs cutting Bashir to the boundary at deep backward point.The win was emphatic but followed a see-sawing contest which Sri Lanka’s bowlers seized control of on the third day.After missing a trick in favourable conditions on Friday, their seamers bundled England out for 156 in their second innings, Lahiru Kumara and Vishwa Fernando particularly effective against a home side kept afloat only by Jamie Smith’s thunderous half-century.They may want to forget it, but England will also have to examine their first-innings collapse from 261 for 3 to 325 all out.Meanwhile, this is a victory Sri Lanka will remember long after the boys of summer have – finally – gone.