Sri Lanka and England suffered heavy home Tests defeats against South Africa and India respectively during the 3rd week of July as Test match cricket produced awesome fast-bowling efforts by the likes of Dale Steyn and Ishant Sharma during a splendid week of cricket.
Steyn leads South Africa to a memorable win at Galle
Dale Steyn grabbed nine wickets in the match, including four in the second innings to help his South African team beat the hosts, Sri Lanka by 53 runs in the first cricket test at the Galle International Stadium.
Fighting centuries from Dean Elgar and JP Duminy in the first innings helped South Africa to a solid 455 run total. Dilruwan Perera grabbed 4 wickets while Suranga Lakmal captured 3 wickets after Shaminda Eranga injured his bowling hand while fielding restricting Angelo Mathews to only 3 frontline bowlers. Dale Steyn and Morne Morkel pegged Sri Lanka back sharing 8 wickets in their 1st innings, bowling out the host nation to only 292 runs as Sri Lanka avoided the follow-on thanks to two brave knocks by Upul Tharanga (83) and Angelo Mathews (89).
AB de Villiers’ feisty half ton helped South Africa pile on more runs in the 2nd innings as the Proteas made 206 runs for the loss of 6 wickets before Hashim Amla’s declaration challenged his bowlers to restrict Sri Lanka below 370 runs in the 4th innings of the match on a tearing Galle surface. Despite a Kumar Sangakkara blitz late on day four, South Africa cruised to a massive win with Steyn once again bashing records at will taking 4 crucial wickets on day 5 as South Africa bundled out Sri Lanka for 216 runs.
India win at Lord’s after 28 years
Ishant Sharma returned figures of 7 for 74 as India registered its first away Test victory since 2011 and won the 2nd Test against hosts, England at Lord’s by 95 runs and it was also a rare win for them at Lords as they last won a Test match at Lords as far back as 1986.
India after setting a target of 319, bowled out the hosts for 223 runs. Ishant Sharma’s short ball barrage was too much for the Englishmen as only Joe Root resisted with a gritty 66 runs. Earlier in the match, England won the toss and elected to field first on a green surface. Ajinkaya Rahane fought valiantly to score an excellent century to lift India’s first innings score to 295. England made 319 runs in their 1st innings with Gary Ballance’s ton and Liam Plunkett’s half ton helping England to finish their first innings with a slim lead of 24. Bhuvneshwar Kumar bowled well for India bagging six wickets for 82 runs.
When India came to bat for the second time around, Indians top order and lower middle order ensured that they did not give England an easy target when they scored 342 with an overall lead of 318 runs. Murali Vijay who looked good in his place as an opener in the last few months played an uncharacteristic innings consuming 247 balls to be missed out on a century by just 5 runs. Dhawan and Pujara also were amongst runs with Ravindra Jadeja and Bhuvneshwar Kumar making 68 and 52 respectively. Stokes and Plunkett were impressive with the ball for England sharing 6 wickets between them.
Buttler replaces Prior for the 3rd Test
Jos Buttler will replace Matt Prior behind the stumps in the third Test against India at Southampton. Buttler will make his Test debut in the game beginning on 27th July after Prior decided to take a break from international cricket for the rest of the summer following England’s defeat at Lord’s.
Dickwella joins Test Squad; Chandimal axed
Sri Lanka’s national selection committee included Niroshan Dickwella in the squad for the second Test against South Africa beginning at the Sinhalese Sports Club in Colombo on 24th July. The 21-year-old wicketkeeper-batsman was part of the Sri Lanka A team in their ongoing tour of England. The selectors have asked Dinesh Chandimal to join the A team in England. Chandimal, who donned the wicket-keeping gloves following the injury to Prasanna Jayawardene in England, was disappointing with the bat in the first Test, where he scored a mere seven runs from two innings.
Kane Williamson banned from bowling
The New Zealand all-rounder Kane Williamson has been suspended from bowling in international cricket because of an illegal action. Independent analysis of Williamson’s action, conducted earlier this month in Britain, concluded his elbow extension, when bowling, exceeds the 15 degrees of tolerance permitted under International Cricket Council regulations. The 23-year-old will not be allowed to bowl in international cricket again until satisfying the ICC of the legality of his action through fresh independent analysis.
Vernon Philander fined for Ball Tampering
South Africa’s Vernon Philander has been fined 75 per cent of his match fee after breaching the ICC Code of Conduct during the third day’s play in the first Test match against Sri Lanka in Galle. Philander was charged with an article 2.2.9 offence of the ICC Code of Conduct which relates to “changing the condition of the ball in breach of Law 42.3 of the Laws of Cricket, as modified by ICC Standard Test Match, ODI and Twenty20 International Match Playing Conditions clause 42.1”.
The charge was laid following the conclusion of Friday’s play and after viewing television footage by on-field umpires Billy Bowden and Richard Kettleborough, third umpire Nigel Llong, all from the Emirates Elite Panel of ICC Umpires and fourth umpire Ruchira Palliyaguru. The incident that led to the charge being laid took place in the afternoon when Philander was captured on footage changing the condition of the ball by scratching the surface with his fingers and thumb. The footage, which was not aired during live coverage, was viewed by the umpires after the close of play.
Sri Lanka and South Africa cricketers raise funds for Sri Lanka Visually Handicapped XI
Sri Lanka Cricket conducted three fund-raiser events with their national cricketers and the visiting South African cricketers in its efforts to raise funds and awareness for the Sri Lankan Visually Handicapped XI and its bid at this year’s World Cup in South Africa in November. Angelo Mathews presented the Sri Lanka Visually Handicapped XI a cheque of 925,000 Sri Lankan rupees at a ceremony conducted at SSC on 22nd of July.
Andrew Poynter to lead Ireland against Sri Lanka A
Batsman Andrew Poynter will captain Ireland for the first time, in the upcoming home series against Sri Lanka A which begins on July 23rd at Belfast. Ireland will take on Sri Lanka in Stormont on July 23 and July 25, before finishing the three-match one-day series in Coleraine on July 27.
Full Squad: Andrew Poynter (captain), John Anderson, Andrew Balbirnie, Peter Chase, Chris Dougherty, Nick Larkin, Andrew McBrine, Graeme McCarter, Barry McCarthy, Stuart Poynter, Eddie Richardson, Stuart Thompson, Andrew White, Craig Young
