Bradman’s Tactical Use of a Nightwatchman — Just Once

Mahinda Wijesinghe, in the Island, 7 April 2012

At the end of the third day in the ongoing second Test against England, Sri Lanka used the services of a night-watchman (Dhammika Prasad) to open the innings to face just one over. What was even more strange was the fact that the night-watchman shielded the more skilled batsman (Lahiru Thirimanne), by refusing singles! This begs the question, why should a lesser skilled batsman be expected to face the music, while his more skilled team-mate is cooling his heels in the pavilion?

However, there was a very interesting instance when the legendary Don Bradman used the same ploy – but look at the circumstances and the reasoning behind the tactic. It was the third Ashes Test in the 1936-37 series played at Melbourne. Australia, captained by Bradman for the first time, had lost the first two Tests in the 5-Test series. Indeed, an inquiry had been instituted by the Australian Cricket Board that certain members of the Australian team were not supporting Bradman! Incidentally, Bradman’s scores in the first two Tests were as follows: 38, 0, 0 and 82. Australia had lost the first Test by 322 runs and the second by an innings and 22 runs.

Evaluating Rangana Herath with Plaudits – Rex and Scyld

The Lessons We could learn from Herath –Rex Clementine in The Island, 31 March 2012

The country’s one of the most respected cricketers, Kumar Sangakkara once called Rangana Herath ‘the work horse’ of the team. Now that he has emerged as country’s premier bowler, we should talk about his other virtues as well and how tough the rise for him has been having represented two unfashionable entities – Maliyadeva Vidyalaya and Moors SC. (Only two seasons back he left Moors after an association of 14 years after the club got demoted).

Loyalty and perseverance are two virtues of Herath that we should admire. Although HeThe rath made his debut in 1999, opportunities were rare for him due to the presence of champion Muttiah Muralitharan and Sri Lanka always had Sanath Jayasuriya to bowl a bit of left-arm spin.

But occasionally Herath was used in Test cricket, particularly against Pakistan once John Dyson developed this idea that Pakistan were in fact susceptible against left-arm spin.

Outstanding Test Cricket in the Gulf States: Pakistan-England Series

Christopher Martin-Jenkins, courtesy of the author and the Times where this essay appeared in the regular column Thunderer,** under a different title

Have you tuned in these last two weeks to the strangest sporting spectacle of the winter? Were we watching proper Test cricket in the entrepot and melting pot of Dubai, that fantastical oil-fired architects’ playground in the desert? Do three matches, decided in eleven days, more often than not before sparse crowds on neutral territory and producing a record 42 leg before wicket decisions constitute a genuine Test series?

Pakistan Test squad in triumph – Pic by Lakruwan Wanniaratchchi for AFP

Yes, emphatically yes; and fascinating, riveting, Test cricket at that, odd as it was and inconvenient though it may be that England batted badly and were trounced. It was a far more interesting series than is normally the case when England play away in Pakistan, where most games have been bore-draws played out at a slow pace on dry, dull surfaces. Only six of Pakistan’s 25 home Tests against England at home have been won by either side.

If Only!! The Run or Two that made a Difference

Michael Roberts

IF ONLY!! … ….. Dan Christian had not made an athletic, boundary saving dive on the ropes once, and then again a second time, late in Sri Lanka’s innings at Perth on the 10th of February, Angelo Mathews would have 3 or 4 runs less to make in that nerve-tingling last over and Sri Lanka would have probably won.

But, remarkably, we have had a series of three such coruscating and nerve-tingling finishes in a row because the Perth ODI was followed by two other games at Adelaide which went down to the wire and held spectators enthralled. In Game Two Australia ended up as losers as that cannonball-magician MS Dhoni kept cool and hoisted India to an improbable win in the last over — aided by at least one “If Only.” And then, as remarkably, Dhoni kept his cool and secured a remarkable tie in the last over against Sri Lanka in a battle where the gallant Sri Lankans must have felt they ‘lost’ a game that was in their grasp – not winning because of … you guessed it …several If Onlys!