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The board is set to hire a consultant to look into the feasibility of the idea

Umar Farooq24-Mar-2022The PCB’s plan to bring drop-in pitches from Australia has been delayed. The board is now likely to hire a consultant who will first advise it on whether it is feasible to have the Australian-made pitches in Pakistan. Instead, ESPNcricinfo understands the PCB is likely to get soil in from Australia and seed it at multiple venues as part of a trial.The original plan was to have two readymade pitches as a short-term solution to help Pakistan prepare for the upcoming T20 World Cup, which is to be held in Australia in October-November. It was also part of a broader plan to overhaul the standard of pitches across the country – a key plank in the chairmanship of Ramiz Raja.Related

• Pakistan and the consequences of fixing what wasn't broken

• PCB summons ex-MCG curator ahead of Lahore Test

• Rawalpindi pitch gets 'below average' rating from ICC match referee

• Ramiz Raja: Rawalpindi draw 'wasn't a good advertisement for Test cricket'

The company given the contract to import the drop-in pitches has been asked to hold the purchase, which, in any case, would have been a fairly lengthy process, potentially taking up to 10 months. The PCB had signed an MoU with the investment company Arif Habib Group, which was to bear the PKR 37 crore (USD 2 million approx) procurement cost. That money is still likely to be used in the development of pitches.Since he took over as PCB chairman, Ramiz has been vocal about various issues that he sees afflicting Pakistan cricket. Pitches have become his most urgent priority. “Until pitches are fixed, we aren’t going anywhere as it’s the heartbeat of cricket,” he had told ESPNcricinfo last year in December.”It is Ramiz’s vision and mission to improve the quality of the pitches at all international and domestic cricket venues,” a PCB spokesperson told ESPNcricinfo. “In this regard, we’ve hired an Australian expert on drop-in pitches as a consultant, who will tour Pakistan in April and visit all potential venues for a complete assessment and evaluation before suggesting next steps.”As we don’t have experts on drop-in pitches, we need to have a feasibility about everything around it. There are several critical elements to the success of this initiative, including weather conditions, usage of the venues, soil requirements and overall design and outlook of the venue.”The MCG, like a number of Australian venues, features a drop-in pitch•Getty Images

Drop-in pitches are prominent in Australia and New Zealand, where a number of stadiums host multiple sports. A portable turf pitch is installed whenever a cricket match is to take place. In Pakistan, however, the PCB either leases out cricket stadiums or owns them directly, and cricket is the only sport played at these venues. The PCB maintains all stadiums through the year, employing their own curators for each venue.Pitches have been in the spotlight during Pakistan’s ongoing Test series against Australia, in general for their flat, docile nature. In particular, the surface in Rawalpindi came in for heavy criticism after just 14 wickets fell over five days of a drawn first Test, and it ultimately earned a “below average” rating from the ICC.Soon after, Ramiz conceded that the pitch had been prepared, in part, to nullify Australia’s strengths and account for injury-enforced absences in the Pakistan side. The nature of that pitch was in contrast to Rawalpindi’s reputation as the most seam-friendly of Pakistan’s main venues.In fact, Pakistan’s pitches since the return of Test cricket to the country in late 2019 and until this series had been widely viewed as sporting surfaces with something in them for batters, fast bowlers and spinners.But the surfaces for the first two Tests against Australia in Rawalpindi and Karachi pushed the PCB to hire Australian curator Toby Lumsden to assist the local curator while preparing the pitch for the ongoing third Test in Lahore, in a bid to produce a more helpful track for spinners. But the Test match has been dominated by the fast bowlers, who took 17 of the 20 wickets to fall on the first three days.

An outsider entered the bubble when Shakib was having a batting session at the indoor facilities of the Shere Bangla National Stadium

Mohammad Isam05-Jun-2021The Bangladesh Cricket Board has started an investigation on a biosecure bubble breach during a practice session of the ongoing Dhaka Premier League. This is the first such report incident since the tournament started on May 31, with match venues and four team hotels coming under the board’s biosecure bubble.The incident reportedly took place on Friday, during Mohammedan Sporting Club’s training session, when captain Shakib Al Hasan was having a batting session at the indoor facilities of the Shere Bangla National Stadium in Dhaka. The BCB is investigating the entry of an outsider although the identity of the person remains unknown.”We are disappointed to note this incident,” Kazi Inam Ahmed, the chairman of Cricket Committee of Dhaka Metropolis (CCDM), said. “Both the CCDM and the BCB have taken this very seriously. The health and safety of our teams, players, and officials are most important to us. We have invested a significant amount of finances and efforts to make sure the BSE (bio-security environment) protocols are in place including the best possible accommodation and logistics. This incident is being looked into and necessary actions and further precautionary measures will be taken.”The tournament’s disciplinary committee is supposed to investigate the incident. The BCB said before the tournament that any breach could mean a fine, suspension, and even point deductions for the club.The DPL is taking place during the latest phase of lockdown, which began on April 5. Bangladesh is experiencing a second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic with 43 deaths and another 1447 positives cases in the last 24 hours.The BCB though remain hopeful that the tournament can finish this time, after it was postponed in March 2020. For that, the board has pulled out all the stops, including shortening the tournament to T20 format and paying for the biosecure bubble of all 12 teams and match officials, who are put up in four five-star hotels in Dhaka. The cost of the bubble is in excess of Taka 7 crore (USD 825,230 approx). Bangladesh’s first-class competition, the National Cricket League, also remains postponed since April this year.

Northants need wins from final two group games after slipping to rain-affected defeat

ECB Reporters Network18-Aug-2023Warwickshire secured their place in the Metro Bank One-Day Cup knockout stage with a 24-run win over Northamptonshire in a ten-over thrash at Edgbaston.The endeavours of the Edgbaston groundstaff and the patience of the impressively large number of home fans who stayed through the rain was rewarded with a 5pm start and a sixth straight win for the Bears.Warwickshire made 104 for 3 as Ed Barnard belted 32 off 14 balls while skilful work from Simon Kerrigan (2-0-14-2) kept a brake on the run-rate.Northamptonshire never recovered from a stodgy start, hitting just two fours in the first three overs, and finished well short on 80 for 6 as Will Rhodes took 3 for 22 and Olly Hannon-Dalby 2 for 10. They now need to win both their remaining games to have a chance of qualifying.Put in, Warwickshire were abrasively launched by a stand of 40 in 20 balls by openers Barnard and Rob Yates. The latter sent one ball out of the stadium over the very short Pershore Road-side boundary but then perished when he chipped Jack White to mid-on.Warwickshire charged to 50 in four overs against the seamers but found the spin of Kerrigan harder to attack. The slow left-armer’s first ball dismissed Jacob Bethell, who lifted a reverse-sweep, and his fourth lured Barnard out of his ground to be stumped by skipper Lewis McManus.Rhodes (23 off 15 balls) and Michael Burgess (26 off 19) flailed away to mixed effect to add 51 in 33 balls to ensure a demanding target.Northamptonshire’s reply began slowly as Hannon-Dalby and Craig Miles each delivered an over for just five runs. Ricardo Vasconcelos lifted a Henry Brookes full toss to deep mid-wicket and the visitors’ decision to bat second came back to bite them as gloom descended.The innings’ first six, hoisted over the off side by Rob Keogh off Rhodes, at last came from the 33rd ball, but Keogh lifted the 34th only to extra cover.Tom Taylor, in prime form, launched his first ball for six and, while he was there, Northants still had a sniff, but Emilio Gay hoovered up 15 balls for his eight runs, Taylor skied Hannon-Dalby to extra cover, and the challenge of finding 47 from the last three overs proved far too much.

Hampshire bowled out for 104 in second innings as Somerset give themselves breathing room in standings

Matt Roller at Taunton03-Jul-2019 Somerset 408 (Hildreth 105, Abbott 6-84) and 358 for 8 dec (Ali 79, Banton 70, Abell 58) beat Hampshire 349 (Northeast 101, J Overton 5-70) and 104 (Leach 3-14) by 313 runsSomerset are used to being the hunters in the County Championship. They have regularly been in and around title contention in the top flight in the past decade – and have finished second four times – but have typically played catch-up after slow starts.Now, they have become the hunted. A statement win against third-placed Hampshire, sealed with eight wickets before lunch on this final day, coupled with Essex’s rout at Trent Bridge, has opened up breathing space between the top two and the rest of the division. With six games to go, the Championship is set to turn into a heavyweight bout, with two sides both hoping to land decisive blows before a final-round shootout here at Taunton.”I thought it would be a tough day today,” said captain Tom Abell, who made a pair of fifties. “We still felt it was a pretty good wicket, but full credit to our bowling attack. The way we started this morning was outstanding – we got the ball swinging, and asked lots of questions of the batters, and then the spin twins came to the party as well.”A pitch that had been hard work for bowlers throughout the first three days implied this would be a struggle for Somerset when they arrived this morning. Instead, this turned into a procession.Ajinkya Rahane had made a gritty 55 in the first innings, and must have felt he had something to prove after missing out to Mayank Agarwal as India’s replacement batsman in their World Cup squad. But he looked ill at ease throughout his brief stay here, playing and missing to the second ball of the day and nearly playing on to the sixth, before his aimless waft outside off stump diverted a Lewis Gregory outswinger to Jamie Overton at second slip.After nightwatchman Kyle Abbott had feathered an edge behind off Overton, the stage was set for an innings of resolve from Rilee Rossouw, a senior player who has endured a mixed season but needed to grit it out until the lunch interval if his side held a chance of victory.But Rossouw is an enigmatic character, who chose the week of Hampshire’s Championship opener to tell the Daily Echo that he was likely to give up red-ball cricket when his contract is up at the end of the season since his “desire had gone down”.And so, after edging and then toe-ending boundaries off consecutive Overton balls, Rossouw looked to seal a third with a cut; he found himself cramped for room, and was caught in the gully. With Tom Alsop and Joe Weatherley likely to miss Sunday’s game against Warwickshire through injury, Hampshire need Rossouw to prove his worth.Sam Northeast and James Fuller added 57 for the fifth wicket, and briefly looked like they would take this game long into the afternoon. But once Northeast’s leading edge had fallen into the hands of Abell, leaping forward at short cover, Jack Leach and Dom Bess made short work of the tail, and the game was won by lunchtime.This win was not only an important response for Somerset after their thrashing at Chelmsford, but a vindication of their decision to send Overton and Bess on loan to Northamptonshire and Yorkshire respectively in May. The pair accounted for 11 of the 19 Hampshire wickets to fall in this game (Weatherley was absent hurt in the second innings), and both celebrated as though they had been waiting for this moment for some time.Yorkshire coach Andrew Gale declared that the club would do “everything we can” to sign Bess permanently after he took seven wickets in four matches on loan, but the offspinner – still only 21 – has 18 months to run on his Somerset contract, and the club remain confident of keeping him beyond that.For Hampshire, meanwhile, this was little more than a meek surrender. First-team coach Adi Birrell said the defeat was “hurtful”, and that a few players had “lost confidence”.”We didn’t apply ourselves very well again,” he said. “It was disappointing to capitulate like we did. We lost eight wickets in a session – that’s not good reading no matter what the pitch is like. The last two matches we’ve let ourselves down and the club down.”The absence of James Vince and Liam Dawson to England duty has undoubtedly been a major factor in their recent struggle, and the injuries to Alsop and Weatherley will mean that the club looks to the second team for Sunday’s game; perhaps there will be a chance for 20-year-old batsman Felix Organ, who made 111 against Surrey’s seconds this week.

Welsh Fire humbled for 87 in front of home crowd on Jonny Bairstow’s return

ECB Reporters Network12-Aug-2023Southern Brave romped to a comfortable nine-wicket win over Welsh Fire, the bowlers setting the tone with Tymal Mills taking only the second hat-trick in the Men’s Hundred.That came off the final three balls of the Welsh Fire innings as they fell to 87 all out, the pattern started with returning England star Jonny Bairstow falling early for a four-ball duck.Craig Overton took two early wickets for Brave, including Bairstow, while George Garton took 3 for 8 off 15 balls through the middle of the innings to block any momentum for the home side, Mills finishing with four wickets in all.Stephen Eskinazi’s 38 was the only bright spot in a total easily chased down by Southern Brave. Finn Allen scored a quick 31 before Devon Conway, 35 not out, and Leus du Plooy, 17 not out, saw them through to victory with 41 balls spare.Welsh Fire could not have got off to a much worse start, losing Ashes hero Bairstow cheaply in his first game for them since 2021. He tried to hit Overton over mid-off, but was caught off the mistimed shot without scoring, with Overton getting bounce and movement to also dismiss captain Tom Abell, caught behind by Devon Conway.Joe Clarke also went for a duck, caught Conway off the bowling of Garton, and when Mills dismissed Glenn Phillips with his first ball, giving Conway a third catch, Welsh Fire were in deep trouble at 34 for 4 after 41 balls.David Willey’s cameo of 16 was also ended by Overton, this time with a sliding catch in the deep off the bowling of Garton.While everyone else was losing their wicket, the player keeping his at the other end was opener Stephen Eskinazi who plotted his way to 38 off 34 balls. However, when he was also out skying the ball off Garton, Welsh Fire were running out of options.In the first game between these two sides, Brave had been in even deeper trouble before Chris Jordan played a match-winning innings, but Fire had no equivalent as the lower order slipped away. It fell to Mills to take a hat-trick with the last three balls of the innings as Fire were dismissed for 87 – the lowest total in a completed 100-ball innings – and left needing their bowlers to produce something remarkable to save the game.The player with the best chance of doing that was Pakistan opening bowler Shaheen Shah Afridi and he delivered an effective first set that did everything other than pick up a wicket for Fire. Willey’s first two balls then went for 10 as Brave opener Finn Allen started to find his range before he was caught on the long-on boundary by Willey off the bowling of David Payne for 31.Welsh Fire tried seven bowlers, but there was little pressure on Conway and du Plooy as they knocked off the winning runs with great ease.

He picked up seven wickets in the second innings – and bowled 41.1 overs in the match – in his comeback from knee surgery

ESPNcricinfo staff26-Jan-20230:43

Jadeja trains in Chennai ahead of Saurashtra’s Ranji game

Ravindra Jadeja’s return from injury has had its hiccups but now, with a crucial Test series against Australia imminent, the India allrounder is hopeful that he is “good to go”.On Thursday, in the middle of his first game of cricket in five months following knee surgery, Jadeja picked up a seven-for for Saurashtra against Tamil Nadu in the Ranji Trophy. He also got through 41.1 overs of bowling across two innings.Ahead of this game, he had been rather more cautious in his outlook. “I will go slowly [when I’m bowling],” he said on Monday. “Have to see how my leg is feeling and then I will see.”But on the third day’s play against Tamil Nadu, Jadeja managed to get through an uninterrupted spell of 12 overs and seemed fairly happy with the results. “I [am] used to bowling long spells,” he was quoted as saying by . “Nothing new for me. I was enjoying… ball was turning. The pitch was assisting me. When we were batting, the odd ball was spinning, the odd ball was keeping low, so I was keen to bowl a long spell. Luckily I got wickets.”Ravindra Jadeja picked up 7 for 53 in the second innings•PTI

When asked about his fitness, Jadeja said he felt “no discomfort… not really” and added that he was “almost there… it is just a matter of little bit of confidence. Luckily I bowled enough overs in the match, like almost 37 overs in the game (41.1 – 24 in the first innings and 17.1 in the second).”So feeling very good, playing a game after a long time. Hopefully I am good to go now. It was tough on the first day but as the game progressed, I was feeling good. When you take a five-for in a first-class game it is always good.”It has been a long road back for Jadeja since he had his knee surgery in September 2022. Initial estimates suggested he might be able to return in time for India’s tour of Bangladesh in December 2022 – he was named in the squad subject to fitness – but that didn’t pan out. ESPNcricinfo learnt that it was only a few weeks ago that he had started to bowl and bat again. In between, he has also been helping his wife campaign in the Gujarat assembly elections, which he said helped keep his mind off the injury.Up next for Jadeja is an India training camp in Nagpur, which will host the first of four Tests against Australia starting February 9. He was picked in this squad subject to fitness too, so a 29th first-class five-wicket haul should come in handy.

Zimbabwe rope in pacer Victor Nyauchi with the bulk of the squad remaining similar to the one that won the 2022 T20 World Cup Qualifier

ESPNcricinfo staff28-Jul-2022Zimbabwe will miss the services of fast bowlers Blessing Muzarabani and Tendai Chatara for the upcoming three-match T20I series against Bangladesh at home. The rest of the squad, though, is similar to the one that won the 2022 ICC Men’s T20 World Cup Qualifier earlier this month, in Bulawayo.Muzarabani sustained a tear in his thigh while Chatara suffered a collarbone fracture during the tournament that saw Zimbabwe book one of the last two spots for the T20 World Cup that will be held in Australia in October.Related

• Raza, Madhevere, bowlers give Zimbabwe 1-0 lead

• Raza takes 4 for 8 as Zimbabwe win T20 World Cup Qualifier

• ICC FTP: Bangladesh land Test and ODI jackpot in 2023-2027 cycle

• Sikandar Raza: 'Nightmare of not qualifying for 2019 World Cup never went away'

• Zimbabwe to host India, Bangladesh before a tour to Australia after 18 years

With their two spearheads ruled out, Zimbabwe have roped in pacer Victor Nyauchi in the 15-member squad. While Nyauchi has played only six Tests and a solitary T20I, he has a decent T20 record with 25 wickets in 20 matches at an average of 18.92. Allrounder Tony Munyonga and fast bowler Tanaka Chivanga, who had replaced Chatara and Muzarabani respectively in the squad during the qualifiers, have also been retained.Zimbabwe had an excellent time at the qualifying tournament, where they remained unbeaten through the group stages before knocking off PNG in the semi final to book their place in the marquee tournament. They then brushed aside Netherlands in the final by 37 runs to lift the trophy, with Sikandar Raza starring with the ball.Raza, the leading run-scorer and joint leading wicket-taker for Zimbabwe in the qualifiers will once again form the fulcrum of the unit alongside captain Craig Ervine and Sean Williams.The series against Bangladesh, which consists of three T20Is and three ODIs, sets off a busy couple of months for Zimbabwe, who will be hosting India in mid-August before travelling to Australia for three ODIs – their first visit to the country in 18 years.The three T20Is against Bangladesh will take place on July 30, 31 and August 2. All matches will be staged in Harare.Squad: Ryan Burl, Regis Chakabva (wk), Tanaka Chivanga, Craig Ervine (capt), Luke Jongwe, Innocent Kaia, Wessly Madhevere, Tadiwanashe Marumani, Wellington Masakadza, Tony Munyonga, Richard Ngarava, Victor Nyauchi, Sikandar Raza, Milton Shumba, Sean Williams

“You can see the team starting to bond more and more, and come together more as a unit,” the Zimbabwe allrounder says

Liam Brickhill17-Sep-2019Allrounder Sean Williams sees success in Bangladesh as “extremely important” as Zimbabwe seek a return to normalcy after a chaotic couple of months off the field.Zimbabwe were suspended by the ICC in July, resulting in them missing out on the T20 World Cup Qualifiers in October, as well as losing access to ICC’s funding. The suspension also raised tensions within the squad.”We’ve learnt a lot from what we’ve been through,” Williams said after Zimbabwe’s net session at the Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium in Chattogram, where they will take on hosts Bangladesh on Wednesday. “You can see the team starting to bond more and more, and come together more as a unit.”Zimbabwe lost their first two matches of the tri-series, going down to a narrow three-wicket defeat to Bangladesh on Friday before they were flattened by a rampant Afghanistan the following night. They have two games left to play, and need to win both if they are to have a realistic chance of reaching the final next Tuesday.”Both games are must-win games for us,” Williams said. “If we do the basic things correctly, that is our fielding, you know there are fine margins in this game, and if we can improve in those areas we stand a good chance of winning both of these games. If we can make better decisions on the field more frequently, I think we have a good chance of pushing through.”On current form, Zimbabwe probably have a better chance of success against the hosts than they do against a buoyant Afghan outfit. With an unwilling captain at the helm and a shake-up to the domestic system serving as a distracting backdrop, Bangladesh are also still reeling from a disappointing World Cup campaign and their recent Test defeat to Afghanistan. But Williams insisted his team-mates won’t be taking Bangladesh lightly.”They’re under pressure, and we know that,” Williams said. “But again, it goes back to us doing the basics [right]. Bangladesh is a very strong team, all around. They’ve got a very good structure, going all the way down to the club levels. T20 cricket can go either way. It’s fine margins.”They’ve got some very good players and some experienced campaigners: Shakib, Mahmudullah, Mushy [Mushfiqur Rahim]. They’re all very good players and we respect that fact. There’s no game we’re ever going to take lightly. We’d just like to go out there, focus on our own things, and do what’s required for our team. If we focus on what we need to do, everything will take care of itself.”Zimbabwe have a fair amount of experience in their own ranks: this is Williams’ seventh trip to Bangladesh with Zimbabwe, and he has also turned out for teams in the Bangladesh Premier League and the Dhaka Premier Division Cricket League. Senior batsman Brendan Taylor and captain Hamilton Masakadza are similarly experienced in these conditions. While the seniors have done their part in imparting some of their knowledge, Williams said they needed to play a stronger role on the field.”We give a lot of input to the junior guys. It’s how they take it in. What we do as senior players is important as the backbone of the team, to teach them for the future. There have been a few of us underperforming of late, so we need to step up as a senior group and get the juniors following. They’ve got us out of trouble twice now. If the seniors can step up and do well – Craig [Ervine], myself, Brendan is showing signs of very good form. So if we can step up, we’ll have a very good chance.”Williams himself will lead Zimbabwe on their next assignment, another T20I tri-series featuring Nepal and Singapore, and said he is excited by the talent coming through Zimbabwe’s ranks.”Leading up to the Singapore series, with some younger guys coming to join the squad and a couple of senior guys going across to Singapore, it’s going to be exciting,” he said. “I really look forward to having those junior guys coming through the ranks. They’re already showing signs that some of them could be world-class players. I wish them all the very best, and hopefully, we can watch them go all the way.”

The trio made fifties and led Zimbabwe’s slow progress on a slow Harare pitch

The Report by Andrew Fidel Fernando19-Jan-2020Stumps
Watchful half-centuries from openers Prince Masvaure and Kevin Kasuza set Zimbabwe on track for a healthy first-innings total, on a flat Harare Sports Club pitch. Another fifty from Craig Ervine, batting at No. 3, then consolidated Zimbabwe’s position and carried them to a scoreline that constituted an excellent first day of Test cricket in over a year.The hosts only made 189 for 2 in 84 overs, but there was almost a sense that this was a team striving to affirm that they belonged at this level, after the hiatus that had much more to do with administrative flaws, than any fault of the cricketers themselves. Although Sri Lanka never allowed Zimbabwe to get away from them, the hosts certainly had the better of day one.There was a boundary in the first over, but there would only be 21 in the day. Masvaure whipped Suranga Lakmal to the long leg boundary fourth ball, before settling into a slower rhythm, picking off occasional singles, and waiting for the wide balls that he could cut. Kasuza, playing his first Test, was even more circumspect. He took 17 balls to get off the mark, and 35 deliveries to get into double figures. If anything, his strike rate dipped after that. At lunch, he was 20 off 76 deliveries. By tea, he was 48 off 169.Both Kasuza and Masvaure revelled in defence. They deadbatted much of the first two sessions, as Sri Lanka’s bowlers largely bowled dry and waited for mistakes that didn’t actually come. Lahiru Kumara, the quickest of Sri Lanka’s seamers, troubled Masvaure a little in the first session, hitting him on the helmet in the 17th over, and then prompting an inside edge the next over only for the ball to whizz past leg stump. But after lunch, even Kumara had become a miserly line-and-length operator. Of the six overs he bowled in the second session, four were maidens. Sri Lanka bowled 30 overs in the afternoon, and Zimbabwe scored only 46 – a scoring rate of only 1.53.The pair had batted chancelessly through the first session, but Kasuza did provide a half-chance early in the second, mis-hitting a bouncer from Suranga Lakmal almost to Dimuth Karunaratne at midwicket, who dived but couldn’t hold on to the tough chance. Masvaure progressed to his maiden half century before tea, getting there off the 123rd delivery he faced. He then slowed down, until he was dismissed by left-arm spinner Lasith Embuldeniya, who had him caught at mid-off for for 55 off 149 balls. Kasuza, whose boundaries largely came off the spinners, via the sweep, didn’t get to his fifty until the 178th delivery. He was dismissed late in the day by a Kumara full-toss that reverse-swung and caught him on the thigh, in front of the stumps.Ervine was more fluent, in comparison to the two openers. His first three boundaries were sixes, all off Dhananjaya de Silva, whom he deposited straight down the ground, over long-on, and over deep cover. He accumulated more efficiently, and was striking at exactly 50 when he completed his half-century, off the very first delivery bowled with the second new ball. He went to stumps on 55 off 116, with Brendan Taylor for company. Taylor had hit a six off Embuldeniya to get off the mark and was 13 off 25 at the close of play.Sri Lanka’s attack will be pleased at having at least contained Zimbabwe on a flat pitch – something they had failed to do against Pakistan in Karachi. And yet, their bowlers were once again unable to create chances on a flat deck. Both Lakmal and Kasun Rajitha were accurate, but were perhaps guilty of not bowling enough balls at the stumps, on a pitch that was offering no lateral movement. Kumara, at least had pace and energy, and deservedly finished with the best figures from the day.The spinners could get no turn from this track. They bowled tight lines and decent lengths, and will hope that cracks will open up for them, and that the pitch will dry up by the second innings.

The left-hander briefly threatened to haul down Scotland’s revised DLS target with a thrilling assault full of audacious sweeps and reverse-sweeps

Peter Della Penna at The Grange22-May-2019In a Scotland batting unit featuring the reigning ICC Associate Player of the Year, Calum MacLeod, and a captain who earlier in the month had became the fastest Associate cricketer to 2000 ODI runs, Kyle Coetzer (in 49 innings), the most menacing threat to opposition bowling attacks might actually sit a bit lower down the order. George Munsey’s destructive batting has had him firmly entrenched in the opening slot in T20 cricket for Scotland, but in ODIs he slots in lower down as a finisher.On Tuesday against Sri Lanka at the Grange, the scene was set for Munsey to showcase his rapidly growing reputation as a power-hitter. A flurry of sweeps and reverse sweeps had taken him to 23 off 24 balls before rain transformed Scotland’s equation from 191 off 138 balls (8.30 per over), to 103 off 42 (14.71). Yet, Munsey says the situation was well within Scotland’s grasp in a match that eventually ended in Sri Lanka winning by 35 runs.”I was really positive actually,” Munsey told ESPNcricinfo after the match, when asked about Scotland’s chances as he walked out for the resumption of the chase. “I think with our firepower at the back end, these totals are not un-gettable.”We’ve got quite a strong hitting line-up at the tail and the belief in the team was we really have a great chance of getting this, especially if we have a good start and really go hard from ball one. We almost did that. One more over early on with a good over would have really put us in a great place. We lost a few too many wickets in the end but we weren’t far off chasing it down.”Scotland got that good over straight after the restart. Munsey struck Thisara Perera’s first ball for six over the leg side before clipping two more boundaries in a 19-run 28th over to keep the equation in check. A six off Suranga Lakmal as part of an 18-run 31st over brought up a 37-ball half-century. Scotland needed 50 off 18 balls, gettable in 2019 as proven by the latter stages of T20 chases on flat wickets like the Grange.But Nuwan Pradeep, bowling a match-winning spell of death bowling, yorked Munsey for 61 off 42 balls in the 32nd over. Even though he had passed his previous ODI best of 55, made last summer against England, Munsey was left despondent. More than 90 minutes after the final wicket had been taken by Sri Lanka, he still hadn’t taken off his pads.”I’m pretty gutted, to be honest,” Munsey said. “I felt like it’s one of my strengths, targeting bowlers. I started well and I felt like I could have seen the team over the line. So it was pretty gutting to be walking off knowing that I still had more to give out there and I felt like I could have steadied the ship home.”Nuwan Pradeep celebrates after taking his second wicket of the day•Peter Della Penna

Munsey’s wicket was the first in a sequence of three in five balls taken by Sri Lanka as Pradeep and Thisara submarined Scotland’s chase. Munsey gave plaudits to Sri Lanka’s bowlers for maintaining their death-bowling accuracy in spite of challenging conditions with a wet ball that needed to be replaced at one stage.”When you lose a cluster of wickets, you’re gonna struggle no matter what the situation is,” Munsey said. “To be fair to the Sri Lankans, they bowled really well. They hit their wide yorkers, they hit the boot. They only bowled a few wides. That was real tough to put away. Any length they gave us, we put away. We didn’t miss many length opportunities. But credit where credit is due, they smashed their yorkers.”Sent in to bat, Sri Lanka made a below-par 322 for 8, a total Munsey believes Scotland did well to hold them down to, given that they had been 203 for 1 after 33 overs. Scotland uncharacteristically dropped three chances, including one each off Dimuth Karunaratne on 13 and Avishka Fernando on 22; they went on to make 77 and 74 respectively. Munsey believes the missed chances cost Scotland in the end.”We were a fair bit behind the rate as far as DL (Duckworth-Lewis) is concerned when we came off, but in the appearance of the game we were doing quite well,” Munsey said. “So I think had the game gone the distance, I truly believe it would have been a different outcome. It’s hard to play devil’s advocate with DL because there’s so many different aspects to it. We did a good job but we weren’t quite on top of our game fielding and that’s what cost us.”We have a very good fielding team and that was slightly out of character for us today to drop so many catches in one game. From overs 0-20, we weren’t that great as a unit in the field but then we turned it around and we stopped them getting a 350 score and brought them back closer to a 300-mark. That was down to the bowling and fielding, holding catches. We saw two different fairy-tales in one innings of fielding.”