England opener who went unsold last year struck 75 off 47 as they beat India in Mumbai

S Sudarshanan07-Dec-2023When emotions speak the loudest, words can feel hollow and unwanted.It was almost seven minutes into the press conference when Danni Wyatt smirked at herself and replied in a low voice: “[I’m] getting old now…”Leaning back on her chair in her England playing kit, she looked as relaxed as relaxed could be. Only minutes earlier, though, she was a bit forlorn talking about not finding any takers at the inaugural Women’s Premier League (WPL) auction earlier this year. Her mood quickly changed as she patiently and thoughtfully fielded questions in the nine-minute presser following England’s clinical win over India in the first women’s T20I.Wyatt became only the third woman – after Harmanpreet Kaur and Suzie Bates – and the first player across gender from England to play 150 T20Is. She had scored 75 off just 47 balls on a true Mumbai pitch to help England to 197 for 6, their second-highest score against India, who fell short by 38 runs.”It is always nice to do well on your big days” she said. “I try not to think too much about it being a big game for me. It is something I’ll look back on when I retire – how many games I’ve played in this format.”Days out from the second WPL auction, Wyatt had provided a timely reminder of her mettle.

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Renuka Singh was back in action after close to nine months. Stress injuries can take time to heal and, in some cases, suck the skill out of a sportsperson. The first ball she delivered swung. It was as if her biggest strength with the new ball had stayed with her despite the long lay-off. The relief on her face was unmissable.The first ball was an inswinger tucked away through square leg. The second ball curved the other way, teasing Wyatt into prodding at it and narrowly beat her, before she got off strike on the next. And then… boom boom!Sophia Dunkley chopped on a length ball that held its line instead of swinging away. Alice Capsey got a peach – angling in on a fullish length and forcing her to play at it before swinging away ever so slightly to light up the stumps. Renuka leapt high while England sunk to 2 for 2. Playing a women’s T20I for the first time at the Wankhede Stadium, India were right on the money.Wyatt had got in February 2023 what Capsey faced in December 2023 – an unplayable delivery from Renuka. Wyatt was dismissed caught behind off a similar ball earlier this year. “She bowls quite well at the crease and angles it in,” Wyatt said of Renuka. “But she’s also got the one that goes the other way… that Alice Capsey delivery was an absolute seed and it has also got me out at the World Cup.”Danni Wyatt was presented a special cap for her 150th T20I•Getty ImagesWyatt walked up slowly to the new batter Nat Sciver-Brunt, who was Mumbai Indians’ Ms. Reliable in the WPL.A quiet over later, Wyatt opened the boundary-count by slapping a length ball from Renuka through cover point. Thereon, Sciver-Brunt took charge, first by sweeping debutant Saika Ishaque through backward square leg and then steering one to deep third off Mumbai Indians team mate Pooja Vastrakar. She then bookended Deepti Sharma’s opening over with fours on either side of the square as England finished the powerplay on 44 for 2 – Sciver-Brunt on 23 off 17 and Wyatt on a run-a-ball 16.The plan from the duo was clear – be brave and attack but not at the cost of being reckless. After the first two overs of the innings, England managed to hit at least one boundary every over in their innings. Wyatt and Sciver-Brunt added 138 off just 87 balls for the third wicket to silence the crowd that had filled up two of the four stands that opened.”Nat’s just so calm, we don’t really talk much out there in the middle,” Wyatt said. “We have played with each other a lot, [I have] batted a lot with Nat. I know what her [scoring] areas are. She is a quality player, scores runs for fun especially here in Mumbai. The partnership was needed at the time we did it.”Wyatt took the attack to Ishaque after the powerplay, hitting her for back-to-back fours in the eighth over before cutting a shortish ball through point in the 13th. In all, she took 21 off 13 balls against the left-arm spinner before being stumped.”The girl that bowls left-arm spin, Nat’s faced a lot of it in the nets,” Wyatt said. “So she was telling me how she bowls which it was handy to know.”There have been only two partnerships against India in T20Is that have made more than Wyatt and Sciver-Brunt’s 138.

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Wyatt’s had a summer to remember thanks to chart-topping returns with the bat in the Charlotte Edwards Cup, England’s domestic T20 tournament, and the women’s Hundred. She was drafted by Perth Scorchers for the Women’s Big Bash League but opted out to give herself a break.”I had seven weeks off with no cricket which was really nice. I haven’t done that for a few years.”Wyatt then returned to training at Loughborough before flying to Oman with the England unit for a two-week camp before the India tour that has her “feeling prepared”.”[It was an] enjoyable two weeks with the girls and we did what we could,” she said. “We made use of the outfield and lots of net bowlers and [had] similar conditions to what we faced here. [I am] feeling prepared for this series.”The WPL auction will be held in Mumbai on December 9, the same day as the second T20I. Did she think about it while batting?”Not while I was batting and not when I was walking out to bat,” she said. “But it did cross my mind a few times in the morning when people spoke about it though. I was pretty disappointed last [auction]. But I have completely changed my mind, so now I am just like I have done all I can, had a good summer, performed tonight, so what will be will be. [I] would love to be a part of the next WPL, will see what happens.”If it does happen, Wyatt won’t need the words. The emotions will suffice.

His blazing hundred, and what followed after he fell, showed his value in the side

Sidharth Monga28-Oct-20231:17

Tom Moody: ‘Travis Head highlighted how much his game has evolved’

It was as much in what followed as it was in what Travis Head did that you saw why Australia chose to stick with a batter with a broken hand and, in effect, agreed to have a squad of 14 for the first half of the World Cup. If they got lucky, that is.It is firstly a big credit to Australia’s planning that they have front-loaded themselves in a World Cup that has turned out to be one for the frontrunners with the bat. The new ball has not travelled in any World Cup as it has done in this one. The contribution of overs 21 to 30 to totals has been higher than ever. The run rate in the death overs has only just picked up from being the third-slowest of all editions.Australia probably foresaw this in Pakistan last year and decided they had to start off running and keep on going through the innings because death overs were not going to be a guarantee. They didn’t immediately find the personnel for the job, but once Head began to open following Aaron Finch’s retirement, things began to fall in place.Related

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Head is a bit of an old-school Australian batter. He loves to hit the ball square, loves to hit it hard, and wears a big moustache in 2023, which is reminiscent of the cold ruthlessness of Allan Border and David Boon. As it probably happens with many a cricketer from states other than Victoria, New South Wales and to an extent Western Australia, Head grew up being hailed as the next big thing in South Australia but had to work hard to carve himself a place in the national side.”That [opening] has been a spot that I guess I waited for,” Head said. “Obviously, with [Aaron] Finchy playing for such a long period and their partnership [Finch and David Warner] being so good, and the limited chance I had I was able to take and sort of waited a couple of years for that spot to open up. That’s never guaranteed, and I’ve got to perform and I’m lucky enough to be able to put a string of a few performances together that hopefully make that a spot where Davey and I have obviously got a great partnership, but [also with] the next guy, whether that be Mitch [Marsh] or whoever.”1:49

Head: This is the spot I had always waited for

Once Head did find that spot and role in a stop-start international career, he took to it with utmost earnestness. Since March 2022, which is when Head opened a List A innings for the first time in four years, only Phil Salt has scored quicker than Head’s 132 per 100 balls in the powerplay (where data is available). Again, Salt is the only opener who has gone quicker than his overall strike rate of 131. Heinrich Klaasen, Salt and Glenn Maxwell are the only batters quicker than him over this period.Except that Head has done all this while averaging over 64. No opener in the history of ODI cricket has scored over 1000 runs while averaging over 50 and striking at over 110. It’s not difficult to see why Australia would wait for him instead of bringing in another player who would be available through the tournament. It is not that Mitchell Marsh was not doing a good job with David Warner, but Warner and Head have been different gravy despite being two left-hand batters. Of all Australian associations to have aggregated more than 1000 runs, their average of 82.55 and run rate of 6.93 is easily the highest.For six weeks leading into his comeback, Head has barely had a proper net. On the day before this match, Head batted for about 20 minutes. He got bowled, he got leading edges, and he shanked a few, but did not look in any discomfort. Then again, the pitches in the nets were not great. That hit was enough for him to be confident and give it a whack come match day.And what whack it was. The third ball he faced ever in a World Cup, Head cleared the front leg and thwacked it over mid-off. Matt Henry’s two free hits immediately after was not an invitation he needed, but one he accepted graciously. One of them, a short ball that got up to only about his shoulder, showed that the short ball was not going to challenge him on this pitch. It also exorcised past demons given that it was while pulling Gerald Coetzee that Head broke his hand.Head and Warner have been dynamite at the top for Australia•Associated PressThe bowlers did bowl short of a length and looked to cramp him up and take his hands away only for Head to score plenty through midwicket. Anything fuller was just fodder, bringing him 85 runs off 42 balls pitched on a good length or fuller.Asked if there were any nerves around the hand holding up when facing the quick bowlers, Head said: “There was obviously that part of the mindset I guess leading into the game. There’s been little aches and pains throughout. Funnily enough, once we lost the toss and we were batting, the adrenaline pumped up and it felt pretty good.”Head’s successful comeback has vindicated the gamble the leadership took by picking him when they knew he would be available for only half the tournament. The value of Head was all the more apparent after he got out, and we realised the pitch was not the batting beauty he made it look like. The new batters kept getting out whenever they tried to force the pace on a pitch that had slowed down. In that light, and also looking at how close New Zealand got with the pitch skidding on in the cool evening under the lights, Head’s innings becomes even more valuable.When they review the match, Australia will probably look at whether the middle order could have done better after the start they were given. It might also push them back to playing either Cameron Green or Marcus Stoinis – the latter if fit – because both Steven Smith and Marnus Labuschagne in the same XI might derail their strategy of aiming for 350 or more every time.That is for later, though. Right now is the time to marvel at Head’s comeback, and anyway, it is he who opens up all these possibilities.

Australia’s most successful domestic coach speaks about his methods and philosophy after signing a new two-year deal with WA and Perth Scorchers

Alex Malcolm29-Feb-2024You’ve had incredible success in the last three seasons. The question now is how do you get better as a coach and how do you take your coaching to the next level with the same group?I think you constantly ask yourself how are you getting better and whether it’s some of the leadership programs that I do or the ability to continue to keep learning on the job with what you do. But also the opportunities to keep trying to experience different environments and working with different players I think is all part of that. With our group itself, it’s a phenomenal group, and I feel very grateful to be in the position that I am to work with this group of players and staff that have brought so much success. But equally, I think every team is constantly in transition and we’re no different.The recent Marsh Cup success is probably a testament to that where I think we used 23 players over the eight games and we saw five debutants as well. Hopefully, not only are we able to continue to bring those high standards, but we’re actually starting to give opportunities to that next generation of West Australian cricketers as well. That’s the exciting bit. I think that’s the big part of why I love my job and why I want to continue to be able to do what I’m doing at the moment.You had an opportunity to coach Australia A last year. Is there some flexibility to take more opportunities like that or get involved in some overseas franchise cricket over the next couple of years alongside coaching WA and Scorchers?There is. Exactly what that looks like we’ll continue to work through but the idea of being able to go and experience different environments and continue my learning away from our setup and hopefully bring some different ideas back with me is something we’ll certainly look to explore and work out what suits best.What have you learned over the last few years about first achieving success and then sustaining it?I think what success provides is belief more than anything. Belief that what you’re doing is working. Belief that the playing group are invested in how the program runs and the way they want to play their cricket. Probably the biggest learning is that…validation might not be the right word, but hopefully, it means that the things that you are trying to implement and put into place are putting you on the right track. From that first season where we won those three trophies, every one of them is incredibly satisfying, but they’ve all been very different and provided different challenges. That’s the art of doing what we do, navigating through those challenges and providing guidance and leadership. But ultimately, I think it’s the underlying belief that has really stood out over those last couple of years.Adam Voges: ‘You can’t do everything yourself and that ability to empower and trust other people to do their job is really important’•Getty ImagesWhat about the evolution of your relationships with the players? Being a domestic coach is different now to when you were a player with so many players coming in and out of the squad at various points of the year due to international and franchise cricket. How do you manage that with the players?We’ve got a big squad. I think we’ve got 31 players, including our CA contracted guys at the moment and trying to have touch-in points with all of them at various times is a challenge in itself. But that transition period of guys coming in and out of our program is something that I’ve tried to refine and tried to make sure that each time they go out or each time they come in it feels like they haven’t left.The communication side of that is really important, to just try and stay in touch with those guys as much as possible. But for all players, give them the clarity that they’re seeking, whether it’s in their role, in selection, in where that improvement lies for each one individually. So that’s been an evolution. Getting better at that side of things is something that I’ve had to work on and certainly haven’t nailed but continues to be part of how I continue to evolve and grow.One of the hardest things for a coach is to take your hands off the reins at times and empower your assistant coaches. What have you learned about that?Beau Casson is a head coach in waiting. Tim Macdonald is a really experienced bowling coach and a couple of our development coaches are great and there’s been transition in that space as well over the six years. Getting those guys to come in and buy into what we’re trying to do, but allow them to do their jobs and to work really closely one-on-one with the players, with their specific skill sets and give them the autonomy and empower them to make decisions at times. Just ultimately trust that you’re backing them to do their jobs really well. I’m incredibly lucky with the support staff that I’ve got and that goes into our SSSM [Sport Science Sport Medicine] group as well, not just our coaching group.What are the things you know now about coaching that you wish you knew when you started?There’s plenty that I didn’t know when I started. I think number one, you can’t do everything yourself and that ability to empower and trust other people to do their job is really important. Over-communication is always way better than a lack of communication. I think they’re two of the really big things. Just understanding what the big things are and focusing time and effort on them. Not sweating on things that ultimately are out of your control. They’re probably the key learnings. It can be a stressful life at times. It can be a lonely life at times. But understanding and learning a couple of those key points is certainly what I’ve been able to do over the last five or six years.Western Australia continues to produce a lot of cricketers for the national side•Getty ImagesWhat is the next phase for a domestic coach in Australia given the way global cricket is trending with the amount of franchise leagues that have developed? Do you think the role is going to change at all and how will it differ from coaching at franchise or international level?I think ultimately our role is still to develop Australian cricketers. Working really closely with that young group coming through is vitally important and then for our senior players, it’s continuing to challenge them but also understanding that they’re playing cricket 12 months of the year, and making good decisions around how do you help them with that, to help them have the careers and the success that they want to have.Understanding that this is often home and they like coming home. I think that’s an important part of it. Just managing those transitions in and out but ultimately trying to have a strong program that helps with development, helps to continue to try and get the best out of these guys and help them have the careers that they want to have. So that’s only going to happen more and more with franchise cricket now.I certainly hope that in 10 years time our main goal is still trying to produce West Australian and Australian cricketers. It’s going to be a balance and that’s going to happen more and more I think.You mentioned challenging senior players. How do you handle those situations now compared to when you started?I always thought there was room for that and that’s one of the biggest things I learned from JL [Justin Langer]. I was a senior player when he came into our program. He opened my eyes up to different ways of training, and different ways of going about things. It’s really easy to leave your senior players alone and let them do their thing. But he probably helped get the best out of me late in my career, and it’s certainly a lesson that I took and continue to take in and they’re often just little small things, but just trying to continue to help guys grow and improve and that’s important for anyone regardless of what stage you are at in your career.This new deal takes you through until 2026. Where do you see your career progressing beyond that?Ultimately I’m really grateful for the job that I’ve got at the moment. I’m really lucky to do what I do. I love it. And that’s a huge part of why I’m continuing. Beyond these two years, I don’t actually know ultimately what that looks like. It’s like a player really. You do the best job that you possibly can and you control what you can control and then if opportunities present themselves beyond that, then that’s great.But if you get too far ahead then maybe you take your eye off what you’re doing at the moment. And I say that to the players all the time, so I’ve got to be able to live that as well, to really just invest in this next little period and really enjoy it as well. I think there’s still some success to come with this group, albeit we’re going to continually look to transition with a pretty senior group.

From batters acing the 50-over template to a Jadeja clone and an astute captain, a look at what makes India the tournament favourites

Raunak Kapoor05-Feb-20242:33

Can SA strike early and put India under pressure?

They bat first, bat long, and get hundredsIndia have batted first in every game of the World Cup so far, and only once after winning the toss. They would have bowled had they won the toss in their opening game against Bangladesh when conditions were at their most challenging for batting in Bloemfontein, but after what was their stiffest test, they mastered a template to 50-over batting, which no other team has with such consistency.Four of India’s batters account for five of the tournament’s 11 individual hundreds, and they are the only team to score 250 or more in each game. They start steadily with an average first powerplay score of 47, build through the middle, and launch with wickets in hand in the last ten over. Only once have they lost more than three wickets going into the final ten overs. They have also never been bowled out.Musheer Khan and captain Uday Saharan are the two highest run-getters of the tournament and have scored 642 runs between them at a strike rate of 92.9 with three hundreds and as many fifties.Junior Jadeja – India’s biggest threat with the ballSaumy Pandey, India’s vice-captain, has been the standout bowler for India with 16 wickets in five matches at a stunning average of 6.62 and economy rate of 2.17 – on both counts, the best in the tournament for all bowlers with a minimum of five wickets.Like Ravindra Jadeja, Pandey relies on the strength of his shoulder to generate more speed through the air and is deadly accurate, with 11 of his 16 dismissals either bowled or lbw.Pandey’s presence as a leader on the field has been noticeable. He has often insisted on bowling without a long-on, inviting batters to take him on and getting the better of them. Four of his remaining five wickets have been batters either stumped or caught at mid-on trying to do just that.Raj Limbani’s inswinger can evoke memories of a young Bhuvneshwar Kumar•ICC/Getty ImagesIndia’s limited but promising pace attackIndia’s new-ball pair of right-arm seamer Raj Limbani and left-arm quick Naman Tiwari might have gone somewhat unnoticed with the batters grabbing Player-of-the-Match awards and Pandey bagging most of the wickets, but they could be pivotal in the semi-final (and the final, possibly) all in Benoni. Limbani, with an inswinger that might remind one of Bhuvneshwar Kumar in his early years, got the new ball to do more in ten games at Bloemfontein than any other quick bowler, despite always bowling in the afternoon. Tiwari is sharp, skiddy, and surprises batters with the short ball.Willowmoore Park in Benoni, the venue for the knockouts, saw pace dominate in the virtual quarter-final between Pakistan and Bangladesh, where 13 out of the 18 wickets that fell to bowlers went to quick bowlers. Ian Bishop, who commentated on that game, called it “one of the fastest surfaces he has ever seen for an Under-19 World Cup, with significant lateral movement, bounce and carry”.If the surface plays similarly for the semi-finals, India will need Limbani and Tiwary to do more than they have previously in the tournament, given that the only other pace-bowling option is batting allrounder Arshin Kulkarni, who has only bowled 15 overs in five games so far.The captain – Uday SaharanSolid batter at two down, has got runs in every game, runs hard between the wickets, finds gaps, plays risk-free cricket, and milks the middle overs – Saharan is your quintessential 50-overs No. 4. He hasn’t won a Player-of-the-Match award yet, often playing the supporting act to those who have, but Saharan has been the backbone of this impressive batting line up. Musheer and Sachin Dhas, after their hundreds that earned them Player-of-the-Match awards, credited Saharan for guiding them through the middle overs, constantly passing information on what bowlers are likely to bowl or what is needed from the next passage of play.Uday Saharan has scored a century and two fifties so far in the Under-19 World Cup•ICC/Getty ImagesOn the field, Saharan has barely put a foot wrong, attacking with his field placements and being decisive with his bowling changes, with the input of his deputy Pandey, whose contribution can’t be ignored. In an Under-19 tournament, steady leadership and skilful captaincy stands out even more.Related

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How are they in the field?India have been outstanding as an all-round fielding side. Offspin-bowling allrounder Abhishek Murugan has taken two blinders inside the circle, and opening batter Adarsh Singh has been solid and assured with bat and at slip. Their fast bowlers are athletic and dive around to save runs at the boundary, and wicketkeeper Aravelly Avanish, one of two players in the squad to secure IPL gigs – he was picked up by Chennai Super Kings at the latest auction – is among the best glovemen in the tournament.Kulkarni, the other IPL player – he was picked by Lucknow Super Giants – is perhaps India’s only weak link in the field, an area that he will have to improve upon as he grows.All boxes ticked, but have they truly been tested?India couldn’t have asked for a better set of results, but they also had a number of factors playing into their hands.They hammered Ireland and USA, winning both games by 201 runs. Their toughest game was the opening fixture against Bangladesh, who beat them in December last year in the Under-19 Asia Cup semi-finals. They played the better game at the World Cup, winning by 84 runs, which remains their closet margin of victory so far.It proved to be a decisive result, as India topped Group A to remain in Bloemfontein for the Super Sixes, where conditions got better to bat on as the tournament progressed. In the Super Sixes, they faced a New Zealand side that would lose comfortably to Ireland, and Nepal, the only associate side to make it through to the second round.South Africa, on the other hand, had to overcome a dangerous West Indies side in a thrilling opening game, and then went down to England. Their heist against Scotland saw them snatch top spot in the group and they then blew Zimbabwe and Sri Lanka away in the Super Sixes. They are more battle-hardened than India and are playing at home.While India still start as favourites against a side they beat comfortably, twice, in the tri-series leading up to the World Cup, this could well be their toughest test.

Shafali Varma, Sneh Rana and Laura Wolvaardt broke records in Chennai

Sampath Bandarupalli01-Jul-20243 – Consecutive Test wins for the India women’s team – against England and Australia in December 2023, and now South Africa. It is the joint-longest winning streak in women’s Tests. India had a hat-trick of Test wins between 2006 and 2014, while Australia had three such streaks.3/3 – India have won all three Test matches under Harmanpreet Kaur’s captaincy. She is the first woman to win their first three Tests as captain. Harmanpreet is now India’s most successful captain in women’s Tests, level with Mithali Raj who also had three wins.1 – South Africa became the first team to lose despite scoring 250-plus runs in both innings of a women’s Test.The 639 runs they scored in Chennai are the second-most in a defeat in women’s Tests, behind England’s 641 against Australia in 2023.Related

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8 for 77 – Sneh Rana’s bowling figures in South Africa’s first innings. She became only the third bowler to bag an eight-wicket haul in women’s Tests. Neetu David took 8 for 53 in England’s second innings in Jamshedpur in 1995, while Ashleigh Gardner had figures of 8 for 66 in the fourth innings in last year’s Ashes Test.2 – Rana is only the second Indian woman with a ten-wicket match haul in Tests. She picked up two wickets in the second innings to finish with match figures of 10 for 188. Jhulan Goswami took 10 for 78 against England in the 2006 Taunton Test.229 – Runs by Shafali Verma against South Africa in Chennai, the most by an Indian in a women’s Test, going past Sandhya Agarwal’s 217 runs against Australia at Wankhede in 1984.Shafali’s 229 runs are also the third most by a woman in a Test match, after Kiran Baluch’s 264 against West Indies in 2004 and Tammy Beaumont’s 230 against Australia in 2023.3 – Women to score hundreds in all three formats in international cricket. Laura Wolvaardt joined Heather Knight and Tammy Beaumont on the list with her maiden Test century.Wolvaardt’s 122 in the second innings is now the second highest score for South Africa in women’s Tests, after Marizanne Kapp’s 150 against England in 2022.2 – Fifty-plus scores for Sune Luus in the match – 65 and 109. She is first South African to achieve this feat.Only Tahlia McGrath had 50-plus scores in both innings of a Test defeat before Luus. McGrath had scored 50 and 73 against India in last year’s Wankhede Test.190 – Partnership runs between Wolvaardt and Luus for the second wicket in South Africa’s second innings. It is the highest partnership for South Africa in women’s Tests, surpassing the 138 between Johmari Logtenberg and Charlize van der Westhuizen for the fifth wicket against England in 2003.1279 – Runs scored by India and South Africa in Chennai is the second highest aggregate in a women’s Test, after the 1371 by England and Australia in last year’s Ashes Test in Nottingham.India scored 640 runs in this match, the fourth-highest team aggregate in a women’s Test, while South Africa’s 639 runs are the fifth highest.

When you’ve had it as good as New Zealand have had it for so long, letting go is hard. But things change, and the world moves on

Andrew Fidel Fernando30-Sep-2024Letting go is hard, especially when what you are letting go of is the best you’ve ever had.Defeats like Sunday’s just didn’t happen to New Zealand’s men’s Test team over the past 10 years. Since 2014, there have been two innings losses, both significantly less-heavy than this Galle loss. The first was against Australia in Brendon McCullum’s farewell series in 2016, which ok, qualifies as a horror-Test. (One of the great regrets of the great New Zealand years, is that they never got a Test series win over the opposition they love to beat most). But the other innings loss was against Pakistan in Dubai in a 2018 series New Zealand ended up winning 2-1.Related

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And yet, as if checking off a bingo card of Test misery, New Zealand have in their last match managed to:

England were forced to fight for victory in the first Test against Sri Lanka. Alan Gardner hears from Vithushan Ehantharajah and Andrew Fidel Fernando about where the game was won and lost, and what to expect at Lord’s

ESPNcricinfo staff27-Aug-2024England took a 1-0 lead in their series against Sri Lanka, but had to work for a five-wicket win in the first Test at Old Trafford. In this week’s podcast, Alan Gardner was joined by Vithushan Ehantharajah and Andrew Fidel Fernando to discuss the result and look forward to Lord’s. How did Ollie Pope fare on captaincy debut? Should it be so hard to find a replacement ball that is actually 40 overs old? And will Sri Lanka perform better if the sun shines while they are in London?