The game’s most high-profile league and its most successful player came up against each other. Here was a chance to set a fitting precedent; in the end the league blinked

Karthik Krishnaswamy13-Apr-20191:46

Dhoni was fired up by the way the no-ball decision was handled – Fleming

“He gave a no-ball! He gave a no-ball!”It’s an extraordinary sight. MS Dhoni, dismissed the previous ball, has marched back onto the field and is addressing these words to the square-leg umpire while pointing towards his bowler’s-end colleague.It happens every day at the base of cricket’s pyramid, in unruly contests officiated by umpires sourced from the batting team. It’s hard to think of an equivalent situation from a match this high-profile.It was a boundary-blurring act, quite literally. Within the boundary, the umpires’ word is law, but what happens when that boundary – which protects the closed system of the sporting contest and its rules – turns porous?ALSO READ: Dhoni’s on-field outburst ‘probably not’ right – Jos ButtlerFor a parallel, let’s turn to the greatest TV show of them all, , and to the Eastside versus Westside basketball game in season one, the moment when Avon Barksdale storms onto the court to harangue the referee when a decision goes against his team.”Yo ref, yo ref, yo ref… what the f***?” Barksdale screams in the referee’s face. “The boy was fouled, clear, straight up… how you going to not call that?”This isn’t just any coach of any basketball team. This is Avon Barksdale, kingpin of the West Baltimore drug trade.”Look,” the referee says, backing away from Barksdale, his face frozen in fear. “If you want I can put time back on the clock and replay it…”Cue outrage from Barksdale. “Are you talking about a do-over, baby? Are you talking about a f*****g do-over? That’s not how the game is played. You can’t do that!”Then he tells the referee how to do his job.”Man, you supposed to be the ref, right? Why don’t you stand up for your f****** self, you p***y! You can’t just let any ol’ m************ n**** get in your face… understand? Now walk away. Walk away.”It’s a terrific scene, capturing among other things the absurdity of sport’s arbitrary, inflexible rules and the indisputable authority figure of the referee existing within a universe of lawlessness and moral ambiguity. The entrance of a figure as powerful as Barksdale threatens the very existence of the referee, and of that basketball match as a meaningful contest.Dhoni isn’t Barksdale, but few wield the influence he does in Indian cricket, at a time when player power is rampant – take the last days of Anil Kumble as India’s coach, if you need an example – and when the BCCI is a considerably weakened force.For umpires Ulhas Gandhe and Bruce Oxenford, Dhoni crossing the boundary line and striding towards them, gesticulating aggressively, must have presented a far more intimidating sight than if it had been, say, Delhi Capitals captain Shreyas Iyer in his place. Umpires are human, and while this line is usually invoked while talking about the errors they occasionally make, players must also remember it in their dealings with them.Dhoni’s actions in Jaipur publicly undermined the umpires, as did Virat Kohli’s tirade after that contentious no-ball non-call in Royal Challengers Bangalore’s match against Mumbai Indians.Kohli got away unscathed, and Dhoni copped tge gentlest of penalties – 50% of his match fee, the minimum sanction for a Level 2 offence under the IPL’s code of conduct. It will hardly make a dent in Dhoni’s wallet, and it sets a precedent of utmost leniency.The game’s most high-profile league and its most successful player came up against each other. Here was a chance to set a fitting precedent; in the end the league blinked.

Four months after the board called off the visit to the country, a number of English players will now be part of the league

Matt Roller27-Jan-2022The Pakistan Super League is a finishing school for England’s best T20 cricketers. Since the league’s inception in 2016, England players have become increasingly popular to the extent that they now dominate the overseas player pool at the PSL, with nearly two-dozen due to appear in the 2022 edition which starts on Thursday.Ten of the playing XI for their first T20 international against West Indies on Saturday have PSL experience and the only exception, Adil Rashid, has expressed his desire to play in it in future. Eight members of the squad for that tour will fly from Barbados to Pakistan straight after this series to join up with their respective teams, and all six teams have English representation in their squads.A number of players have furthered their international cases through their involvement, including Phil Salt, Saqib Mahmood and Tymal Mills. “Playing for Peshawar Zalmi was a massive stepping stone for me to play for England,” Dawid Malan said back in 2019. “The pressure you get as an overseas player is like no other – it sets you up for when you get back to international cricket,” added Liam Livingstone.The involvement of leading overseas players in the PSL has been a contributing factor in bringing international cricket back to Pakistan on a regular basis. Chris Jordan and Malan both played in – and won – the 2017 final, the first PSL game staged in Pakistan rather than the UAE; five years later, 23 English players will travel to Karachi and Lahore with full confidence in security arrangements.Related

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The 2022 edition clashes with several international series and the Bangladesh Premier League, but falls during a rare break in England’s schedule. There is a wide range of players involved: leading internationals, T20 circuit regulars, young players cutting their teeth and senior county pros looking for franchise experience. There are even two English coaches leading franchises in Peter Moores (Karachi Kings) and James Foster (Peshawar Zalmi).But if the English influx is mutually beneficial, it also serves as a reminder that only four months ago, the ECB decided to call off men’s and women’s tours to Pakistan on the flimsiest grounds imaginable through a statement laced with hypocrisy and innuendo.”We know there are increasing concerns about travelling to the region and believe that going ahead will add further pressure to a playing group who have already coped with a long period of operating in restricted Covid environments,” the statement said.The Team England Player Partnership later clarified that the players had not been consulted over the decision; Ramiz Raja, the PCB’s chairman, said that Pakistan felt as though they had been “used and binned”.Phil Salt will turn out for Lahore Qalandars in PSL 2022•PA Images/GettyThe statement also made reference to the T20 World Cup, casting doubt on whether “touring under these conditions” would represent “ideal preparation”, as though there was no choice but to send a first-choice, full-strength squad. In doing so, it ignored that the fixtures’ very purpose.The men’s series – which would have comprised two T20Is and been England’s first tour since 2005 – was effectively an acknowledgement of the sacrifice made in Pakistan’s tour to England in 2020, during which their players quarantined in a three-star hotel and spent seven weeks in a country where Covid-19 was spreading fast. As a result, the ECB could fulfill its commitments to broadcasters and avoid an even heavier financial hit than the one it suffered.Pakistan toured again in 2021 for three ODIs and three T20Is, and fulfilled the series even after England’s first-choice squad was ruled out of the 50-over leg after a Covid outbreak. If England had been overseas in similar circumstances, would they really have seen the tour through?Tom Harrison, the ECB’s chief executive, said at the time that England wanted to “play our part in ensuring the safe return of international cricket to this wonderful nation of passionate cricket fans” but by withdrawing in such vague circumstances, soon after New Zealand had pulled out of their own series, they immediately cast doubt on Australia’s upcoming tour – which, thankfully, looks set to go ahead.Perhaps this is water under the bridge. Ian Watmore resigned as the ECB’s chairman shortly after England’s withdrawal from the tours, and Harrison flew to Pakistan in November for discussions with Ramiz which concluded with an extension of England’s planned tour this winter from five T20Is to seven.But cricket’s insistence on postponing rather than cancelling fixtures means there is no guarantee that the reasons, which supposedly underpinned this winter’s withdrawal, will not apply in October. England’s leading white-ball players have almost no wiggle-room in their schedule, and next winter are also due to play bilateral series in Australia, South Africa and Bangladesh on top of a T20 World Cup: can the ECB guarantee they will all be available?The obvious solution would have been to go ahead with the men’s tour as scheduled and, in the event that players declared themselves unavailable due to their IPL commitments, a desire for family time ahead of a busy winter overseas or any other concerns, to find replacements accordingly.The contrast between English players’ clear desire to play in Pakistan and the ECB’s insistence that it could not fulfil a four-day, two-match tour should stick in the craw. The ill-judged, short-sighted decision to postpone is not one that will be forgotten quickly.

Shanaka is no one’s idea of a world-class bowler but he makes it work against Bangladesh with his 3 for 28

Andrew Fidel Fernando10-Sep-20231:51

Maharoof: Shanaka brings balance to the team when he bowls

When your last seven scores are 5, 14*, 1, 5, 0, 5 and 1, these things tend to happen. Like a man rifling frantically through all his pockets for a misplaced key, Dasun Shanaka is reaching for deliveries he doesn’t usually reach for, lunging when he doesn’t usually lunge, and mis-hitting almost every shot in an anxious 32-ball 24 that sets Sri Lanka on track for another fizzling finish.It has been almost nine months since Shanaka struck 108 not out off 88 against India in Guwahati. Since then, he has played 14 ODI innings, averaged 10.69, and struck at a truly abysmal 73.15.Such has been the extent of his batting misery, and so desperate a figure does he cut with bat in hand, you wonder if he thinks he will ever find his old self again. Whether he still believes the thing big-hitting batters such as himself are supposed to believe: that the shot that thumps him back into rhythm – like an old TV screen that comes right when you hit it hard enough – is just around the corner.Related

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But this is not your run-of-the-mill plunge into despair. There are other statistics. Under Shanaka’s leadership, Sri Lanka have now won 13 consecutive ODIs, something only the greatest ODI team of all time has ever done before. They’ve bowled out their opposition in all 13 of those matches, despite their best fast bowler – Dushmantha Chameera – having been injured for most of that run. Wanindu Hasaranga has played no part in their three Asia Cup victories so far. Promising left-armer Dilshan Madushanka has not been available in this tournament either.There are huge caveats to these numbers, of course. Of the teams playing in this year’s World Cup, Sri Lanka have defeated only Afghanistan (three times), Bangladesh (twice), and Netherlands (twice) during this stretch. None of these sides are what you would call long-standing cricketing powers. But still, Sri Lanka have won 22 matches and lost only 13 under Shanaka. In ODIs since 2016 in which he was not captain, Sri Lanka won just 28 and lost 63.A quick vibe check, as we can’t be all about numbers: it doesn’t feel as depressing to be a follower of Sri Lankan cricket since Shanaka took over the white-ball teams. Even if he himself barely looks like he can hold a bat right now.What Shanaka can do, however, is contribute with the ball. It is, by a distance, his second skill. Maybe even his third, given his fielding in the circle is routinely outstanding. On Saturday, having seen Bangladesh’s batters go after Maheesh Theekshana early, and sensing that perhaps this was a plan they had hatched, Shanaka brought himself on to bowl the fourth over and, however gentle his pace, began making the ball curve late enough through the air to trouble batters.He raised a mild lbw appeal in his first over, conceded just five runs across his next three overs, and eventually created the pressure that yielded two wickets. Mehidy Hasan Miraz pulled a shortish ball straight to midwicket. Mohammad Naim top-edged what in Shanaka’s world is a bouncer, which eventually settled in the gloves of the wicketkeeper. By the end of his first spell, Shanaka had given away 15 from six overs. It was, in effect, a tone-setting effort.Dasun Shanaka dismissed Bangladesh’s openers in his back-to-back overs•Associated PressBangladesh never truly recovered from these six overs, delivered by a captain who does not usually operate in the early stages of an innings but, perhaps because so much else was going wrong for him, felt he needed to find responsibilities elsewhere.Shanaka is no one’s idea of a world-class bowler. Just as Sri Lanka is no one’s idea of a world-class ODI team, at present. But together, for now, they are making it work. Kind of. In their previous win, against Afghanistan, they had kind of tumbled into like a drunk crashing into a soft haystack.And his problems will persist beyond this match. There are lots of things a captain can’t really do when they’re in this much of a personal chasm. They can’t comfortably make the kinds of tough selection calls on match day that are sometimes required. They can’t twist arms and draft players that are not on the selectors’ radar. They can’t talk tough within the team, and certainly not in public. They can’t take strong stands, which is a thing you often need to do when your board is Sri Lanka Cricket.You suspect Shanaka is not a natural arm-twister/tough talker/stand-taker anyway. But in men’s elite sport, which even in 2023 rewards the more brusque expressions of masculinity, it would be nice to have the option of being a generalissimo, even just occasionally.That ODIs have been Sri Lanka’s worst format since their batting Valar (TM Dilshan, Kumar Sangakkara, Mahela Jayawardana etc) retired is pretty well understood. But right now, it feels like a side that is spinning like a top – beautiful in its current motion, but susceptible to collapsing with the lightest gust, a glancing touch of a finger.Shanaka is at least partly responsible for this revival. On Saturday, his batting failed again. But he took 3 for 28 from nine overs, and led Sri Lanka to another victory.

We all know he can do no wrong. Ever stopped to think just why that might be the case?

Alan Gardner15-Apr-2022Is there anything that Pat Cummins can’t do? Okay, so he’s yet to be offered the throne of Albania, and we don’t currently have evidence that he can jump from a stationary position to standing upright on the mantelpiece – but then CB Fry probably wouldn’t have been that much use on the farm either.Let’s look at the evidence. In the past month or so, Cummins has: led Australia to a famous Test series win on their long-awaited return to Pakistan, where his ability to bowl 90mph reverse-swinging bombs transcended some of the most inhospitable surfaces this side of Mars; rocked up at the IPL and opened a can of whup-ass with the bat, smoking the joint-fastest fifty in the tournament’s history; and solved the climate emergency (okay, so maybe that’s an exaggeration – but he working on it.Of course, if you’ve got anything like the same corroded world view as the Light Roller, instinctively your first response is one of deep, deep suspicion. How did this chiselled blue-eyed boy, one of the world’s leading fast bowlers and the rare Australia captain who wouldn’t deliberately offend your grandma, not to mention a UNICEF ambassador, business degree graduate, sportsman with a statesman’s mien, all-round good egg – how did he come by all these gifts without doing something diabolical in return?And that’s when you realise. He absolutely have done something diabolical in return. Maybe that missing fingertip wasn’t just the result of a childhood accident – perfectly plausible cover story – but the initial down payment on Pat’s Faustian pact.The signs were there, of course, if only we could see past the winsome smile and immaculate length. Daniel Sams knows it – just look at his face after he was torched by Cummins the other night; you can actually pinpoint the second when his heart rips in half. Justin Langer, meanwhile, had to cop it sweet during his whole contract wrangle with CA. And who was it that first posted a video of Alex Carey walking into a swimming pool while in Pakistan? Yep, lovable Patty C.(We’re not suggesting he had anything to do with “Sandpapergate”, by the way. That was clearly the work of a real evil genius. Or Cameron Bancroft.)”The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn’t exist.” So said Charles Baudelaire, the 19th century French poet who had a good nose for something fishy going on – and he would doubtless have been right on the scent here. Basically, folks, it’s important not to get seduced by the story. From now on, look at it this way: every gold-plated, spine-tingling, joy-sparking act of wonder that Cummins produces, on the cricket field or off – that’s 100% incontrovertible evidence of his deal with Satan.

****

Let’s take a moment to warm our hands at the dumpster fire that is English Test cricket. Lo and behold, turns out sacking the management (but not the captain) and binning your two greatest fast bowlers wasn’t a recipe for succeeding in the Caribbean after all – though Joe Root did at least come up with a new spin on their latest series defeat, saying his team played “brilliant cricket”. You might have felt you missed that, after two dull draws and a ten-wicket defeat, but perhaps Root was just displaying his full range of linguistic shot-making. After all, England’s batting in Grenada was dazzlingly, blindingly – you could say brilliantly – bad. “I think we’ve shown what we’re capable of as a group,” Root added, which was perhaps not so far from the truth.

****

These are heady times for Bangladesh. Their first ever win away to New Zealand, a famous Test smash-and-grab in Mount Maunganui. Their first-ever win away to South Africa, followed up by their second in a 2-1 ODI series romp – a result that consolidated their position at the top of the World Cup Super League. And now, further signs that they are ready for the big time. Okay, so they had their pants pulled down in the two Tests against South Africa… but before you could even say “bowled out by two spinners??”, the Bangladesh board moved into action, throwing shade at the local umpiring standards and calling out the opposition for sledging. Now Mominul Haque just needs to start yelling abuse into stumps mics and Bangladesh will have gone what’s known in the business as “Full BCCI”.

As Sri Lanka gear up for their 11th Asia Cup final, we look at the five times they won the tournament

Andrew Fidel Fernando16-Sep-2023For a side that only seriously became a cricketing force in the mid ’90s, Sri Lanka have overachieved in Asia Cups, now having made it to the 11th final (ODI versions), in 14 attempts, while finishing runners-up in the inaugural edition which was decided on in a round-robin format.They have also won the title five times. ESPNcricinfo looks through Sri Lanka’s winning ODI Asia Cup campaigns.Showdown with a great Pakistan side – 1986South Asian teams refusing to visit their neighbours for cricket tournaments is not a modern phenomenon. Well, not that modern, anyway. This was the second Asia Cup ever played, and India did not send a team to Sri Lanka, largely owing to security concerns, with the Sri Lankan Civil War building up to an especially violent phase. Bangladesh were invited instead, in order to avoid reducing this to a Sri Lanka-Pakistan bilateral.Related

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In the round robin it seemed as if a Pakistan team full of greats – Imran Khan, Javed Miandad, Abdul Qadir, Wasim Akram etc. – would ease to the title, having crushed both oppositions. But in the final, seamer Kaushik Amalean, who ended up playing only 10 matches for Sri Lanka, took 4 for 46 as Sri Lanka restricted Pakistan to 191 for 9 off 45 overs.They were only 22 and 20 then, but Arjuna Ranatunga and Aravinda de Silva then put on one of their earliest great partnerships to put Sri Lanka ahead in the chase. They each made fifties, and put on 97 in each other’s company. Qadir took three wickets, but with Duleep Mendis and Roy Dias coming in lower down the order, Sri Lanka cruised to the target with five wickets and 16 balls to spare.A World Cup honeymoon hiding – 19971997 was not a good year for India’s bowlers in matches against Sri Lanka. Particularly not at Khettarama (IYKYK). Sri Lanka properly stormed through this tournament. They eased past Pakistan first up, Marvan Atapattu hitting 80 to begin what would be an excellent tournament for him, in his coming-of-age year in international cricket, before opening partner Sanath Jayasuriya took 4 for 49.ESPNcricinfo LtdThe two would take turns producing match-turning performances, and Sri Lanka breezed into the final, never having been seriously tested, and had one more thumping left in them for the big game. Batting first, India made 239 for 7 at Khettarama. Jayasuriya cracked 63 off 52 as Sri Lanka plundered 43 runs off Venkatesh Prasad’s four overs (he bowled only four). Atapattu made 84 not out, and Arjuna Ranatunga did Arjuna Ranatunga things by which I mean taking the chase gently by the hand and guiding it home, with 62 not out off 66. Sri Lanka won with eight wickets and 79 balls to spare.Strangling India’s fearsome batting order – 2004This was in Sri Lanka’s in-between era. Their spectacular late ’90s team had waned, but Muthiah Muralidaran and Chaminda Vaas had become serious forces, Jayasuriya remained a match-winner, and younger batters were forging new narratives. This was another largely Colombo-based Asia Cup, and home advantage played a significant role too.Having won one match each against the other finalist in the earlier stage of the tournament, Sri Lanka and India came to the final in Colombo pretty evenly matched.India had their all-star batting order, featuring Virender Sehwag, Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly, VVS Laxman, Rahul Dravid and a young Yuvraj Singh. India also had an early version of Zaheer Khan, but it was obvious that Sri Lanka had the better attack: Murali and Vaas complemented by the likes of Nuwan Zoysa and Farveez Maharoof, with the all-round talents of Jayasuriya, Upul Chandana, and Tillakaratne Dilshan also thrown in.Sri Lanka made only 228 for 9, but in their defence put a vaunted opposition in a straitjacket. Vaas and Zoysa set the tone, conceding only 42 from their 15 combined overs, while claiming one early wicket apiece. Then the spinners applied the choke, and Sri Lanka bowled 195 dot balls. India were not bowled out, but lost by 25.Sanath Jayasuriya drives on his way to 125 in the 2008 final•AFPThe Mendis and Sanath Show – 2008India had beaten Sri Lanka in the Super Fours stage. But this was the Mahela Jayawardene captaincy era, and he was a big believer in hiding his mystery spinners. Ajantha Mendis was rested for that Super Fours game. But in the final, in Karachi (where nine of the 12 matches were played), Sri Lanka set India 274 thanks to a vintage Jayasuriya 125 off 114.And then Mendis was set loose.He had Sehwag stumped with his second ball, then bowled Yuvraj two balls later. A straighter one clattered into Suresh Raina’s stumps, a carrom ball trapped Rohit Sharma in front, Irfan Pathan edged the two-finger googly to slip, and then Mendis bowled RP Singh next ball. He took 6 for 13. India were all out for 173.At (almost) the end of another golden run – 2014While Sri Lanka’s late ’90s ODI outfit is rightly mythologised, there is strong evidence that Sri Lanka’s golden white-ball years were actually between 2007 and 2014. This was a confluence of greats. Lasith Malinga was at his peak, which is perhaps the most important component of their greatness. In Nuwan Kulasekara, he had an able accomplice. Malinga was outstanding at the death. Kulasekara would bowl big inswingers with the new ball. Together they would make breakthroughs at either end of the innings.There was also Kumar Sangakkara coming into his greatest years, Jayawardene playing vital innings, and Dilshan was outshining both of them, at times.In this seven-year stretch, Sri Lanka made five World Cup finals (two in ODIs and three in T20s).If the 1997 Asia Cup underscored how special team was, the 2014 Asia Cup presaged their next global triumph. They strode unbeaten through this tournament, not crushing oppositions exactly, but doing enough to overcome them in each match.In the final, against Pakistan, Malinga took 5 for 56 and they restricted Pakistan to 260 for five. Lahiru Thirimanne hit 101 off 108, and Sri Lanka won by five wickets.

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The opener’s Chinnaswamy classic encapsulated his journey to world-class stature at a time when his team-mates have stagnated

Andrew Fidel Fernando14-Mar-20221:35

Jaffer: ‘SL’s performance surprising, they are used to playing in such conditions’

What must it feel like to be Dimuth Karunaratne? Let us slip on his gloves, put on that helmet, scratch out a guard, inhabit his world.These are not particularly difficult shoes to walk in. There are no frills to the guy. No lavish backlift. No quirky set-up. Head down. A couple of taps. He’s ready. In person, he’s no different. After a tough innings, he’ll talk to you about what he struggled with. When he felt vulnerable. That ball he should have hit through point, chee! Oh, and this one spell this bowler bowled to him, where he had no idea what was happening, and he can’t believe he survived.Related

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But say you were him. And you were charged with leading this particular Sri Lanka side, perhaps you’d be justified in feeling a little abandoned, no? First, by the seamers who seem to break down mid-Test more often on his watch than ever before. In Mohali, Lahiru Kumara went off with a hamstring strain on the first day and never returned to the bowling crease, which is something Kumara has done three times in the last three years. Once, in South Africa, Karunaratne lost two quicks mid-match, as well as a senior batter. Later in that series, he himself was hit on the hand by a nasty Anrich Nortje delivery, which broke bones. Through his own injury, he battled to a hundred at The Wanderers.Abandoned too, by batters who have more gifts than him, but whose careers have not panned out as they perhaps should have. Angelo Mathews, whose supernatural 2014 promised an all-time great career, is now a shadow. Kusal Mendis, more shots in his left thumb than Karunaratne has across his whole family, was waylaid by indiscipline and mismanagement. Kusal Perera has injuries, Dinesh Chandimal has a strained relationship with his own ability, Dhananjaya de Silva hasn’t kicked on as he should have. These are all batters who should be pushing averages of 45 (50 in the case of Mathews and Mendis), 15 Test hundreds to each of their names.Instead, it is Karunaratne, he of the flicks to midwicket, the non-boundary pushes through cover, he of the reluctant sweep, and the low control percentage – this is the guy who has transformed a career that began so unremarkably – he averaged 32.05 over his first 30 Tests – into a potentially outstanding one. Forget Sri Lanka. Over the last few years, there has arguably been no more reliable opener around. He has 14 Test centuries now – three more than his closest team-mate. On the Sri Lanka run-scorers’ list, he has surpassed TM Dilshan, Thilan Samaraweera, and Marvan Atapattu. The men ahead of him: Kumar Sangakkara, Mahela Jayawardene, Sanath Jayasuriya, Mathews, and Aravinda de Silva. No one has made more runs for Sri Lanka with fewer resources at their disposal.Dimuth Karunaratne now has 14 Test hundreds, three more than his nearest team-mate•BCCIAt the Chinnaswamy, where he hit a fourth-innings hundred of staggering quality, battling what increasingly seems like India’s greatest-ever attack, on an exceedingly treacherous surface, he played the classic Karunaratne innings. Luck? Yep. Man should have been caught in the first few minutes on Monday, but Virat Kohli let a low chance nutmeg him at slip. Plays-and-misses? Oh boy. There were passages of play that seemed to be made entirely of balls beating Karunaratne’s bat. Top-edged sweeps, mistimed cuts, chipped drives, edges that fell just short of the slips, balls that hit his pads and raised appeals but only muted ones. He’s done this before, guys. This is what Karunaratne hundreds look like. Not pretty. And not ugly either, by the way. Just pragmatic. A mortal treading into a galaxy of the divine, and somehow finding his own method.Of the keys to his success, hanging back and committing late to the spinners is the main one, plus he also picks high-percentage scoring shots, so that even if he mistimes the ball, the chances of getting out are low. Karunaratne has a perennially low control percentage. But stats nerds, listen up: if there were such a thing as a playing shots with low wicket potential, he’d be one of the best on that front. We can’t quantify everything just yet. In a Test that featured Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Rishabh Pant, and Shreyas Iyer (who all faced a much worse attack), it was Karunaratne who played the best innings.He needs team-mates to go with him, but often they won’t. He needs bowlers to stay fit, needs coaches to be persevered with, needs administrators to recognise value, needs support staff who can catch young players up on how the game must be played.Whether Karunaratne is remembered as the Sri Lanka captain who raged against the dying light until the darkness overtook even him, or the one who braced himself against a closing door until better players than him finally arrived to thrust it open, is unclear.But that he will will his way to scores that he doesn’t immediately appear to have the tools for. That he’ll keep making space for team-mates to be better than they are. That he’ll embody the fight that defined generations of Sri Lankan cricket, but has recently been abandoned by all but a few. This much, by now, we know he will do.The rest isn’t up to him. No matter how much he, and increasingly we, wish it were.

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