Sri Lanka and Pakistan, Both teams in a new era, began the Test Series in UAE. Usually, Sri Lanka-Pakistan series are the calmest and friendliest ones of all. Bond is such, unlike in many series, fans from both countries share each other’s troll posts over social media like they are supporting the same team. Who had won won’t be the talking point at the end of the tour. Most of the focus of the fans and the coaches will be on how your team’s players performed. And beware of the sun not rising tomorrow if you heard about a sledging incident beyond greeting a new batsman to the crease with a ”Morning!” without the ”Good”. That is how usually Sri Lanka Pakistan tours plays out; Incident Free.
But, ”the Cricket” played on those tours were eye-catching because the caliber of the players both countries have been producing. However, the ongoing test match between two has not been the same.
*********************************
Sri Lanka had won the toss and elected to bat. Openers, On a placid wicket with a touch of grass, started slowly. Kaushal Silva, Die-hard fan of timeless tests, took the lead with 58-ball 12 before gliding a delivery to the stumps. He had one boundary under his name; even that was never intentional. Maybe he could not do what his team needed from him, but he has given a perfect start to the protest!
Thirimanne and Mendis were boundary-less. Thirimanne decided to go against the protest by going for a slog sweep early; Yasir Shah was not ready to let him. Mendis, showing his faith to the greater cause, the protest, did not hit a boundary in his 25-ball stay very unlike him. Karunarathne joined Chandimal. Both were sedated as they can be. Both had hit boundaries only if the delivery is poor that there is a chance ICC’s ACU might question you if you had failed to hit a boundary off it.
After a superb stay at the crease, Karunaratne was sold a dummy by Chandimal in the nineties. Sri Lanka were 161 in the 70th over when Dickwalle entered the ground promising some entertainment. There are not many couples in this world close to each other as much as ”Dickwalle” and ”Entertainment”; on and off the field. But not on this test match. He was determined to dedicate the innings for 5-day Test Cricket. By not playing a single scoop for the highlights package in his 117-ball stay, he was very hard on the TV broadcasters.
He played a couple of Revers-Sweeps off Shah, just to make it easy for people at the crowd to identify him. But they were controlled and not mindless. And to make it more frustrating to broadcasters, he got out to a shot which is not mindless or not a sweep or a scoop. Not much for highlights, guess who won?
With Chandimal hitting superb captains 155 not out at a Strike rate of 41, Sri Lanka made 419 off 155 overs at the end. A Decent total, but most importantly a message to ICC.
Pakistan, like on the day of 1996 world cup final and many other occasions were on the same page. The new opening combination was in no hurry at all. They ended the day of 64 without a loss having faced 23 overs. They scored under three runs per over, which was the norm back in the day when the test matches had been longer than five days. Disciplined by Mickey Arthur, all the Pakistan batsmen followed the suite. Everyone at least made 28 runs; all of them went under a Strike Rate of 40. Leading the way, Azhar Ali made unbeaten 74, only hitting the ball to the boundary thrice in his 200-ball stay.
Now by the end of the day three, both teams have scored 685 runs in 266 overs at about 2.57 runs per over. Only two days left and the first innings are a long way away from being completed.
More than half of the overs done. Batsmen are not seemed to be in any hurry to make runs. Bowlers aren’t in the mood for wickets. Fielders, having been in the heat for so long, seems to be happy to take a nap instead of a match-changing catch or a runout. At this rate, considering more deterioration in the pitch, a 6th day seems to be the ideal day for a thrilling finish.
*********************************
In other parts of the world, South Africa asked for permission from ICC to play a 4-day boxing game against Zimbabwe tagged as a test match. According to close quarters, ICC is likely to award test status to this encounter. Many say this will be the start of a new era of test cricket.
Back in the day, touring teams used to play timeless test cricket until next ship would reach the harbor. Because of various reasons and decisions, since 1979 every test match has been scheduled for 5-days barring a Super Test match played between Australia and a World XI back in 2005. Now, mainly due to the power broadcasters’ hold, there is more than a chance of we seeing the end of the 5-day cricket soon from the international game.
Pros and Cons of 4-day test cricket and how ICC should approach the issues about test cricket is another matter for another day. But, the way Sri Lanka and Pakistan had played this test match up to now is a good way to protest if you are against the idea of 4-day test matches. Although they might have prevented few fans who had watched the first test match from watching the second test match, by playing this test match like even Five days were never enough for a result in a test match, Both teams have given a clear message to the ICC about their opinion on 4-day Test Cricket.
After all, we all have grown up by watching the most traditional format of the game, that too in lovable five-Day mode!
