New Zealand will look to continue their supreme run in the series, while Sri Lanka will hope for one their senior batsmen to take control of the match

The Preview by Andrew Fidel Fernando27-Dec-2015

Match facts

December 28, 2015
Start time 1100 local (2200 GMT, previous day)Sri Lanka will be expecting a strong performance from Dinesh Chandimal, their most successful batsman in the Test series•ICC

Big picture

Beaten in the Tests and walloped in the first ODI, a beleaguered Sri Lanka have 40 hours to rebound in Christchurch. In the Tests, it was the short delivery that got them. On Saturday, it was the moving ball. Milinda Siriwardana and Nuwan Kulasekara played manful innings, but the match had virtually been decided in the first 10 overs.Even on a batting-friendly pitch, and without their two usual new-ball quicks, Tim Southee and Trent Boult, New Zealand’s four-pronged seam attack appears formidable. Adam Milne and Matt Henry provide intensity with the new ball; Milne a shade quicker, Henry a better exponent of seam movement. Then the hit-the-deck bustle of Mitchell McClenaghan and Doug Bracewell probe Sri Lanka’s top order from a new angle.Mitchell Santner’s left-arm spin seems New Zealand’s most vulnerable frontline bowling option, but if the seamers get through their first spells as clinically as they did on Saturday, Sri Lanka will not risk taking Santner on. Both teams’ attacks have been depleted for this series, but New Zealand seem to have greater depth, in addition to familiarity with the conditions.What Sri Lanka desperately need is for their experienced batsmen to take control of a match. Five innings into the tour, the visitors are yet to hit a century. Tillakaratne Dilshan seems the likeliest candidate, but having been in good form through the Tests, team-mates will look to Dinesh Chandimal as well.New Zealand, meanwhile, will not want to change much for Monday’s match. With Brendon McCullum and Martin Guptill having bludgeoned the visiting bowlers into submission in the first game, they may feel confident enough to continue smuggling inexperience in that middle order.

Form guide

New Zealand: WLWLW (last five matches, most recent first)Sri Lanka: LWWWW

In the spotlight

With his 79 from 56 balls on Saturday, Martin Guptill became the top ODI run-scorer for 2015. Less than 12 months ago, he was searching for runs in the seven-match ODI series in Sri Lanka, his place in the team in some jeopardy. Then he went to the World Cup and top-scored, hitting an incredible 237 not out in the quarter-final against West Indies. New Zealand have now become accustomed to good ODI starts from Guptill. He is 49 runs ahead of Kane Williamson for the year, and one more good innings will probably safeguard his top position.In a bleak 2015, Milinda Siriwardana has been one of Sri Lanka’s few rays of sunshine. Merely a good domestic performer for several years, Siriwardana’s cricket has progressed quickly in the last 18 months. An excellent first-class season – in which he was the top run-getter – paved his route to the national side, and his combative batting has since seemed at home there. Should the top order ever begin to score runs, Siriwardana appears increasingly capable of providing the kinds of finishes Sri Lanka have missed in the past 18 months.

Teams news

Nuwan Kulasekara might make it into the XI based on his batting performance alone, but as his bowling was limp in the first ODI, Sri Lanka may consider bringing Thisara Perera into the side. With Ajantha Mendis having been hit for more than nine an over, Sachithra Senanayake could also make an appearance.Sri Lanka (probable): 1 Tillakaratne Dilshan, 2 Danushka Gunathilaka , 3 Lahiru Thirimanne, 4 Dinesh Chandimal (wk), 5 Angelo Mathews (capt), 6 Milinda Siriwardana, 7 Chamara Kapugedara, 8 Nuwan Kulasekara, 9 Sachithra Senanayake, 10 Dushmantha Chameera, 11 Suranga LakmalKane Williamson’s knee niggle will be assessed on the day of the match. New Zealand are unlikely to risk him with such a busy summer ahead. Expect a very similar XI otherwise.New Zealand (probable): 1 Brendon McCullum (capt), 2 Martin Guptill, 3 Tom Latham, 4 Ross Taylor, 5 Henry Nicholls, 6 Mitchell Santner, 7 Luke Ronchi (wk), 8 Doug Bracewell, 9 Adam Milne, 10 Matt Henry, 11 Mitchell McClenaghan

Pitch and conditions

The Hagley Oval strip would have worn slightly on Saturday, but is likely to hold together for the entirety of Monday’s game. Good batting conditions are expected again. The weather is forecast to be somewhat cloudy but dry. Temperatures are expected to hover in the high teens.

Stats and trivia

• New Zealand have played four matches across formats at Hagley Oval – all against Sri Lanka – and won comfortably on each occasion.
• Guptill has played five more innings than Williamson this year. In fact, no batsman has played as many as Guptill’s 30 innings in 2015.
• Of the current Sri Lankan side, Lahiru Thirimanne has the best average in New Zealand. He has hit 353 runs at 44.12

Quotes

“Last year was a big contrast to the way I started this year. I was very defensive last year, but this year I’ve got more confidence and am hitting the ball a lot better. I think I’ve played the most games of anyone in the world so I would hope to be at top of the list.”

Usman Khawaja believes his hamstrings are stronger than they have been for three years, after he spent a month on the sidelines recovering from a strain to his left hamstring

Brydon Coverdale21-Dec-20151:12

‘Pleased to get some runs in the middle’ – Khawaja

Usman Khawaja believes his hamstrings are stronger than they have been for three years, after he spent a month on the sidelines recovering from a strain to his left hamstring. Khawaja suffered the injury in the second Test against New Zealand in Perth and is set to return for the Boxing Day Test against West Indies, after proving his fitness with a BBL hundred at the MCG on Sunday night.Khawaja batted through the Sydney Thunder innings and showed his remarkable form had not diminished despite missing Australia’s last two Tests. He has been working with staff at the National Cricket Centre in Brisbane since sustaining the injury and was able to bat in the nets for most of that time. On Monday, he said he had recovered well after his unbeaten 109 of the previous evening.”I’m stoked I got some batting time,” he said. “To score a hundred in a T20 game is not an easy thing to do, so I’m just very happy with how things are working out. But there’s still a lot of work to do so I’m trying to keep my head down. I feel really good, just normal, general soreness … I pushed myself pretty hard, in terms of my hammy rehab, in terms of my running, in terms of my conditioning work.”My hamstrings are definitely stronger than they have been in the last three years. The last testing I had to do on Friday was a hamstring strength test and my hamstrings came up stronger than they have been in the last three years. I did a lot of hard work in the last four weeks. The trainers up at the NCC pushed me pretty hard. That’s what I needed to do. That’s all I can control.”Khawaja has now scored centuries in his last three games – the Brisbane and Perth Tests against New Zealand, and the T20 match on Sunday. He appears a certain inclusion against West Indies for his first appearance in a Boxing Day Test, which will leave Australia’s selectors with the difficult decision of whether to drop Shaun Marsh after his 182 in the Hobart Test, or opener Joe Burns.Burns scored a century against New Zealand at the Gabba and while he made starts in all three Tests since then, he has not passed fifty since that innings. That means there is a strong chance that Khawaja will be asked to open with David Warner on Boxing Day. Khawaja said coach Darren Lehmann had wanted him to push himself to his limits in the BBL game to replicate as best as possible the wear and tear he would face in a Test.”I just needed to go out there and play as I would any other game,” he said. “I couldn’t go out there and try to nurse it or not go 100% because I know that’s not what Boof wants. I knew I’d done all the hard work so I was always going to go hard no matter what.”In Twenty20, you’re sprinting every ball. In Test match cricket, you’re not sprinting every ball so it’s a little bit different. Five-day cricket is a different type of fatigue. I’m really glad with the way I’ve pulled up after this game. It’s a good indicator of how I would pull up after a five-day game.”Australia’s squad gathers in Melbourne on Tuesday and will have their first training session on Wednesday ahead of the Test, which starts on Saturday. Some of Australia’s squad members have played BBL matches over the past week, while West Indies spent the weekend playing against an under-strength Victoria XI in a two-day match in Geelong.

Trevor Bayliss, the England coach, has sought to reassure his top-order batsmen that their modest displays in the victory over South Africa will not necessarily lead to their exclusion

George Dobell27-Jan-2016Trevor Bayliss, the England coach, has sought to reassure his top-order batsmen that their modest displays in the victory over South Africa will not necessarily lead to their exclusion from the Test side that takes on Sri Lanka in England in May.But Bayliss has conceded that, with batsmen unable to cement their positions in the team, “there are possibilities” for players in domestic cricket who start the County Championship season well.Alex Hales and Nick Compton both contributed just one half-century each during the four-Test series against South Africa. But Bayliss saw enough in each of them to retain faith that they could prove valuable players for England, though possibly in different batting positions.Certainly he retains faith in the natural talent of Hales – a key member of the limited-overs squads – and feels that Compton will find greater consistency once he relaxes in the England environment. And while Hales looked vulnerable outside off stump, Bayliss felt some technical work – and perhaps a move down the order – could help him flourish in Test cricket.

Bayliss on…

Kevin Pietersen’s World T20 hopes
“I’ve been concentrating on the guys in the squad. We’ve done pretty well over the last six or seven matches. I don’t think there is any real need to change it at this stage.”
Jonny Bairstow
“He would be more disappointed with missing catches than his team-mates. Anyone who misses a chance feels a little embarrassed. They know how hard their team-mates are working to get the edge. I know he is disappointed. We like to enjoy each other’s success but we must stand by our mates as well when things don’t quite go our way. Everyone who has played the game has some bad days and disappointed your team-mates at certain times. It is just the way it is. So certainly there are some challenges for Jonny but at different times his keeping was very good. And he was starting to look like he belonged as a batter.”
Moeen Ali
“I’m reasonably happy with his spin bowling. Again, he’s a work in progress. On his day, he puts a lot on the ball and gets good spin and good bounce. Probably at times, he lacks a little bit of consistency in length more than anything. It just makes it a little bit easier for the batters to get off strike. That’s something he is aware of and trying to improve on all the time. If you take out the absolute superstars, most spinners became good spinners when they were 30 years old. He is improving since I first saw him.”
Defeat at Centurion
“There’s still a lot of hard work to do and that performance is a bit of a reminder. It was a bit of a kick up the backside to the players that we still have a lot of hard work in front of us. And it is also a message to the fans not to get too far ahead of ourselves. We’re going to go through a few difficult periods as well and disappoint, not just themselves but also the legion of fans. But have confidence that they are working very hard to rectify that. I still think we are probably two or three years away from reaching our absolute best.”

“Hales is one of the guys who will be disappointed with how he’s gone in this series,” Bayliss said. “I thought the first couple of games, even though he didn’t score a lot of runs in Durban, he looked quite comfortable at the crease and like he belonged.”He’s one of those guys who has shown what he can do at this level. So it’s about knocking off a few of those rough edges. Whether it is as an opener or somewhere else in the order, he is certainly a guy with a lot of talent.”Swapping Compton and Hales is one of those possibilities. Compton has done the job before and I think Hales has batted at No.3 before. That is certainly an option and has been spoken about in the past.”Bayliss admitted there had “been glimpses” of the intensity that that did not always endear Compton to all his colleagues, but suggested he looked “very solid” at times early in the series. And while Compton – perhaps scarred by his previous experiences in the England environment – has seemed somewhat unnerved by talk around his relatively sedate pace of play, Bayliss suggested he should not feel any pressure to change his natural game.”Early in the series, I thought he looked very solid,” Bayliss said. “Yes, he played a few more shots than I thought he would. Whether that’s any different to what he has done in the past, I’m not sure.”Hopefully, he’s not confused with what his role in the team is. He and Alastair Cook are very much blokes the rest of the order can bat around. So if he approaches it his natural way and scores 80, 90 or 100 or more, the rest of the attacking players can bat around him.”I think there were a few glimpses of that intensity. But a few of the coaching staff and people I’ve been talking to were saying that change in him since the first time he played for England was very noticeable. So hopefully he is relaxing as he gets a little older to give himself the best opportunity to succeed. He is trying to do whatever he can and certainly some of the signs were pretty good.”With neither man – or James Taylor, who also made a single fifty in the series – having made an irrepressible case for their continued selection, though, Bayliss said he would be watching the early weeks of the county season with interest. Given England’s almost relentless schedule, and the fact that he was appointed mid-way through last year, Bayliss has seen very little of the talent available in the county game, but did take the opportunity to watch England Lions team training a couple of times while he was in the UAE.”The players we have in South Africa are the best players we have at home,” he said. “But I think it is also a sign to everyone else in county cricket that, if I come out and score runs early in the season, there are possibilities there.”So when I watch county cricket, it will be a little bit with a view towards current selection and a little bit about looking towards the future. From my point of view, it is not necessarily about technique and the number of runs scored. It is the style of player or person. It’s about guys that have got a bit about them, guys who are a little bit tougher.”They always seem to be the guys that can make it at the top level. You don’t necessarily have to have the best technique to score runs or take wickets. It’s how you use the technique that you’ve got and being hard enough and strong enough and smart enough to be able to use that in the right context.”I’ll certainly be making an effort to watch some cricket and start to understand a bit more about the English game.”

Kurtis Patterson’s second century against Western Australia took New South Wales to the safety of a draw in the day/night Sheffield Shield match at the WACA Ground.

ESPNcricinfo staff17-Feb-2016
ScorecardFile photo – Kurtis Patterson scored an unbeaten 129•Getty Images

Kurtis Patterson’s unbeaten 129, his second century against Western Australia took New South Wales to the safety of a draw in the day/night Sheffield Shield match at the WACA Ground.The first had been made at the SCG in November 2011, when an 18-year-old Patterson spanked 157 to become the youngest first-class centurion in Australian cricket history.It has not all been smooth sailing since for the laconic left-hander, but Patterson’s patient defiance of the WA attack showed that at the age of 22 he is maturing into a batsman capable of the stick as well as the twist.Western Australia’s only glimpse of a fourth innings chase for victory had arrived when David Moody bowled Ben Rohrer with sufficient time still left to manufacture a result, but Ryan Carters and Trent Copeland held firm in Patterson’s assured company.

Monty Panesar has been made part of Northamptonshire’s squad for the 2016 season having secured his own funding

George Dobell04-Apr-2016Monty Panesar, the left-arm spinner, has been made part of Northamptonshire’s squad for the 2016 season, although the club have stressed he still faces a challenge to earn selection once he recovers from shoulder surgery.Alex Wakely, the Northants captain, said that some “honest conversations” have been had with Panesar and he will have to prove himself worthy of selection but he sees his presence as a boost.Last month, Panesar paid his own way on Northamptonshire’s pre-season tour of Barbados as he continued his rehabilitation from surgery.He has not signed a contract with the club and is not currently being paid. While he has returned to bowling at something close to full pace, he is still thought to be two or three weeks away from match fitness following shoulder surgery before Christmas.”I would be very excited to have Monty as part of the squad as his Test pedigree and experience will be really helpful to the rest of the lads,” Wakely said. “We’ve all had some honest conversations but he is fitting in really well. He still has to prove his worth and Graeme White is bowling very well at the moment so he still faces some challenges to get a place on a team.”Panesar, who has played 50 Tests for England, the last of which was on the 2013-14 Ashes tour, started his career with Northamptonshire having come through the youth system. In 2009 he moved to Sussex and then in 2015 to Essex but he suffered disciplinary issues at both clubs.David Ripley, the Northants coach, said: “Monty has worked hard at his fitness which is progressing. He joined us on our pre-season tour to Barbados of his own volition where he fitted in well with the rest of the lads. He will now have to prove himself for selection.”Should Panesar perform well, there is nothing to stop another club offering him a contract at any time. Northants’ financial troubles are well documented and, however well he bowls, there is limited scope to pay him the sums he warranted not so long ago.Such concerns are not at the forefront of anyone’s mind at present. After a difficult period in his life, Panesar is focused more on recovering his fitness and his enjoyment for cricket. If he can manage those things, there is no reason he cannot enjoy several more productive years in the game.While a return to the England side is a distant possibility, it continues to serve as a motivation.”I really want to be part of the England set-up,” Panesar told the BBC. “If it doesn’t happen then at least I tried my best. I’m confident I can bowl the way I used to bowl.”There’s a sub-continent winter tour in Bangladesh and India which keeps me motivated and it’s something I want to be part of.”I know I’ve got a lot of hard work ahead of me, but I’m prepared to do that.”