Newly-promoted WSL side London City Lionesses have completed a huge coup by announcing the signing of England international Nikita Parris.
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A selection of Cricinfo’s writers recall their lowest Ashes moments
Cricinfo staff19-Jul-2005As the 2005 Ashes prepares to get underway, Cricinfo asks a selection of its writers and senior staff members to recall their most memorable Ashes moments – good, bad or downright ugly. Last week, it was the highs. Now, it’s the lows.
Mike Atherton bows out for the final time © Getty Images
Headingley 1997, and Thorpe drops a sitter in the slips off Matthew Elliott. I was working on a building site at the time with headphones in. At that moment, not only did the series change, but that summer altered forever. The next thing we knew, Mike Smith (the luckless bowler, in case you’d forgotten) had been dropped, Australia had retained the Ashes and Diana had died – I blame it all on Thorpe. Edward CraigWaugh’s calf injury at Trent Bridge in 2001. A lesser individual might have cashed his chips then and there, but Tugga not only came back in time for The Oval, but was still around 18 months later to mastermind another demolition job on home soil. When it happened though, you feared it might be most inappropriate of endings – a warrior going off lame. Dileep PremachandranMissing Shane Warne’s Gatting ball. Picked thewrong moment to get some air on the steps. A neighbour cheered thedismissal instead. It looks great on the replay. Peter EnglishSwitching on the radio – as a student, Pay TV was not an option – andhearing England had won the toss on the first day of the 2002-03 series. Great! But … wait …! Nasser Hussain, in his wisdom, sticks Australia in, and you didn’t need TV pictures to realise that he had done so for all the wrong reasons. By lunch the Aussies were 116 for 1 and a short time later Simon Jones was out of the match and the series with a ruptured knee ligament. The Ashes disappeared just as quickly. Andrew McGlashanThe day that hope finally died. Another lost cause for Mike Atherton to salvage, another fatal snick, and a final dismissal – his 19th – at the hands of Glenn McGrath. The crowd rose as one as the Australians, to a man, applauded from the crease an opponent who had averaged a distinctly unworthy 29.68 in his 33 Tests against them. They were thanked for their magnanimity by an apologetic semi-wave of the bat. The poetic futility of this moment overwhelmed me, as the very definition of a lost cause was played out before my eyes. That evening, I finally got round to tackling another lost cause, and dumped my long-suffering girlfriend. Andrew MillerFor England fans, the Saturday at Lord’s has made a traditionally depressing spectacle. The sight – and silence – of Ian Botham’s trudge back to the pavilion after making a pair in 1981 was chilling but, for heart-sinking reality-dawning awfulness, nothing beats the third day of the 1989 Test. England had restricted Australia to 276 for 6 overnight, with Steve Waugh unbeaten on 35. He finished 152 not out while the tailenders Merv Hughes (30), Trevor Hohns (21) and Geoff Lawson (Test-best 74) laughed in England’s faces. The last four wickets added 263 and by stumps England were 58 for 3. This was one of the most significant days in recent Ashes history and produced another seismic shift towards Aussie world domination. John SternAtherton, his mind cluttered by impending retirement, misses an easy catch off Tufnell, and the great jungle-dweller is smashed into Test history by the Aussie top-order. Alex Chamberlen
Shane Warne became the first bowler to take 100 Test wickets in a country other than his own
George Binoy05-Aug-2005
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The ball pitched deep in the bowler’s footholes. The batsman stuck his pad out and tried kicking it away. An absolute ripper, it spun back viciously, zipped past his front leg and crashed into the stumps. Sounds eerily familiar doesn’t it? Well, this time it wasn’t Mike Gatting – it was Andrew Strauss.With that wicket, an uncannily similar one to his first in England, Shane Warne became the first bowler to take 100 Test wickets in a country other than his own. To take 100 wickets in England is an appropriate indicator of his dominance over the Ashes, a baiting game that began with Gatting and the ball-of-the century in 1993. Cricket has its own sense of irony: Warne has bamboozled England time and again, and yet he had been treated with utter disdain in the first innings, disappearing for 116 runs off 25 overs. Still he reaches this milestone in this manner – what a fitting riposte. (Click here for Warne’s bowling statistics in England)Warne became the highest wicket-taker in a foreign country when he trapped Ashley Giles plumb in front in the first innings, his 97th wicket in England. In doing so, he went past another England tormentor, Dennis Lillee, who has 96 Test scalps in England. Warne, with 334 away-wickets, heads the list of bowlers with most number of wickets abroad. His achievement is unique because he is the only spinner in the list of top ten bowlers with most away-wickets; Muttiah Muralitharan is 11th with 190 wickets. Looking at it from another angle 56.2% of Warne’s 594 wickets have come on foreign soil.
| Bowler | Total wickets | Away wickets | % (Away wickets/total wickets) |
| Warne | 594 | 334 | 56.2 |
| Muralitharan | 549 | 190 | 34.6 |
| Walsh | 519 | 290 | 55.8 |
| McGrath | 508 | 264 | 51.9 | Kumble | 461 | 172 | 37.3 |
With the exception of Headingley, where Warne has just three wickets in as many Tests at an embarrassing average of 89.33, he has excelled at all other English venues, his haul of 17 wickets in two Tests at 14.59 at Old Trafford being his best. Warne’s measure over England’s batting is comprehensive. His mastery is most evident when you see that six top-order batsmen figure in the list of eight English batsmen dismissed most often by him.
| Batsman dismissed | No. of times |
| Stewart | 14 |
| Hussain | 11 |
| Atherton | 10 |
| Thorpe | 9 |
| Caddick | 8 |
| Butcher | 7 |
| Gough | 7 |
| Gooch | 6 |
Warne’s unique record is unlikely to be matched or broken for quite a while because his competition have either retired or are a long way behind. He will look to add a lot more English wickets to his kitty during what, in all probability, is his last Ashes in England.
| Country | Highest overseas wicket-taker | Matches | Wickets |
| England | Warne | 19 | 100 |
| Australia | Ambrose | 14 | 78 |
| India | Underwood | 16 | 54 |
| New Zealand | Akram | 7 | 50 |
| Pakistan | Muralitharan | 7 | 49 |
| South Africa | Barnes | 4 | 49 |
| Sri Lanka | Warne | 9 | 48 |
| West Indies | Fraser | 12 | 54 |
| Zimbabwe | Vaas | 8 | 34 |
| Bangladesh | Vettori | 2 | 20 |
A stats preview of the third Test between England and Pakistan at Headingley
George Binoy03-Aug-2006
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Dileep Premachandran comes up with the plays of the fifth day of the Lord’s Test between England and India
Dileep Premachandran at Lord's23-Jul-2007
Show Pony Dhoni shows his class and forms a formidable partnership with the rain as India hold on for a draw © Getty Images
Show Pony Dhoni?: That’s what some have taken to calling India’swicketkeeper in these parts. As much as the Fab Four who are no longerfab, Mahendra Singh Dhoni had a whole lot to prove when he walked to the crease thismorning. His first-innings dismissal had been a shocker, his keepingpatchy, and his technique remains among the most ungainly you’ll see atthis level. But what Dhoni has is heart, and an ability to adapt, and heshowed that with an innings that spanned 159 balls. There was plenty offlirtation with Dame Fortune, as edges evaded fielders, but he stuckaround for the denouement, rotating the strike and thumping the oddboundary. India’s hero.Sledge of the day: Gamesmanship standards have undoubtedlydeclined, with coarseness and crudity almost completely replacing humour.Matt Prior came up with a gem though soon after Dhoni had arrived in themiddle on a filthy, grey morning. “Yuvraj is looking brilliant in thenets, isn’t he Dhoni?” he piped up. Not quite in the Eddo Brandes-GlennMcGrath- biscuit category, but well worth a chuckle.The big trees also fall: After a calamitous start, India werestarting to dream of a miracle when VVS Laxman and Dhoni stepped up thescoring after lunch. On came Chris Tremlett, who had looked both incisiveand innocuous on Test debut. A magnificent full delivery that cut backappreciably crept through Laxman’s defence and pegged back the stumps.Laxman’s pose was a familiar depressing one, keeling over like a treeattacked by a chainsaw.So near, and yet so very far: Just before the players went off forbad light, Monty Panesar had a huge appeal against Sreesanth. SteveBucknor, who doesn’t get too many Christmas cards from Indian fans,pondered long and hard, as he’s prone to, but the finger never went up.Replays showed that it might have clipped the top of middle stump. Afortuitous escape for India, though they would argue that there were insuch a mess mainly because Rahul Dravid didn’t get any benefit of doubt.Timing, timing: Unlike the Australians, the English have seldomseen the best of Laxman. But in one Tremlett over, there were twosignature strokes, little more than wafts of the bat that sentback-of-length deliveries through point. The fielders gave chase, but evenwith the ball going up the slope, it was futile.The forgotten man: One of those watching his former team-matesstrive to save the Test was Aakash Chopra, the Delhi opener who onceforged such an effective combination with Virender Sehwag. Not even acontender despite his experience of English league cricket, Chopra couldonly watch anxiously and hope for rain. Like this Indian team, he had seenbetter days, most notably in Australia and Pakistan in the 2003-04 season.Omens and all that: India’s record at the ground some callheadquarters is pitiful, but they can take encouragement from their greatescape here. In 1986, when they won the series, Dilip Vengsarkar’s 126 andKapil Dev’s relentlessly accurate swing bowling set up a five-wicket win.And going back even further to 1971, the defiance of Eknath Solkar stavedoff defeat, with India finishing on 145 for 8 in pursuit of 183. A monthlater they went to the Oval and clinched the series, with Chandrasekhar’sMill-Reef deliveries wreaking havoc.
Sangakkara and Jayawardene average 72.10 per partnership in Tests, which is the highest among all pairs who have batted together at least 50 times
S Rajesh13-Jul-2007
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A series that has brought little joy for Bangladesh got even worse on the third day at Kandy, as Sri Lanka mercilessly hammered them into the ground, amassing a monumental 500 for 4 by close of play. The protagonists were, yet again, two batsmen who have made it a habit of getting together and making life miserable for opposition bowlers. Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene celebrated their 50th stand together with a mammoth third-wicket partnership of 311, which is, quite amazingly, less than half their highest stand – an unforgettable 624 against South Africa at the SSC Stadium in Colombo last year. The 311 they added is also the second-highest partnership at Kandy, after the 335 that Marvan Atapattu and Sanath Jayasuriya added against Pakistan in 2000.Among all the pairs who have played at least 50 times together, Sangakkara and Jayawardene have now become the most prolific in terms of averages, edging past the Australian pair of Matthew Hayden and Ricky Ponting (which means that the Australia-Sri Lanka series later this year will be a battle of, among other things, the two best batting pairs in the game). As the table below shows, the gulf between these two pairs and the rest is huge – Jacques Kallis and Gary Kirsten, third in the list, average ten runs fewer per dismissal.
| Pair | Innings | Runs | Average | 100s/ 50s |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sangakkara-Jayawardene | 50 | 3389 | 72.10 | 8/ 12 |
| Hayden-Ponting | 69 | 4591 | 71.73 | 16/ 21 |
| Kirsten-Kallis | 64 | 3592 | 61.93 | 9/ 17 |
| Tendulkar-Ganguly | 61 | 3478 | 59.96 | 10/ 12 |
| Lawry-Simpson | 64 | 3600 | 59.01 | 9/ 18 |
| Inzamam-Yousuf | 55 | 2982 | 58.47 | 10/ 13 |
| Hutton-Washbrook | 53 | 2900 | 58.00 | 8/ 13 |
| Dravid-Laxman | 54 | 2748 | 57.25 | 10/ 6 |
| Dravid-Ganguly | 54 | 2779 | 55.58 | 9/ 10 |
| Lara-Sarwan | 58 | 3198 | 55.13 | 12/ 8 |
Sangakkara and Jayawardene have been especially unstoppable when playing at home – they average 88.60 per partnership, with five century stands. Overseas they haven’t quite turned it on in similar fashion, though the numbers are still very impressive – 1174 runs at an average of 53.36.Thanks largely to the two, Sri Lanka piled on 470 runs today, which is the second-highest scored in a day in all Tests in Sri Lanka, and the 15th overall. (Click here for the entire list, before today’s play.)Bangladesh could have been forgiven for experiencing a sense of dĂ©jĂ vu: five years back against Sri Lanka they had leaked 509 runs in a single day, though their misery was slightly mitigated by the fact that they managed nine wickets. They’ve now been involved in three instances where more than 450 have been scored in a single day – the third occasion was at Chester-le-Street against England in 2005, when 475 were scored on the second day. Instead of being hapless onlookers in the field, Bangladesh had contributed with the bat on that occasion – they scored 297 of those runs.
The regular Monday column in which Steven Lynch answers your questions about (almost) any aspect of cricket:
Steven Lynch30-Oct-2006The regular Monday column in which Steven Lynch answers your questions about (almost) any aspect of cricket:Two Australian women recently played in their 100th one-day international. How many others have done this? asked Rae Clarke from Sydney
Australia’s Belinda Clark is the highest capped woman in one-day internationals, along with Debbie Hockley of New Zealand © Getty Images
The two you’re talking about were Cathryn Fitzpatrick and Karen Rolton, who both won their 100th one-day caps in the first match of the recent Rose Bowl series against New Zealand at the Albion ground in Brisbane. They were the sixth and seventh women to join the list, which is headed by another Australian, Belinda Clark, and Debbie Hockley of New Zealand, who both played 118 matches. The other 100-cap wonders are the England pair of Clare Taylor and Jane Smit, both with 105, and Emily Drumm of New Zealand, who played 101. For a full list, click here.I noticed in a recent article about Mohammad Azharuddin that he played 99 Tests, and also scored a century in his first and last matches. Has anyone else done either of these things? asked Patek Sharma from Chennai
You’re right, Mohammad Azharuddin did indeed win 99 Test caps. No-one else has won quite as many without making it to 100: Curtly Ambrose played in 98 Test matches, and Nasser Hussain 96. Apart from Azhar, three other batsmen have scored hundreds in their first and last Tests, and they are all Australians: the current Indian coach Greg Chappell, Reggie Duff and Bill Ponsford. This excludes any current players, and the two men – Andy Ganteaume and Rodney Redmond – who scored a century in their only Test match.Ed Joyce and his brother made their one-day international debuts in the same match, which must be unique. Have any other members of the family played for Ireland? asked Donald Allsopp from Greenwich
Ed Joyce and his younger brother Dominick both made their official ODI debuts at Belfast last June. They both opened the batting: Dublin-born Ed scored 10 for England, but Dominick made a duck for Ireland. Their older brother Gus Joyce also played for Ireland, in the annual first-class game against Scotland in 2000. And they have twin sisters, Cecelia and Isobel, who have played official ODIs for Ireland’s women’s team. Isobel Joyce told the BBC in 2003: “There are nine children in our family so we all used to play in the back garden. Our brothers used to teach us how to bowl because they thought it was funny, but then we got quite good at it.” The only other instance of brothers playing against each other in a Test or a one-day international was back in 1891-92, when Alec and George Hearne played for England at Cape Town against a South African side which included their brother, Frank. A cousin, JT Hearne, also played for England in that match. Frank Hearne had earlier played for England, against South Africa, in 1888-89, and settled there after that tour. His son, GAL Hearne, later played for South Africa too.A friend told me recently about a cricket match he watched in Canada in 1989 between West Indies and the Rest of the World, and how it had a crowd of 46,000. Can you tell me some more about this match? asked Sid Raheem from the USA
Your friend has a pretty good memory – this was a match played in the Toronto SkyDome on November 5, 1989, to raise money (over half a million dollars) for the United Way of Greater Toronto charity. The dome’s roof was closed (it was freezing cold outside!). According to this article on the Canadian Cricket Association’s website the crowd was 40,570. As you can see from the scorecard the West Indies XI (actually there were 12 of them, with Viv Richards captaining) made 228, Carlisle Best top-scoring with 70, then the strong World XI replied with 217, Dave Houghton making 86 and Duleep Mendis 65.
William Clarke, playing for “England” against Kent took a hat-trick which included the wicket of John Fagge in both the innings © The Cricketer International
Following on from last week’s answer about hat-tricks involving three separate overs, it must therefore be possible to take the wicket of the same batsman twice in the same hat-trick. Has this ever happened? asked Mark Annear
As far as I can tell it has happened only once – and an awfully long time ago! It was a match between Kent and England at Canterbury back in 1844. William Clarke, an underarm bowler and a pioneering figure in those days of wandering “England” teams, ended Kent’s first innings with the wicket of John Fagge, then started the second with the wickets of Ned Wenman and Fagge, again, batting at No. 3 this time instead of No. 11.I read a news article that said Russell Crowe was being lined up to play Bill Woodfull in a new film about Bodyline. Is he any relation of the New Zealand Test-playing Crowes? asked Amy Franklin from Adelaide
Russell Crowe is the cousin of Martin and Jeff Crowe, the former New Zealand captains: like them he was born in New Zealand (although he was brought up in Australia). They all played together for a Crowe XI in a match in Malta in 1999 (Russell outscored Martin, which I imagine pleased him immensely!). As far as the film goes, it will be interesting to see whether it comes to fruition – there have been various plans for a Bodyline film over the years, but the bravest attempt remains the Australian TV mini-series of a few years ago. The news story I read said that Crowe might play “Bill Woodruff”, and also talked about the England bowling spearhead “Harold Lawford”, which was rather worrying … Steven Lynch’s new book, The Cricinfo Guide to International Cricket 2007, is published on Wednesday (November 1). Click here for more details.
Stats highlights from the second day of the Bangalore Test
S Rajesh09-Dec-2007
Sourav Ganguly and Irfan Pathan piled on the runs, as left-handers scored 515 out of India’s total of 626 © AFP
Sourav Ganguly continued from where he had left off on the opening day, making his highest Test score, and his first double-century. His 239 is the seventh-highest by an Indian, and the highest by a left-hander for the country, going past Vinod Kambli’s 227 against Zimbabwe in Delhi in 1992-93. Ganguly’s century was also the 50th by an Indian batsman against Pakistan. Ganguly’s knock lifted his aggregate for 2007 to 932, which is next only to Jacques Kallis’ 1125. (Click here for the list of highest run-getters for 2007.) With Irfan Pathan getting a century as well – to add to the efforts of Ganguly and Yuvraj Singh – it was a rare instance of three left-handers scoring a century in an innings. This was only the third such occasion in Tests – Justin Langer, Matthew Hayden and Adam Gilchrist achieved it against New Zealand in Brisbane in 2001-02, while Marcus Trescothick, Andrew Strauss and Graham Thorpe feasted on South Africa in Durban in 2004-05. The four left-handers in the Indian team – Gautam Gambhir being the fourth – totalled 515 runs in the innings, which is only the fourth time left-handers managed an aggregate of more than 500 in an innings. The record for the two highest contributions by left-handers is held by West Indies, and on both occasions Brian Lara was the protagonist – he contributed 400 out of 612 against England in Antigua in 2003-04, and 375 out of 556 against the opposition in 1993-94. Matthew Hayden’s 380 against Zimbabwe in Perth helped the lefties add 549. The 178-run partnership between Ganguly and Pathan is the highest seventh-wicket stand for India against Pakistan, going past the 155 that Roger Binny and Madan Lal added at the same ground in 1983. Pathan finally managed to get a three-figure score after having fallen in the nineties twice in Tests. He needs just 63 more to get to 1000 Test runs. India’s total of 626 comes in ninth on the list of highest scores by the team, and is their fifth-highest at home. Yasir Arafat became only the eighth Pakistan bowler to take a five-for on debut, and while his performance was extremely encouraging for a team struggling with their bowling resources, a look at the careers of the other seven doesn’t augur well for him. None of them have gone on establish themselves as regular threats with the ball: Mohammad Sami is the highest wicket-taker in the list, with 78, but he has laboured 33 matches for that haul. Shabbir Ahmed has been the most effective, with 51 wickets in ten Tests, but a suspect bowling action has severely limited his international career.
Mohammad Nazir 30.1-3-99-7 New Zealand Karachi, 1969-70 Mohammad Zahid 20-30-66-7 New Zealand Rawalpindi, 1996-97 Arif Butt 21.3-1-89-6 Australia Melbourne, 1964-65 Shahid Nazir 22.4-3-53-5 Zimbabwe Sheikhupura, 1996-97 Sahid Afridi 23.3-6-52-5 Australia Karachi, 1998-99 Mohammad Sami 15-4-36-5 New Zealand Auckland, 2000-01 Shabbir Ahmed 18.1-2-48-5 Bangladesh Karachi, 2003 Yasir Arafat 39-5-161-5 India Bangalore, 2007-08 When he reached 29, Salman Butt became the 44th Pakistan batsman to get to 1000 Test runs.
A short Test series has stirred Ricky Ponting’s attacking captaincy instincts. Since taking over from Steve Waugh, Ponting has enforced the follow-on only once before today and that was in a game where rain stole large chunks
Peter English at the Gabba10-Nov-2007
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A short Test series has stirred Ricky Ponting’s attacking captaincy instincts. Since taking over from Steve Waugh, Ponting has enforced the follow-on only once before today and that was in a game where rain stole large chunks. Brisbane has been experiencing unpredictable weather, but the desire to crush a struggling opponent quickly and earn a series lead before next week’s final match in Hobart was stronger.Player preservation has been Ponting’s main excuse for batting again with substantial leads and he used the tactic to secure massive wins in the previous two season-opening Tests. This time he has challenged his new batch of bowlers to deal with the extra work and floor their opponents for a second time.It is a significant development for a leader who was unsure in the beginning of his reign and would stick to a plan whether it was working or not. As his comfort in the position grew, he followed hunches successfully and the loss of three stars has increased the power of his position. What Ponting achieves with this group will be how he is remembered as a captain and it will be a high-energy journey.The first three days of the new era looked eerily similar to the last one. A huge score swept the hope away from the touring team before its batsmen wilted under a sustained assault from a varied attack. All five bowlers contributed as Sri Lanka were dismissed for 211 in 81.5 overs, leaving them needing 341 runs to force a second Australian innings.Ponting rotated his fast men, overlooking the double changes he has favoured at times, and looked to Stuart MacGill for a long spell between lunch and tea. Apart from Chamara Silva, who seemed to think it was a one-day game; Sri Lanka’s batsmen were cautious and required considered extraction. Stuart Clark and Mitchell Johnson were consistently testing and fed early catches to Adam Gilchrist, MacGill threatened and Brett Lee was both a stock and wicket-taking bowler.The significance of the leadership position is not the only one to have increased over the past year. Lee is now the unrivalled force of the attack and he has embraced the new duties. After taking a couple of wickets late on day two, Lee started today with a frugal spell and returned after tea to remove the obdurate Prasanna Jayawardene. The reverse-swinging full ball was followed by some short ones to the tail-enders and when he gained Fernando’s wicket he had 4 for 26 off 17.5 overs. Australia’s No. 1 bowler had shown his captain everything he needed to send Sri Lanka back in.The second innings did not begin as easily for the dominant side, but they rarely do. Sanath Jayasuriya connected early, thrashing Lee for 14 in three balls, and with Marvan Atapattu, the rock of the first innings with 51, sprinted to a half-century stand that ended when Andrew Symonds’ delivery brushed past Atapattu’s glove. The speed of the partnership created some minor doubts over Ponting’s decision, but it was the right one even before Lee caught Jayasuriya’s edge in the shadows of stumps.Australia’s batsmen have no need to fear the surface on the fifth day – if the match lasts that long – and the bowlers have more opportunities to dent the morale of the tourists. The second game starts in Tasmania on Friday and there is little time for a turnaround. Rather than extend Sri Lanka’s misery by batting again, Ponting set his sights on a swift conclusion that would create more damage.
Naveed Nawaz, the coach of SSC, reviews a rewarding domestic season which included three titles
Sa'adi Thawfeeq07-Apr-2008
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Sinhalese Sports Club (SSC), one of the oldest clubs playing in the Premier domestic cricket competition, achieved a unique treble when they won the 2007-08 Premier League Tier A championship last weekend by drawing their final match
of the season against defending champions Colombo Cricket Club (CCC).The title was their third for the season, having bagged the Premier limited-overs and the Under-23 competitions earlier in the season. The 2007-08 performance surpassed SSC’s previous best of winning the Premier league and limited-over titles during the captaincy of Mahinda Halangoda in the early nineties.The success of SSC in the championship was largely due to their batting where six of the top order batsmen scored a dozen hundreds, which included two double centuries and three scores of over 150. Tharanga Paranavitana, Thilina Kandamby and Thilan Samaraweera made three hundreds apiece. The other centuries were scored by Jeevan Mendis, Kaushal Silva and Shalika Karunanayake.Stating this fact, Naveed Nawaz, the SSC coach, said that in virtually every match the club had run up big totals which enabled their bowling to attack the opposition. In fact, SSC won six of their nine matches and drew three to top the standings with 129.99 points, a clear 28 points ahead of second-placed Moors SC.During the season, SSC was captained by three players. Avishka Gunawardene, the appointed captain for the season, led the side in only two matches before going over to join the rebel Indian Cricket League (ICL). Samaraweera then took over the reins and captained the side until he was called up for the Test series in the West Indies.The captaincy was then passed onto the 25-year-old left-handed opener Paranavitana, who had the distinction of leading the club on its final lap to win the championship. Paranavitana did it in grand style, scoring 177 in the penultimate match of the season against Bloomfield and then followed it up with a career-best 236 against CCC the following weekend which brought them the title after a one-year lapse. SSC last tasted success in 2005-06 and overall have won it outright on six occasions since 1988-89, when the Sri Lankan board recognised the tournament as first-class.This achievement, Nawaz concedes, is his finest as a coach since he qualified at Level II in Australia after he quit playing cricket with NCC in 2004-05. Last season, he was in charge of Moors SC. His 11-year first-class career as a top order batsman from 1993-94 saw him score 6892 runs at 36.27 with 12 hundreds for NCC and Bloomfield and also appear briefly for his country in one Test and 3 ODIs.”Taking on the SSC job was a new challenge for me,” Nawaz said. “The atmosphere was different and the work ethics also. The facilities were excellent and I came into contact with different types of players, all of whom helped improve my role as a coach.”There were a few things we had to put right at the beginning. Discipline was one area. Players turned up for practice at different times and once it was made known to them that there was a fixed time for practice they gradually fell in line.”What we tried to do was to try and change the existing club structure and bring in more intensity to practices and at matches on similar lines as the national team. This was one factor why SSC performed exceptionally well this season.”One player who benefited the most coming over to SSC was Kandamby, the former Ananda College and Bloomfield cricketer. As long as he was at Bloomfield, Kandamby never blossomed out to his full potential as a middle-order batsman. But at SSC in his first season, the transformation was stunning. He ended up with the second-highest aggregate of the season, scoring 822 runs at an average of 68.50 including three centuries and as many half-centuries and a career best 202.
| What we tried to do was to try and change the existing club structure and bring in more intensity to practices and at matches on similar lines as the national team. This was one factor why SSC performed exceptionally well this season | |||
Paranavitana was the leading run-getter
for the season with 893 runs at 74.41, also with three hundreds that included a career best 236 in the final game against CCC. Samaraweera topped the batting for the season with an average of 86.14, accumulating 603 runs from six matches.The batting was very well backed up by a bowling unit that had a lot of variety and penetration to take 20 wickets in a match. Spearheading SSC’s campaign was the 23-year-old offspinner Sachithra Senanayake who had an outstanding season with 50 wickets at a cost of 14.92 from nine matches. That Senanayake narrowly missed selection for the Sri Lankan one-day squad to the West Indies is itself a plus mark, given that he had been under consideration in the national selectors’ short list.The disappointment of being overlooked did not deter Senanayake as it only made him more determined. Against Bloomfield he was in terrific form with the ball, making it talk in the first innings with figures of 4-1-4-3. He followed it up with career-best innings figures of 7 for 81 in the second innings to reduce Bloomfield to a three-day defeat. It was also the first time in his career that Senanayake had taken ten-for in a match.Nawaz said Senanayake is one of the best offspinners going in domestic cricket today and added: “Sachithra may not have as much variety as Ajantha Mendis, but he uses his six foot height to advantage. He has tremendous control, is very accurate and bowls a good floater. He’s had a great season having been the top wicket-taker in the U-23 tournament with 46 wickets at avg. 11.41.”No other SSC bowler came close to his 50 wickets, the next highest being 29 by the left-arm fast bowler Thilan Thushara, who earned a recall to the national Test side after five years for the ongoing West Indies tour, performing impressively in the first Test in Guyana.