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Match facts

Thursday-Monday, November 14-18, 2013
Start time 0930 local (0400 GMT)The final round of goodbyes has begun•ESPNcricinfo Ltd

Big Picture

After this match, there will be no switching off the television when he gets out. No Indian fan will wait for the second India wicket to fall. There will be no standing ovations that stretch from the fall of that second wicket to the time he takes strike. Sections of crowds at grounds won’t take turns in going ‘Sachin, Sachin’. For after this match, Sachin Tendulkar will never play cricket for India again.So for one last time, it is over to the ground where it all began in 1988, for Bombay against Gujarat in the Ranji Trophy. Few international cricketers get to say goodbye on their home ground, in front of home fans. In that sense, Tendulkar and Mumbai are fortunate that the parting, in the playing sense, will be at Wankhede Stadium.Fortunate is a word MS Dhoni has used often of late. He’s been asked numerous times how it was to play with Tendulkar, and he’s said he has been fortunate to have done so for close to a decade. There was a cartoon recently doing the rounds with Tendulkar cradling some babies – a few of his youngest current India team-mates – while the rest of the squad stood around as grinning boys. How old, or young, each of them were when Tendulkar debuted for India is a factsheet that gets thrown around a lot. But that Mohammed Shami is younger than Tendulkar’s international career is a fact that seems as astonishing each time you think about it. He’s been a colossal father figure. All the India players have grown up looking up to the man.The opponents were hastily arranged for this farewell series and were not expected to play a big role. That is exactly what West Indies did in Kolkata, folding up in three days. The last time they played at Wankhede, they produced an exciting draw with the scores tied. This match will be known in history as Tendulkar’s final game, but West Indies will look to somehow miraculously ending up winning it.

Form guide

India WWWWW (last five games, most recent first)
West Indies LWWWW

In the spotlight

All these years, Sachin Tendulkar has given the impression that he shuts himself from the expectation India heaps upon him every match. Only those very close to him, and perhaps not even them, would know what actually goes on inside the man’s mind. Is it only an impression, or does he really manage to insulate himself? Over the course of this final match, however, there will be no need for all this. People will of course love it if he goes out with a big hundred, but as his career has wound down over the past fortnight, they have been happy just to watch him do what he does. Bat, field, bowl, practice, wave. There will be a different kind of pressure now. The realisation that this is it – the end of what has been routine for most of his life. How will he react to that final standing ovation? To that final guard of honour? To that final cheer?The opposition has a man who has been almost as durable as Tendulkar. Shivnarine Chanderpaul debuted in March 1994, and will be playing his 150th Test. It is a monumental disservice to him that commentators still talk about his stance after nearly 11000 Test runs. And unlike Tendulkar, he’s showed no signs that the end is approaching. He averaged close to 100 last year with three centuries. Sadly, his misfiring team is more likely to squander his legacy than build on it.Mohammed Shami and Tino Best. One fast, the other faster. Both managed reverse swing in Kolkata. Shami had control, Best didn’t. Shami had nine wickets on debut, Best had one in 17 overs. With no Kemar Roach in the squad, and an inexperienced new-ball partner at the other end again, Best will have to produce a markedly better effort than what he came up with at Eden Gardens.

Team news

India have little reason to change the winning combination, both debutants Shami and Rohit Sharma having performed superbly in Kolkata.India (probable): 1 Shikhar Dhawan, 2 M Vijay, 3 Cheteshwar Pujara, 4 Sachin Tendulkar, 5 Virat Kohli, 6 Rohit Sharma, 7 MS Dhoni (capt & wk), 8 R Ashwin, 9 Bhuvneshwar Kumar, 10 Pragyan Ojha, 11 Mohammed ShamiPlaying only five specialist batsmen hurt West Indies in Kolkata. The second spinner Veerasammy Permaul could not support Shane Shillingford. Will they go in for an extra batsman who can bowl a bit? West Indies have also flown in Shannon Gabriel as replacement for Roach. Sheldon Cottrell impressed in patches on debut at Eden Gardens. There is an outside possibility of West Indies playing three fast bowlers.West Indies (probable): 1 Chris Gayle, 2 Kieran Powell, 3 Darren Bravo, 4 Marlon Samuels, 5 Shivnarine Chanderpaul, 6 Denesh Ramdin (wk), 7 Darren Sammy (capt), 8 Narsingh Deonarine/Veerasammy Permaul, 9 Shane Shillingford, 10 Sheldon Cottrell/Shannon Gabriel, 11 Tino Best

Pitch and conditions

Sudhir Naik, the former India batsman and Wankhede curator, is confident that the pitch can last five days. It is expected to be much harder than the one at Eden. There is usually more bounce at Wankhede than is the norm at most Indian venues. The weather is steadily approaching what passes for winter in Mumbai. While that means pleasant mornings and slightly nippy nights, temperatures will still reach mid-thirties in the afternoons. The nearby Arabian Sea can be counted on to deliver some breeze then, and some swing.

Stats and trivia

From being touted as the next in line after Zaheer Khan to lead India’s pace attack, to being labelled injury prone, Umesh Yadav has seen it all over the past 12 months. As a result, Umesh, who was included in India’s Test and ODI squads for the tour to South Africa, isn’t thinking too far ahead. Instead, Umesh, who will wear Vidarbha’s whites against a formidable Mumbai outfit in the Ranji Trophy from Thursday, is just focused on getting his basics right in the lead up to the much-anticipated tour.”I am not thinking too much, because thinking too much gets too many thoughts in the mind. Since I have got matches to play before going [to South Africa], I am concentrating on my line and length. That will be my preparation,”Umesh said. “The weather conditions there are different, wickets are different, so my mental preparations will be to focus on an area and bowl – that is on three quarters [of a length] and outside the off-stump. That is what I am focusing on because that is what important in Tests, bowling wicket to wicket is important.”Despite the seamer-friendly conditions in South Africa, Umesh hasn’t taken his place in the team for granted. With veteran Zaheer Khan returning to the side, he is likely to be vying with the promising Mohammed Shami and Bhuvneshwar Kumar, and the ever-inconsistent Ishant Sharma, for a spot in the eleven. The spinners, too, he said, would have a role to play in the two Test matches. “Though you don’t expect too much turn there, we do have spinners who can turn the ball anywhere. One should look at it from what works best for the team.”During’s Umesh’s workout at the Wankhede Stadium on the eve of his side’s match against Mumbai, he caught up with Mumbai captain Zaheer. The pair was involved in a detailed discussion, while the rest of their team-mates had a net session. “He asked me how I am doing, enquired about my fitness, and also told me to concentrate on my line and length,” Umesh said.With the Mumbai team including quality batsmen like Wasim Jaffer, Ajinkya Rahane and Abhishek Nayar, this match will be a test for Umesh on a pitch that’s likely to assist pacers in patches. It will be ideal preparation for South Africa, he said. “For every fast bowler, match practice is good, so I feel that if I play before going on the tour it will be better for me,” he said. “The kind of wicket this is … South Africa also has bouncy wickets, so it would be good preparation and Zak [Zaheer] is also playing, so I will get to learn by watching him as well – watching how he bowls, what he is doing with the ball. So it is very important for me.”

The MCG has reported a world-record attendance for a day of Test cricket, with 91,092 spectators officially accounted for during the final session on Boxing Day.At 4.15pm the scoreboard at the ground relayed the message that a new world record had been set, surpassing the 90,800 who attended the second day of the 1960-61 Test against West Indies at the MCG.”As the birthplace of Test cricket, it is fitting that the MCG has again broken the attendance record for a single day of Test match cricket,” said MCC CEO Stephen Gough. “We congratulate Cricket Australia on this achievement and also acknowledge the contribution of our members towards making the Boxing Day Test a hallmark event on the sporting calendar.””On the back of 100,000-plus people at the AFL Grand Final in September and more than 95,000 witnessing Liverpool FC play a soccer friendly in July, this year has again proven beyond doubt that the MCG is the home of Australian sport and an iconic destination in our city.”Although the figure is the highest ever officially counted for a day’s play, Eden Gardens in Kolkata often drew massive crowds in past decades that could have exceeded the Melbourne number but were not officially measured.

MCG record cricket attendances

91,092 – Australia v England, Test match, Dec 26, 2013

90,800 – Australia v West Indies, Test match, Feb 11, 1961

89,155 – Australia v England, Test match, Dec 26, 2006

87,789 – Australia v England, Test match, Jan 4, 1937

87,182 – England v Pakistan, World Cup final, Mar 25, 1992

The highest in recent years at the MCG had been the 89,155 who attended on Boxing Day during the 2006-07 Ashes Test, which like this season began with Australia already 3-0 up in the series.The fact the match was a dead rubber did not deter the fans this season; public sales for Boxing Day had officially sold out by lunchtime on Christmas Day, which meant the potential for a record was determined by how many MCC members turned up.The record crowd was treated to one of the most dour days of the series, though, as England’s batsmen took a grinding approach having been sent in by Michael Clarke.James Sutherland, the Cricket Australia CEO, said: “Throughout the years, the Boxing Day Test has developed a privileged place in the Australian conscience; it’s become a landmark event. We don’t take that for granted. We thank and congratulate the cricket loving public of Melbourne and the Melbourne Cricket Club for creating something special.”In years to come Melburnians will remember Boxing Day 2013 as the day their city created sporting history.”

‘MCA should look into coaching structure across levels’

On a day the Mumbai Cricket Association received the award for the best domestic team for the 2012-13 season, their team was ousted from the Ranji Trophy. It was ironic that the domestic powerhouse that won three of the four inter-state titles (Under-16, Under-25 and Ranji Trophy) last year, and finished runners-up in the fourth (Under-19), ended the season without any of the major trophies.
Mumbai coach Sulakshan Kulkarni has appealed to the MCA officials to “look into” the coaching structure. “MCA should look into it,” he said. “They should think how to improve Mumbai cricket in the future. Not only Ranji Trophy but age-group cricket as well where the basics of cricket are taught. MCA should look into the basics of everyone, not just batsmen but even for bowlers.”
Asked if he was worried about Mumbai cricket’s future, Kulkarni said: “I am worried because for Mumbai, there is nothing less than championship. For teams other than Mumbai, if they lose it is not news. But when Mumbai loses it is big news and today is big news. For Mumbai, a defeat is difficult to digest. From that point of view, MCA should look in to it.”

Soon after Maharashtra’s staggering win over Mumbai the Ranji Trophy quarter-final, while the Mumbai camp wore a stunning silence, former Mumbai captain Madhav Mantri and former player and coach Vasu Paranjpe headed into the visitors’ dressing room. Not by mistake, but it was because they wanted to compliment the Maharashtra team for their stunning comeback.”He [Mantri] basically said ‘you are a young side and you can become a formidable side’ and Vasu sir said ‘now that you’ve beaten Mumbai, don’t lose to anyone else’. That’s what we will all remember,” an elated Maharashtra coach Surendra Bhave said after his team’s eight-wicket victory at the Wankhede Stadium.Despite wearing a dejected look, Mumbai coach Sulakshan Kulkarni credited the Maharashtra duo of Kedar Jadhav and Vijay Zol, whose unbroken 215-run partnership for the third wicket took the game away from Mumbai.”They batted brilliantly, both of them,” Kulkarni said after Mumbai’s quest for a 41st Ranji title ended with a humiliating loss. “Let me tell you, we never expected anyone to put on 200 runs on this wicket, [that too] against Zaheer Khan. You need everything to do so well, you need temperament, skill, guts, tactics. They did everything.”Bhave admitted that Jadhav and Zol’s composure made it a smooth ride for his team. “Given the conditions, we all thought the game was in balance at the end of the day’s play yesterday. But Kedar and Vijay just took it away, first soaking the pressure and then with aggression,” he said.Jadhav and Zol, both natural strokemakers, were patient in the morning till the ball lost its shine. “It was all about seeing off the new ball,” Bhave said. “And with Mumbai bowling that wide of off stump in the morning helped solve our problem to an extent.”In response, Kulkarni put the onus on captain Zaheer Khan. “On the field, inside the boundary, captain is the boss. Whatever decisions have been made in the field have been by the captain.”While complimenting the batsmen, Bhave didn’t forget to acknowledge the work of Maharashtra’s bowling unit on the third day that helped them recover after conceding a 122-run lead. “The third morning proved to be a turnaround as our batsmen got us closer to the Mumbai total. They showed the aggression that kind of shifted the onus.”There was a point when I thought they should have mellowed down a bit, and take the score much closer than that. Having said that, once the bowlers started hitting the right areas – I knew that this was a sort of wicket where if you pitch in the right areas, the edge will come – so it was all about catching and our catching was brilliant. That’s how we got back into the match.”Having beaten the traditional rivals in their own den was a huge boost for Maharashtra’s inconsistent form of late. After having been promoted from the Plate league in 2011-12, Maharashtra finished at the bottom of Group B last year to be relegated to Group C.”It’s an outstanding feeling,” Bhave said. “Beating Mumbai in Mumbai itself is big and doing it in a knockout match – in a quarter-final – just makes it better. All the credit goes to the players. The heart that they have shown in this match, it’s truly outstanding. When you’re down by 122 runs on a seamer-friendly track in Mumbai, not many teams would have shown that kind of lion-hearted attitude. Hats off to the players.”

Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsFile photo – Stuart Binny’s century came up in 82 balls, bettering his 88-ball effort against Gujarat at the same venue during the Ranji Trophy•Sivaraman Kitta

A scintillating hundred from Stuart Binny powered Karnataka to a massive 189-run lead on the second day against Rest of India. Karnataka were expected to take the lead after dismissing ROI for 201, which they did, and Binny pummelled the ROI bowlers as the hosts scored 365 runs in 84 overs. All the Karnataka batsmen got starts, and fifties from Ganesh Satish and Karun Nair ensured Binny came out to bat at a comfortable 188 for 4.Binny showered boundaries without breaks and all around the park till the end of the day, scoring at over a run-a-ball against all the bowlers barring Ashok Dinda and Harbhajan Singh.Resuming on 35 for 1, Satish and KL Rahul started confidently, negotiating the consistent line outside off from Pankaj Singh and Ashok Dinda with solid technique. Rahul got into gear with an exquisite cover drive for four in the first over, while Satish mainly targeted the area around gully and point. In the fifth over of the day, he brought up the team’s fifty with a four down the ground and followed it up with two more off the next two balls, guiding one past second slip and working one off the hips when Dinda pitched short.After Satish produced two more fours three overs later, this time off Pankaj, Rest of India captain Harbhajan Singh made a bowling change, bringing on Anureet Singh for Dinda. Anureet struck immediately with an incoming delivery that kept very low and rattled the stumps through Rahul’s defence.Manish Pandey showed his intent early in his innings when he charged down the pitch and hit Anureet for two consecutive fours in his next over. He scored briskly with regular boundaries until Pankaj produced a terrific spell out of nowhere just before lunch. He pitched one on middle stump and got considerable outswing from the 38-over-old ball for an edge that Dinesh Karthik pouched with one hand after diving to his right. But Satish had completed his fifty by then and Karnataka had reduced the deficit to under 50.

Dinesh Karthik injures ankle

Rest of India wicketkeeper Dinesh Karthik went off the field briefly after he injured his right ankle during the 53rd over of Karnataka’s innings. Karun Nair shouldered arms to a ball from Anureet Singh that kept low, bounced twice and hit Karthik’s ankle.
Karthik had to go off the field and was attended to with ice packs. Kedar Jadhav donned the gloves and kept for 9.2 overs, before Karthik came back at the fall of Ganesh Satish’s wicket in the 62nd over. Satish, ironically, was caught behind by Jadhav.

Karnataka slowed down for over an hour after lunch when Harbhajan and Anureet resumed and conceded only 29 runs in 15 overs. The last over of that period produced a wicket. First, Harbhajan’s incisive length produced an outside edge from Satish that fell just short of Gautam Gambhir at first slip. Next ball, the offspinner sent Satish back, having him caught by stand-in wicketkeeper Kedar Jadhav, even though the decision left the batsman unhappy. Satish’s wicket was the first taken by a spinner in the match.Binny’s entry changed a couple of gears for Karnataka. He struck two fours off Dinda two overs after he came in, and, with Nair, forced a bowling change by smashing 22 runs from Harbhajan’s next two.But Amit Mishra was welcomed the way the captain was seen off the attack – with a massive six over long-off from Binny. He was cruising on 29 off 27 with three fours and two sixes, and he marched into the 40s with 13 more runs off Mishra in the same spell.Binny had nearly overtaken a patient Nair before the latter unleashed three fours in one over to complete his fifty and a dejected Harbhajan walked back to his dressing room for tea after leaking 14 runs in that over. Karnataka’s change of pace and plan was apparent as the partnership had piled on 91 runs from a mere 13.3 overs, at nearly seven an over.The approach did not change in the last session, and Binny smashed Mishra for two more fours in the first over after tea, reaching his fifty with the second. It had taken him just 45 balls. Harbhajan asked for the second new ball as soon as it was available, and brought on his best bowler, Pankaj, but he wasn’t spared either, paying the price for offering room to Binny. Anureet tried to vary the length in the next over but he was cut and hooked for a four and six, with which Binny overtook his partner. Bowlers changed, the ball changed, lines and lengths changed, field placements changed, but the batsmen and the results remained the same.The new ball also had been smashed around so much that Harbhajan, at one point, wanted it changed, but the umpires did not agree. Binny brought up his eighth first-class hundred off 82 balls, improving on the 88-ball century he had scored against Gujarat at the same ground during the Ranji Trophy.Things slowed down a bit towards the end of the day and Nair, who had also moved towards his hundred, lost his stumps when he was a bit late leaving a delivery from Pankaj outside off, the extra bounce finding his inside edge and sending him back for 92. The stand between Nair and Binny had doubled the score in less than 30 overs.Binny and CM Gautam saw the remaining 7.2 overs through as Karnataka ended the day on 390 for 5.

Having scored just 51 runs in five innings during the ODI series in New Zealand, Ajinkya Rahane might have felt under pressure coming into India’s opening match of the Asia Cup against Bangladesh. But after scoring 73 and putting on 213 with Virat Kohli to guide India to their target of 280, Rahane said he felt relaxed when he first arrived at the crease.”Frankly speaking, I wasn’t thinking about the past,” he said. “I was slightly relaxed and just wanted to play my game. I got a hundred in the last innings in New Zealand [in the Test series], so I was confident during my batting. My plan was to take my time initially and then play my shots. That really worked today.”India had lost both their openers in the space of two overs when Rahane walked in to bat. At that stage, Rahane said the pitch hadn’t been an easy one to start an innings on.’It wasn’t easy to play shots initially’ – Ajinkya Rahane•AFP

“On this wicket, shot selection was very crucial,” he said. “It was not easy to play shots initially, the ball was keeping low. There was some odd bounce and uneven bounce. We were just planning to play straight initially and back ourselves to play our shots later on. Obviously Virat took his chances really well and that worked.”Bangladesh left-arm spinner Abdur Razzak had said that dew had made life very difficult for Bangladesh’s bowlers under lights. Rahane, however, said it hadn’t been that much of a factor. “I don’t think so,” he said. “It was there, but only after 38-40 overs.”When India bowled, they had done well at the death to restrict Bangladesh to 279 after a big partnership between Anamul Haque and Mushfiqur Rahim. In the last five overs, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Mohammed Shami bowled the yorker particularly well. During their first pre-tournament training session, India’s bowlers had been seen practicing their yorkers against a foam dummy made to look like a batsman.”I think that is working really well,” Rahane said. “Joey is really working hard with the bowlers in the nets and that is really crucial. On this wicket, I think the bowlers did really well. Bhuvi and Shami later on bowled wicket to wicket and it was not easy to hit that length.”

Toronto Cricket, Skating and Curling Club completed a three-match sweep of Midwest Cricket Conference to win the American Cricket Federation’s inaugural North American Cricket Championship in Phoenix, Arizona on Sunday. TCSCC won the first 40-over match by five wickets on Friday after bowling out MCC for 110 and completed another five-wicket win chasing down MCC’s 259 on Saturday. On Sunday, TCSCC posted a 75-run win to round off an undefeated championship weekend.Raza-ur-Rehman, who was Canada’s leading scorer at the recent ICC World Cup Qualifier in New Zealand, was the top-scorer for TCSCC, with 189 runs including an unbeaten 116 in his side’s victory on Sunday. Former Canada players Rustam Bhatti, Arsalan Qadir and Shaheed Keshvani were also part of the winning team from Toronto.MCC’s leading scorer on the weekend was former USA U-19 captain Abhijit Joshi while former USA senior team players Ashhar Mehdi and Sohail Alvi also represented the MCC squad. Noticeably absent from the MCC team though was batsman Fahad Babar. An ACF press release in January had stated that Babar, who was the leading scorer and league MVP in the Chicago-area league this past year, was expected to play for MCC at the event.Babar was part of USA’s squad at the 2013 ICC World Twenty20 Qualifier in the UAE and had he chosen to play for MCC in Arizona, he may have run the risk of facing consequences from the USA Cricket Association for playing in what was not a USACA-sanctioned event.Following the conclusion of the tournament, the ACF announced plans for its second North American Cricket Championship to be held at the same Nichols Park Basin turf wicket facility in Arizona again next year from March 6-8.

Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
Stuart Binny’s unbeaten 48 helped Rajasthan open with a win•BCCI

Hyderabad will be sick of the sight of Australia allrounder James Faulkner. Last year, he took five-wickets hauls in two encounters against Hyderabad, and though this time he didn’t make an impact with the ball, he secured a final-over victory by coolly cracking his first two balls for boundaries. It completed a day where 205 was easily hunted down in the afternoon by Punjab, but Rajasthan huffed and puffed to overhaul 133.After Glenn Maxwell and Co. had cruised past Chennai’s huge score in the first game of the day, Rajasthan captain Shane Watson had, half-jokingly, said at the toss that he would be happy to chase anything below 200. His team was given a score substantially below 200, but the pursuit was anything but smooth as Hyderabad lived up to their reputation of being tenacious defenders.Rajasthan sprung a surprise by sending Abhishek Nayar opening, and he began by coaxing the first ball from Dale Steyn through cover for four. That was among the few controlled shots from Rajasthan in the Powerplay as Steyn, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Ishant Sharma had the ball swerving around under lights. Nayar was dismissed third ball while Sanju Samson barely middled a ball in his troubled stay before chipping a catch to mid-off in the fourth over.That brought together the key pair of Watson and Ajinkya Rahane. Bhuvneshwar bowled an outstanding sixth over, beating the bat three times, twice with the ball leaving the batsman and once cutting in. Perhaps it was that pressure that helped Ishant dismiss Watson – who had a strike-rate of 227.77 against him – for the first time in the IPL, leaving Rajasthan at 31 for 3.Rahane played and missed, had plenty of inside edges and outside edges, was dropped early at first slip, was struck on the helmet by Ishant, but he stuck it out through the difficult phase and kept Rajasthan in the game with a half-century. Even that landmark came through an outside edge to the third-man boundary.Stuart Binny, the only other Rajasthan batsman to reach double figures, took on the weak link, Darren Sammy, early on but with the asking-rate never too high, he made sure he tucked the ball around to keep the score moving – he had only one dot ball in the final 14 he faced. He found the googlies from the legspinners, Amit Mishra and Karn Sharma, hard to read but his combative 77-run stand with Rahane kept the game tight.Rahane finally fell in the 16th over, and Rajasthan’s finisher Brad Hodge flailed against spin before perishing for an eight-ball 1. Mishra got both those big scalps, and Hyderabad were sensing a win. Steyn removed Rajat Bhatia, but with eight needed in the final over, Faulkner finished off the game with three deliveries to spare.Hyderabad’s fancied batting, with a top three reading Shikhar Dhawan, Aaron Finch and David Warner, also had a tough time of it. Though Dhawan and Warner hit 30s, neither could really get going, scoring only at around a run-a-ball. Cameos from KL Rahul and Venugopal Rao took them to 133, though the line-up filled with big-hitters managed only two sixes all innings. Their team mentor, VVS Laxman, felt the total was 20-25 short, but the bowlers made Rajasthan scrap for the win.

“The weather is our main challenge”, admitted Angelo Mathews as the wind howled in across Dublin Bay yesterday. The Sri Lankan captain was speaking ahead of the first of the two-match RSA Insurance ODI series against Ireland at the Clontarf club, the opening fixtures in a tour that takes in all three formats and concludes at Leeds seven weeks from now.The Sri Lankans have been in England at the start of two of the last three summers, but Mathews noticed the difference. “It’s colder in Ireland than the UK,” he grinned. “A bit of sunshine would be nice.”The most popular man in the Sri Lankan party was the liaison officer who arrived shortly before training with a large carrier bag from a Dublin city sports store. Inside were the sporting equivalent of long johns, the thermal underclothing that the Irish swear by to keep the winter chills at bay.Even the local players were well wrapped up as they went through their drills with coach Phil Simmons, and the grey clouds and weather forecast was the main topic of conversation among players and groundstaff.The Ireland captain, William Porterfield, knows that the conditions will assist his team as they seek their first big scalp at the venue. “The last few one-dayers we played here we’ve been able to utilise the conditions, especially by taking early wickets”, he said. “Early in the season the ball will do a bit and the seamers are looking forward to it.”What we have to do now is to keep taking wickets in the middle overs to set ourselves up. We’ve been looking at our death bowling – over the two Pakistan games and against England last year we let ourselves down.”In each of those games Ireland got themselves into winning positions only for it to slip from their grasp.”We were disappointed with the second Pakistan game not to get over the line from position we were in. There were times when we slackened off but we need to be able to nail teams,” said Porterfield.His batsmen have been in excellent form, none less than Ed Joyce, who made 482 first-class runs in April for Sussex. “Ed has been one of the stand-out players in England, and Nobby [Niall O’Brien] also got a big hundred last week. I’ve had a couple of good starts myself, and guys like Kevin O’Brien have had good innings at home. I hope now we can all bring that out into the middle for Ireland.”Less encouraging has been the form of the bowlers. Spinner George Dockrell has been out of favour at Somerset and in a bid for some practice he turned out for Leinster Lightning at the weekend in the Newstalk Interprovincial Championship. The three Ireland bowlers on the Leinster side – Dockrell, Kevin O’Brien and Max Sorensen – returned combined figures of 29-2-150-0.Sri Lanka arrive as newly-crowned World Twenty20 Champions, but also on a nine match winning streak in ODIs, including victory in the Asia Cup in March. Of that squad, five have been rested – Mahela Jayawardene, Kumar Sangakkara, Lasith Malinga, Tillakaratne Dilshan and Thisara Perera, the latter because his visa was not sorted in time.”We wanted to give the opportunity to the younger guys”, explained Mathews. “They have been in and around the team for a while and they haven’t had enough opportunities, so that was the main idea. I believe they can step in and do the job for us. All the younger guys are extremely talented and have enough potential to beat any team.”Porterfield had mixed feelings about facing a squad that, for all Mathews positivity, is undeniably weaker. “I can’t say I’m too disappointed that Lasith Malinga didn’t get on the plane,” he grinned, “but they have a lot of good young cricketers with quite a bit of experience and they’ll be champing at the bit to get going. We’d be foolish to take them lightly.”The Sri Lankans arrive in Clontarf just as the suburb celebrates the 1000th anniversary of a famous battle in which the Irish king, Brian Boru, repelled an invasion of Vikings led by Sitric Silkenbeard. That bloody Battle of Clontarf is still remembered in songs and stories, and while it’s hard to imagine William Porterfield’s name being revered a thousand years from now, victory over the invaders this week will ensure he finds his name in the cricket history books.

Matt Prior had his heart in his mouth when Sri Lanka reviewed a second-ball lbw appeal against him on the first afternoon at Lord’s. It came down to a matter of inches, with his back leg a outside the line. Prior survived, vowed to make the most it, and the end result was a bustling 86 in his first innings back after being dropped and having to battle an Achilles injury that he feared may not prove beatable.Much of Prior’s scoring was done on the opening day, as he rattled to 72, and he could only add 14 more on Friday before being bounced out by Shaminda Eranga from around the wicket, sparring a catch to short leg which revived images of the winter barrage by Mitchell Johnson. Prior kicked the ground in disgust, for both the manner of his dismissal and for missing the chance of another Lord’s hundred – a century here would also have put him level with Les Ames as the most by an England wicketkeeper.Then in the field he was back in the firing line behind the stumps. Balls were scuttling through on a slow surface, he was able to grab an edge off Chris Jordan but another, from the bat of Kaushal Silva off Stuart Broad, was ruled to have not carried by the third umpire.”I felt it carried, in your keeping gloves you have rubber tips and I felt the ball hit the rubber tip and there’s no doubt in my mind that it did carry but, unfortunately, this day and age it goes upstairs. We are disappointed the decision didn’t stand but we move on.”But back to that lbw shout against Herath. “It was a whole range of emotions,” Prior said. “You’re just watching the screen, and it’s like ‘that looks dead’. I’m thinking ‘right, that’s nought off two balls – see you later, Matt’.”Then, when the umpire’s call came up, I almost looked at Rooty and said: ‘Right, it’s changed. I’m back. Here we go.’ I decided to attack again, and hit that one over the top. That was me off and running, and I felt comfortable from then on in. Ultimately you need a bit of luck as well, I don’t feel I had much over the last year and that second-ball decision going my way was maybe the thing that turns it around again.”It had been clear from shortly after Prior was dropped that the England hierarchy were eager to get him straight back into the side after he had had time to reflect on what caused his problems of the previous 12 months. Jos Buttler’s one-day form – notably his breathtaking 121 off 74 balls at Lord’s – created strong support for his promotion, although that came more from fans that selectors and management.”Nah,” Prior said with a smile when asked if he had felt any doubt after Buttler’s hundred, before adding: “Of course, whenever you are out of the team you are watching other performances and that was phenomenal, absolutely, but in sport you can have very short memories as well. I’ve had a rough year but the three or four years before that I’d played some pretty good cricket and I know what I bring to the team.”When people put faith in you, you do feel a certain pressure to back them up,” he added. “I certainly want to do that. But there was a reason why they did put faith in me.”